Theyll like that! Bit by bit, hed put his personal love in every selection and make sure that at least during the Holidays, all the people that meant something to him got something meaningful. He did not yell and scream at me. I asked him, How could you go up there and do that? He said, I just did it. I said, But youre so good at it! Hes like, I hate it! We were big into collecting basketball cards growing up. If you are thinking of buy an NBA jersey then check out the official retailers of the NBA below. I think thats what he always wanted, for this to be a family business, where we all work together. Really cool. Finding great success in the real estate business, he pursued real estate investing full time. It was in that year when Jerry was able to pull off the most complicated and lucrative transaction in sports history - buying the Lakers. Hulu's "Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers" is taking a different approach. And Kobe was going to be one of them, we thought. Its more than just going out there and playing. Dr. Buss, its because the lights are so high up in the ceiling, and in order to make the court bright enough for broadcast, its really bright. He says, I understand, but can you keep an eye on that? So in 2004, the NBA came in with the All-Star game, and they brought in rigging with lights to create that sort of Broadway musical focus on the court. I remember being at the Forum in Inglewood in 1985 in my rookie year, meeting Dr. Buss and him saying Lets have lunch one day. Time goes by until you decide, Im going to take him up on that. So we arranged a lunch, midweek after a practice, and went up to his office, and we had a real, genuine, 1-on-1 conversation talking about life itself outside of basketball. We really were a family, and we were intact as a team, and all the families were invested. They didnt sell the naming rights, they (used their name). I guess it took everyone by surprise, but actually it worked out great for him, great for the Lakers, and he went on to produce some championship teams here in Los Angeles. He was also able to snag the Kings hockey team, the Inglewood Forum, and the 13,000-acre Raljon Ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains from businessman Jack Kent Cooke. It was a really intimate moment. He had a 66 percent stake in the team when he died, and judging by the trust he set up years ago to hold the ownership stake, it has long been his intention to keep the Lakers in the Buss family. He didnt want to go fast. The Buss siblings have occasionally butted heads in the past, such as with the hiring of coach Mike DAntoni over Phil Jackson, the fiance of one of the Buss children. He really wanted to own the team.. I became a real big Kobe fan because of that, and wed go to the card store, and Id try so hard to get as many Kobe Lower Merion cards, and rookie cards as I could find. [1] When he was nine years old, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles; they moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, three years later when she remarried. He had a cigarette that he was holding down below his waist, and he would pull on it a little bit, and put it back down. It wasnt out of fear, it was out of respect, that players wanted to play hard for him. So, Im like, Oh boy, here it is, because I knew all trades had to go through him. He was once an heir to his father Jerry Busss kingdom, but insists the sports world never quite interested him. One time, we shook everybody up. He owns The Ice House, a comedy club in Pasadena, California, and has also shown interest in politics. The war over Jerry Buss ' fortune just took a shocking turn -- with a mysterious woman claiming she's the secret daughter of the late Lakers owner . He was waiting on some people to come, so we just sat there, and it was right after retirement, and he talked about how appreciative he was of me being a Laker and the three championships. Dont worry about it, kid. My dad was working with Jerry West, trying to build this team that was a playoff team, but not a contender. Shaq, myself, the whole team, we didnt know. In 2012, Buss was in a hospital for months with an undisclosed intestinal problem. He says hes tried to apologize. I remember the locker room celebration with Dr. Buss after we won Game 6 in L.A., and he was just like the rest of us sitting at the bar just talking and kibitzing. That was an absolutely incredible gesture on his part, which I always appreciated, to say the least. When I took over, he and I chatted about getting the girls out in the community because the players werent always able to. Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson, Jerry Buss, and Phil Jackson, Lakers celebrate their 1985 Championship over the Celtics. We always knew he was the boss, dont get me wrong, and we knew if he wasnt pleased with how we were playing, but he was such a good guy that you really wanted to give that little extra. And that was pretty special to hear. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Powered by Standing Stone Designs | He wanted everybody to be together, and he was right in the middle of us. Many of those people offered their favorite stories about what made Dr. Buss who he was in advance of Dr. Buss night on Feb. 10, 2020. Theres always former Lakers around. A true genius from a business standpoint, Dr. Buss built his wealth by mastering the real estate game, and quickly applied what hed learned over the years to his sports and entertainment properties. See the Elon Musk family tree here at FameChain. He was an incredibly brilliant person, but he had great heart and caring for the people around him. It was good to see him, man. I think I hurt his feelings, Johnny said. But in February Johnny and his brother Jim proposed a board of directors that did not include their sister. And we all took one set. We used to sit at his house and eat the same thing, Chinese chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen, and wed sit there and just talk. And he really wanted me to listen. He made good observations about the game, and personnel and so forth. I dont think theres any thrill in it. I asked, What did Kobe think, and my dad had talked to Kobe on the phone, and Kobe said, Yeah, I can win with this dude. We had the injury to Andrew and Trevor Ariza that year and ran into the Celtics in the Finals, but we showed big improvement from the year before, and ended up winning the next two years. I would watch him ask them how their grandchildren were, if they graduated knowing people by name. In 1989, he gave me a five-year contract, and they hadnt even hired the head coach yet. With 10 NBA championships under his belt, Jerry was the single most decorated owner in sports history. He loved the players. Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss (January 27, 1933 February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, real estate investor, and chemist. At a young age, Jerry would stand on bread lines to get food for himself and his single mother. You have to look at me coming in as a rookie, with Hall of Famers like Phil Jackson, Kobe and Shaq, and the history of the Lakers. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. Upon his fathers death in 2013, that interest waned even more. And I remember I was working as a scout when my dad called and let me know about us acquiring Pau Gasol. So he went to Jerry West, and said, weve got to get somebody to come and get us back to winning. I remember my son Thomas jumping in my arms, and he was five or six years old, and I was so tired, I could barely lift him. From my standpoint, when I got in, Magic had been in the league for a few years and they were really close. But it appears as though Johnny began a career in sports management in 1975 and later became the Executive Vice President of Strategic Development of the Los Angeles Lakers for several years. The Forum Club theres never been a hotter night club within a building. All the big decisions had always been at Jerry Buss's feet and therefore the family were trying to determine who would now be the shot caller. He had it all memorized in his head. Jerry Buss, the playboy owner of the Los Angeles Lakers who died last month, has left his sprawling Hawaii digs and hot wheels to his much younger girlfriend. It didnt have naming rights like Staples Center. We had Reebok down our sides, on the dance top, on jackets and everything. He taught us that we should do our best to be happy, and do things that make us happy; whether or not that was basketball was up to us. There was a time in the early 1980s when Dr. Buss would ask me, Whos going to be the most improved team in the league this year by the greatest number of games. Hed say, Well bet a dinner on this. I said, OK, Ill bet with you. So each year, wed both pick a team, and I won for three straight years. I knew he wanted to win, and I think what I was doing while I was there with the team that he had put together, he was satisfied with. The Lakers quickly became a dynasty, as the dynamic duo of Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led Los Angeles to five championships in the 1980s. I remember walking into his bedroom and seeing 20 or 30 pieces of fax paper spread all over his bed as he was pouring over and analyzing every scenario and option. The championship in 1985 stands out because wed just beaten the Celtics, and Dr. Buss was as proud as hes ever been of any team. People knew him. He called Jerry, and it was done. I remember watching those games with my dad. Kind of a unique thing, against the same team (Boston). I remember growing up in the 1990s, and often losing to the best teams in the West, like the Supersonics, and then the Jazz. But inside it was the 4th of July, with fireworks. His passions, what brought him to the mindset of wanting to own a team and what he wants from a team, and then just L.A.; it was an all-new environment for me, and he wanted to make sure I knew about it and understand as much as I possibly could. And he would tell me where to go get the information. I was a dominant player in Games 2 through 6, and we got over the hump finally. He was thinking of Kobe. I thought we had a great professional relationship, and over the years I got to know him and be friends with him. I dont think an owner of a team should be someone that just sat back thinking about making, Well, it will make me X amount each year. Dr. Buss was passionate about it. "My dream really was to have the Lakers and Los Angeles identified as one and the same," Buss said in a 2010 interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com. He really, really, really enjoyed the game of soccer. Before he embraced the Playboy philosophy in the mid-1960s, he. And Earvin made the best of it. Id run into him in Los Angeles at various places and said hello. Buss made several key moves in his early years as the team's owner, most notably selecting Magic Johnson with the No. James Jim Hatten Buss was born on November 9, 1959, and is the second eldest son of Jerry Buss. All the other times, wed go to Las Vegas. He would empower the people that worked for him, and hed be a problem solver. Life is funny that way. He had been in and out of the hospital for more than a year before his death. [1], Born in Salt Lake City and raised in Kemmerer, Wyoming, Buss was raised by his divorced mother, Jessie. Later it was Miller Genuine Draft. That was a long process, too, and stressful. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979. Hed call me every once in a while. What impressed me most about him was he would speak to the parking attendant, the staff, anybody he just liked people, and you felt that about him. We were just talking friend to friend. We had the press conference, and I said Im going to be here with Pat for a month, and then Pats going to be the head coach. And I walked right by him. Buss, who was 80 when he died of. Buss later sold the Kings, retaining ownership of the Lakers and The Forum. The stake could legally be sold off entirely, but given the familys devotion to the team, the Lakers are sure to stay with them. To watch the franchise grow and see his influence on the Lakers, and more importantly, some of the things he did that teams in the league are still doing. Success starts at the top. So I was just wandering around, and I walked right by this one man who was wearing jeans and maybe an old sports jacket. And while his relationship with his siblings is strained, he shares with them a reverence for their father. Tania Ganguli covered the Lakers for the Los Angeles Times from 2016-20. He had his jeans on with his sports coat, big smile on his face, open collared shirt. Our 1987 team was just loaded, so we expected to win every game in the playoffs. So in 1987, we win the championship, and I win Defensive Player of the Year. I havent seen that a lot in my 11 years being around the league, owners being that human. Rattling off 10 championships before his passing in 2013. Dr. Buss responded by sending Kobe a telegram from Italy. Jerry Buss was an American businessman who began his professional career as a chemist and worked at the Bureau of Mines (presently known as the Mine Safety and Health Administration). Some might wonder if his death will bring radical changes to the ownership of the team, but according to his family, thats not very likely. I think the operative words from Dr. Buss message to Kobe were, Trust me Ive done things in my life, where when I say Im going to work this thing out, trust me, were going to work this thing out. I never envisioned that his trust me would end up with the kind of deal that he pulled off getting Pau. I thought they had a great relationship that seemed to blossom until the day that Dr. Buss passed away. My dad could see talent, and he knew how to approach and get the best out of each person. I think he knew, with me being 20 and alone all the way from Michigan, he became a father figure to me. He was in the entertainment business. It all started to gel at that point. I believe I've accomplished that.". In other words, how offensive could it be? That book opened up a whole world up to me about the founding fathers. And what Jerry Buss always wanted to accomplish was to have one of those players on his team, the Showtime part of it. There was a lot of pressure, but Dr. Buss I think took a lot of that pressure off of us. There was a lot of worry on the part of Jerry West. Meghan Mountbatten Windsor, The Duchess of Sussex. We kept in touch that way. This franchise and that franchise, and we got em. (Fast forward to the Finals) against Indiana, and in the 4th quarter and my dad grabs me and Jesse with a minute left in the game, and he says, We gotta go! He just took us down to the court. He joined the Lakers in 1998 as an apprentice to General Manager Jerry West. Dr. Jerry Buss's professional success and his reputation as a playboy have been well documented over the years, yet little is known about the Buss family. I stopped in there, and Dr. Buss walked in. During the Finals in Philly in 2001, we would get cheesesteaks before the games. Then he started to go to Italy for a month. His patience stands out (to me) the most. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Dennis Schroder leads depleted Lakers to crucial win over Thunder, LeBron-less Lakers cant keep pace with Ja Morant, Grizzlies, LeBron James to miss Lakers game Tuesday and possibly more, We keep progressing: Lakers takeaways after beating Dallas, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? We just stayed the course. He said, Johnny just sit here because I think were about to embark on something incredible, recalls Johnny, now 60. Not making quick decisions, rushing into things. You dont realize these things until you get my age, that you have these kinds of people, that theyre not just your boss. 1 seed in West, Another Trevor Bauer defamation suit is thrown out. We didnt plan to meet, but after work one time, I stopped at Dan Tanas by myself. why was waylon jennings buried in mesa az; chop pediatric residency I need to say no more. I thought, this is the way it should be. As a child, Buss spent time in Los Angeles and Kemmerer, Wyo. Thats not normal for most owners. Eventually, all three teams moved into a more modern arena in downtown Los Angeles, the Staples Center, which opened in 1999. He didnt know what the future held, I didnt know what the future held. I know youre going to shoot straight. He would listen to Jerry (West), Phil but then hed get the confirmation from me. Dr. Buss was my boss in a completely different way from what happened later. Its unbelievable what he did. I was a rookie. It had just come out, and somehow he got his hands on it, and wanted to know my thoughts on it, especially because he knew I was Italian and I was raised Roman Catholic. It was an extension of the brand, a way to reach Los Angeles. At the end of the day, I said, I think we have better players around you here than you do in Orlando. This is not to say there wont be disagreements. During those years, we would always go to Hawaii for training camp, and Dr. Buss would really enjoy when wed have a team dinner at the beginning of camp at Kobes Japanese Steak House. On Feb. 13 of 1987, I found out from the Spurs trainer that I had been traded to the Lakers. He loved plays, and he wanted the focus to be on the athletes and the court. And we just talked about how cool it would be if we could actually end up playing together, but I hardly gave it a thought, because I thought there was no way they would trade me to the Lakers. I was finally going to join the team I grew up loving in the Bahamas as a kid, from afar. That was a lesson learned. He leaves behind six children, eight grandchildren, a former wife, two half-siblings and a step-brother. And I did very well investing in the coins. I thought, Wow, this is awesome. If you knew me you would understand Im not about money at all. Especially after I retired, we spent time together. You have a right to express yourself. He took a drag of his cigarette, and he said, But when you say management thats me. And he didnt say anything after that. And at the time, Cooke owned an NFL team in Washington, and he saw Jerry Buss as a worthy person to carry on with the Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum. He wanted to make sure that the Lakers, what hed created with the winning, and what they meant to the community, would continue. So, it was interesting timing how we both ran into each other in Barcelona during a family trip from him, and he came to the gym I used to work out at in a hotel in Barcelona. I had no idea it was Dr. Buss. Our first year! And then we went to the hotel and we danced all night. I felt, eventually, people would come out and see (Kobe) play. Im going to always remember Vegas, Hawaii, Palm Springs all his favorite places. He also served as the President of the Los Angeles Lazers, a professional indoor soccer team, and the Los Angeles Sparks, a professional womens basketball team. Im super thankful how Kobe wanted me on board, how Dr. Buss also was in favor and supportive of getting me and doing what it took to get me to the Lakers. OK but I dont just want your money, I also want you do this, this and this to build our brand. He cut deals that were unheard of in those days, and I witnessed that. And I remember after Game 7 of the 2010 Finals against Boston, down on the court amongst all the fanfare, Dr. Buss and I huddled up a little bit and kind of smiled. So I want you to play confident. Then at times, if I was struggling a bit later in the season, wed do it again. The Lakers are on fire. He bought me dinner. Veteran guys. I knew he and Magic were really close. Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss (January 27, 1933 - February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, real estate investor and chemist. 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