Jerry Buss, Los Angeles Lakers’ playboy owner, dies at 79 of kidney failure



By ANDREW DALTON Associated Press
Monday, February 18, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers’ playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the ‘80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday, his assistant said.

Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 79.

He’d been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said.

Under Buss’ leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California’s most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure.

Few owners in sports history can even approach Buss’ accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his 32 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA’s winningest franchise since he bought the club.

Few owners have ever been more beloved by their players than Buss, who always referred to the Lakers as his extended family. Working with front-office executives Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA’s highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.


Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, adding justification for his induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Magic Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers’ run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball’s most exciting team with their glamorous Showtime style.

Jackson then led Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant to a threepeat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers’ mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.

Although Buss was proudest of his two hands full of NBA title rings, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool — and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle — for his entire public life.

The father of six rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches, poker tournaments — and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch.

Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money largely from his Santa Monica real-estate ventures, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and both clubs’ arena — the Forum — from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.

In January 2011, Forbes estimated the Lakers were worth $643 million — the second-most valuable NBA franchise.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss’ Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers’ home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan — another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports.

The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer.

Buss purchased Cooke’s entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss’ love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers — who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 — into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

“One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. “I try to keep that identification alive. I’m a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community.”

Buss’ plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson’s ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar’s smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast cool.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss’ first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA’s best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team’s achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss’ lifestyle.

Johnson’s HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O’Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.

Shaq and Kobe didn’t reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls’ six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG’s state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.

After the Lakers traded O’Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.

Through the Lakers’ frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 — with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz — prompted him to cut down on his partying.

Buss owned the NHL’s Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss’ ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Buss’ children moved into leadership roles with the Lakers in their father’s later years. Jim Buss, the Lakers’ executive vice president of player personnel and the second of Buss’ six children, has taken over much of the club’s primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie is a longtime executive on the franchise’s business side — and Jackson’s longtime companion.

Yet Jerry Buss served two terms as President of the NBA’s Board of Governors, and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time.

Speights Could Net Cavs First-Round Pick
February 19 at 11:24am CST By Luke Adams
Marreese Speights has been traded twice since the start of the 2011/12 season, and it's possible he could be on the move again before Thursday's deadline. According to Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio (via Twitter), several teams are willing to part with a first-round pick for Speights. However, most of those picks are in the 20-30 range, and nothing is enticing the Cavaliers at the moment.

If the Cavs can land a first-round pick for Speights, even if it's near the back of the round, it would be a coup -- when Cleveland acquired Speights, Wayne Ellington, and Josh Selby last month, it was a salary-dump for the Grizzlies, who included a future first-rounder of their own just to make the deal happen.

What's unclear is what else the Cavs would have to take on, along with a first-round pick, in a deal to move Speights. At least one report has suggested that Speights is a good bet to decline his player option for next season, in which case he'd be on an expiring contract this year, increasing his trade value. Still, not many teams would be able to take on the forward's $4.2MM salary without sending out salary in return, so perhaps Cleveland would need to take on a longer-term contract in order to land that first-rounder.

In baseball a team could sign someone who's going to be an FA during the season to a contract extension. Is this prohibited in the NBA? Speights seems worth keeping if we could guarantee he's with the Cavs next year. No reason to expect a low first round pick would be better than him and who wants another contract of an unneeded veteran.

Speights actually has a contract with a player option for 2014. I am not sure that he could decline that option before the end of this season. At the same time I am sure that the Cavs do not want to commit any future dollars to Speights now but if he is still on the team in the off season they may want to pursue him.

I know the NBA All Star stuff is shit - but am I the only one to notice the Kyrie won the 3-point shootout?

Darkstar wrote:I know the NBA All Star stuff is shit - but am I the only one to notice the Kyrie won the 3-point shootout?

No, just the only one to comment. I follow but it's hard to be too invested in a tank season. Next season is when the Cavs begin being a playoff team, and it should only get more interesting from there on.

MtFan wrote:

Darkstar wrote:I know the NBA All Star stuff is shit - but am I the only one to notice the Kyrie won the 3-point shootout?

No, just the only one to comment. I follow but it's hard to be too invested in a tank season. Next season is when the Cavs begin being a playoff team, and it should only get more interesting from there on.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not glued to my seat for every game. I think of tank seasons, like pre-LBJ, when the cavs would start 17-10, and then Z would break his foot. That's a lost season.

I check the box scores - How is TT doing - rebounds, points, FTA, etc. How was Dion's shooting night? How many assist did Kyrie have? W/L record be damned, there is certainly reason to have some excitement with this team.

Mt Fan is keeping up with the cavs on http://realcavsfans.com.

The long-running dysfunction between Cavs forward Omri Casspi and the Cleveland Cavaliers may be coming to an end as the Cavs have been talking deals that involve Casspi in advance of Thursdays 3pm EST Traded Deadline. The problem for Cleveland is that Casspi isn’t exactly viewed as a stud in waiting and there isn’t a ton of interest in him.

Sources close to the process peg the San Antonio Spurs has a good fit and a team that has expressed some interest in Casspi, the problem is they won’t offer much for him. If the Cavs would do a DeJuan Blair based deal, the Cavs could find a taker on Casspi fairly quick.

The Cavs also are entertaining deals involving recently acquired Marreese Speights whom they acquired from Memphis in late January. Speights is contract is worth some $4.2 million this season and has a $4.51 million Player Option next season.

The Cavs are under the salary cap so they can combine Speights with another player to make a bigger deal and it seems that a Speights/Casspi package is what Cleveland is trying to move. Combined the two players represent $6.47 million in outgoing salary, which could put Cleveland in the game for a fairly decent player in return.

– Steve Kyler
Read more at http://www.hoopsworld.com/is-there-a...0JrZmUM6kyP.99

Cavs played on ESPN tonight. Kyrie was amazing, took the game over in the 4th quarter in ways that LBJ either couldn't or wouldn't. There's a lot to like about the core of this team. Next year, watch out. They're not a mirage.

Kyrie was amazing, took the game over in the 4th quarter in ways that LBJ either couldn't or wouldn't.

Greatest finisher in the NBA at 20 years old.

Nice Cavs win without Kyrie. Waiters had a good offensive night and Pluto has pointed out that he has been averaging about 50% shooting over the past dozen or more games.

Shaun Livingston and Luke Walton got Scott's praise for their work down the stretch. Why did Wizards dump Livingston? Seems like a solid backup point guard.

The past month has been very enjoyable. I actually enjoy watching the bench play because they pass the ball so much. I will enjoy it even more when Kyree passes teh ball more and plays some defense.

As the last 6 weeks come, I am cheering for as many wins as possible for botyh Clevelaned and the teams they could pass. Still want as many ping pong balls as possible.

I do hope that Speights gets more playing time. I really, really want the bench group to stay together.

7-5 in February!

T-squared goes 6/6 from the charity stripe.

Still wishing we had more O from Zeller.

Getting close(r), for sure.

jayjay7 wrote:The past month has been very enjoyable. I actually enjoy watching the bench play because they pass the ball so much. I will enjoy it even more when Kyree passes teh ball more and plays some defense.

As the last 6 weeks come, I am cheering for as many wins as possible for botyh Clevelaned and the teams they could pass. Still want as many ping pong balls as possible.

I do hope that Speights gets more playing time. I really, really want the bench group to stay together.

How about that Tristan guy? Pretty good eh?