Dr. Buss created that. I was thankful he gave me an opportunity to get involved, and more importantly, get involved with someone like him where I learned a lot. Donald asks the courts to let him tweet. And in hindsight, we can see the result. I was a nervous wreck the entire game, and we won the game, and I delivered the best that I could at the time. My biggest concern was being traded every year. Echovita Inc is a registered trademark. When Jerry Buss passed away in 2013, his 66% ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers passed to his six children, with each receiving 11%. Buss became an owner in World Team Tennis, the Los Angeles Strings. I even wrote a paper when I was in seventh grade about how Kobe was going to be a future Hall of Fame player, and that the combination of Shaq and Kobe was going to be one of the best duos of all time. Just showed up and watched. Really cool. Meghan Mountbatten Windsor, The Duchess of Sussex. After Jerry's death, his children took up various roles within the organization, with Jeanie Buss ultimately becoming the president and controlling owner of the Lakers.She was only 17 when her father bought the team, and she held various managerial roles over the years, with the team winning the title in 2020. Wed sit around, wed talk. Its about bringing out the best from that person. In 1999-2000, we got to the Western Finals against Portland, which was absolutely exciting. Theyll like this! So he asked me and Pat if wed be co-coaches, and I said Id consider it for a month. My first initial meeting I was kind of thrown back, because he didnt seem like an owner. Thats what he wanted to do in his life. We were just talking friend to friend. Later it was Miller Genuine Draft. I wanted that to be the case here as well. He was the mastermind. I think his success led him to the heights where people, fans loved him, and they were like him. Im sure he had a lot of good conversations with Kobe at that time that helped him get his feet on the ground. He had his jeans on with his sports coat, big smile on his face, open collared shirt. After the 2008 debacle, being able to redeem yourself in 2010, that made it extra special. Magic being Mr. Inquisitive, he wanted to know about the business aspect of basketball and life in general. And then at the end of that, they said someone talked to Magic (Johnson), and Magic approved the trade. So I had the surgery, and one of the first phone calls I got when I got home was from Dr. Buss, just calling to check in on me. From then on, I was at his house every weekend during the season, it seemed like. Shaq, myself, the whole team, we didnt know. Im not going to tell them what trade to make. It would be decades later, at age 34, when Jerry made his first million. He was big on that. Coincidentally, I went to work out the next morning, and I was looking for gyms out there. It was really important when I gave that speech not just to honor his memory and his legacy, but to also make sure we honor him in a way that we carry his legacy moving forward. When you hire someone and they meet your qualifications, let them do their job, and go from there. with JoAnn Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "JoAnn Buss", "gender": "Female" }, Jeanie Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Jeanie Buss", "gender": "Female" }, born 1961, age 61 (approx.) Elon Musk. I had no idea it was Dr. Buss. In contrast, Buss sons are primarily absent from the narrative for the most part. Hey Pat, come on down and lets have a talk. The next thing I know, theres a number in front of me with more money than I could ever dream of making in my life. And I was happy to be a part of it, because Jack Kent Cooke, as great a businessman as he was, he was tough. Space-X continues to reach for the stars. Back then, you could drive in right off the street. 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. Magic was perfect for that. Then Id add it all up and give a gross potential. His father, Lydus, was an accountant who went on to teach statistics at Berkeley. I thought he was really sincere about the things that he always said, so thats what I appreciated the most about him. We made it a mission to play them again in 1985, to prove to ourselves and the world that we could beat them. People would say, What about George Steinbrenner? The difference between Steinbrenner, Dr. Buss was loved by everybody. In exchange, Cooke received a lease to the Chrysler Building in New York City, along with properties in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Maryland. I was a young player in Portland, and I knew about Jack Kent Cooke and what his reputation was, but we all heard about this man named Dr. Buss buying the Lakers, Kings and the Forum, and some real estate properties for what was an exorbitant amount of money at the time. With the Lakers, it was one man. He wanted me to be the highest paid assistant in the NBA. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Thats why when hed make a decision, hed take the time to explain to me the thought process behind it, so Id always know where that decision was coming from and why he believed in particular. Dr. Jerry Buss was a Wyoming kid with big eyes and a full heart living out his American Dream. Dr. Buss used to come down to the locker room after every game, starting in the 1981-82 season. I remember once getting a math, or maybe I should call it a business lesson. Dr. Buss was the first celebrity owner in all of sports. And wed go out and hed introduce me to some of the really good night clubs at the time during the time that I could go out. Buss was an inaugural member of the USC College Board of Councilors. 9018 Balboa Blvd., #620, Northridge, CA 91325 And he loved Italian food. Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. I know you may not believe that, but trust me, we do. He really, really, really enjoyed the game of soccer. Just a great feeling to play for an organization that had a leader like Dr. Buss. The takeaway is that we all have to be good, well-rounded people. He was supposed to come out to Orlando. When Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers back in 1979, he turned a perennial second-place franchise into a pillar of excellence. 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. Luckily that first year the players, in spite of my lack of experience, we won the championship and the rest is history. But now I realize, you actually really know your (stuff)! Then he started asking for my opinion on things. It wouldnt just be me reaching out. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Betty Jean Buss of Beatrice, Nebraska, who passed away on February 23, 2023 at the age of 79. 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. After failing a field sobriety test, Buss was taken into custody, given a blood test and booked on suspicion of driving while intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level over 0.08. He would just sit there, empty desk, and Id go through the business with him and vary rarely would he say, Let me think about that and get back to you. It was almost always he had an opinion or a decision right then and there. So he created the Senate seats program sort of the precursor to the club suites program. Im going through a bunch of different players throughout the league, and I remember he just looks at me after four or five hours, and he goes, You know you were always so quiet, and I thought you didnt know (stuff). It was a really intimate moment. He currently resides in Los Angeles. I think thats important in this day and age, when people are talking about dance teams, but he really saw it as these talented dancers deserve an audience, and now every team in the NBA has a dance team. He wanted to win every single year, but he also knew that was impossible. So when you talk about him not being a person who would yell or be a tyrant or throw things to motivate, he was a teacher, and he knew how to motivate people. In any industry, when your boss says youre doing a good job, thats what you want to hear. If you are thinking of buy an NBA jersey then check out the official retailers of the NBA below. He said, I want to do something for you for what youve done over the 1980s. I was just an assistant coach, with that kind of contract. Almost never, to my knowledge, I dont remember ever seeing him with a pen or a pad in front of him. So I talked to the NBA, and that started the process of us putting the lighting in that we have now. Its more than just going out there and playing. Finding great success in the real estate business, he pursued real estate investing full time. In 2012, Buss was in a hospital for months with an undisclosed intestinal problem. He brought Magic in, and they formed a bond right away. We used to call him Magic Buss, or Earvin Buss. And hed say, I want you to come to Vegas in a week. Everywhere we went, everybody would holler our names. Id say, I call it the smorgasbord defense a little bit of everything.. And I offered Vlade Divac to everyone, a starting center. Dr. Buss actually started in his first season, 1979-80, with a combination of USC and UCLA pom girls, and the USC band. There is no good answer for the loss of a loved one. You werent just a spreadsheet to him. And then we went and celebrated together again. And thats what Dr. Buss wanted, to create a place where it could be magical, almost like Disneyland. His first investment in the 1960s was $1,000 in a West Los Angeles apartment building. Under the ownership of the Buss family, the franchise won 10 championships with Jerry leading the pack and one with his daughter, Jeanie Buss. (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. If you have a star, one of the most important assets of that person is will people pay to see him play. Image. Ex-husband of JoAnn Mueller And he had an ability to let Bill Sharman, Jerry West, Pete Newell make important decisions that he didnt have the background to make. He was doing it because it was truly his passion. I felt, eventually, people would come out and see (Kobe) play. Of course, that series had a, uh, flexible relationship with the truth, as it was a semi-fictionalized story that attempted to entertain rather than educate its audience. He loved plays, and he wanted the focus to be on the athletes and the court. Rattling off 10 championships before his passing in 2013. I just felt like with the passing of Dr. Buss, they need to understand what it means to wear this uniform. His succession plan had daughter Jeanie assume his previous title as the Lakers' governor as well as its team representative at NBA Board of Governors meetings. Magic Johnson had to retire early, sooner than we thought, and the team stayed competitive through the early and mid 90s, but my dad really, really wanted to get back to the winning ways. After separation from Mueller, Buss dated Karen Demel and had two children: Joey Buss (born in 1985) and Jesse Buss (born in 1988). We really hit it off. There is no photo or video of Betty Jean Buss.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute. We won that as a group. Then he started to go to Italy for a month. Dr. Buss liked to go the horse races at Hollywood Park, and he was great at picking winners. Jerry always planned to pass down the Lakers to his children via a trust. I connected with him more through others, some of the people that were tight with him, who would always tell me that Dr. Most people at that level were pretty standoffish. Charlie is 5 years old and Chayton is 6, so that idea was as much wishful thinking as a sincere request. Dr. Buss calls down there, and he says, Coop did you get your thing. I said, What are you talking about? Dr. Buss had given me a brand new Mercedes * with six miles on it for me winning Defensive Player of the Year. I didnt realize this was a thing, where you get handed this trophy from the commissioner and do a speech. Johnny was previously married to Christy Curtis Buss and has at least two sons. But they dont know what happened behind the scenes, and thats what we wanted to show, is what goes on after the game and the effect that winning has on people, on a family.. After I took the job with the Knicks, Dr. Buss called me on the phone and asked if I was in L.A., and he wanted to have dinner with (my wife) Chris and I. My dad only missed the playoffs twice in his entire 34-year tenure as an owner. I dont remember a whole lot about the podium when Dr. Buss accepted the championship, but I do remember that Kareem stuck a towel in Pat Rileys mouth so he wouldnt say wed win it again next year. In 1988, winning for the second straight year and fulfilling the prophecy of Pat Riley (guaranteeing a repeat) was a special year but that year was so hard. Previously, she spent six years covering football, first for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., then the Houston Chronicle and ESPN. He was like a rebel, but in a good sense. Tania Ganguli covered the Lakers for the Los Angeles Times from 2016-20. Thats when I learned, in my life, you can tell a lot about someone with how they treat someone else that can do nothing for them. She is the one who took over the family business, and her children may do the same someday. An alumnus of Northwestern University and Arcadia High School, she has written about everything from high school sports to college football to boat racing during the past 15 years. It became a happening. It all started to gel at that point. I dont know who spoke first about it, but the discussion of Lamar came up and as hard as it was to work our way through that negotiation, at that moment, it was the greatest feeling in the world to have been able to have done that. 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. 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. He ran an indoor soccer team, the Lazers. After the proposal set forth by Johnny, Jim and their attorneys failed, the two brothers resigned as trustees of the Buss Family Trusts and as members of the board of directors. He was always right. He lived a true rags-to-riches story, as he learned the value of hard work at a young age. Everything changed when me and my brother Joey were at my dads beach house in Carlsbad, and he told us: Were going to hire Phil Jackson, but you cant tell anybody. I was 11 at the time, and I knew he had been the Bulls coach, but I didnt know what it necessarily meant. I remember watching those games with my dad. He was going to build a championship team no matter what it takes. And I knew, dont talk about management. After about 40 minutes, I said, Weve seen enough. But it was really through (his agent Arn Tellum) and the Bryant family, that (teams passed on him). Hes probably one of the best owners in the history of the NBA. They didnt sell the naming rights, they (used their name). Dr. Buss paid out of his own pocket for a million-dollar surgery to save the kids life, not knowing if hed ever play basketball. That book opened up a whole world up to me about the founding fathers. It feels small, but its not. And here Im trying to be a good employee and be able to inform him, and yet hes informing me of the changes he wanted to make. He was once an heir to his father Jerry Busss kingdom, but insists the sports world never quite interested him. He always was that kind of an owner. After the championship in 1980, it was like the rocket just took off. He was raised by his mother, Jessie, who worked as a waitress. Copyright FameChain 2023, All rights reserved. Theyd grab a card, and hed ask them what their stats were that year. And when we were all kids and we were together growing up, wed always watch the games. We didnt have 10 people doing it. 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. He lost some weight worrying about whether he was going to be able to convince the big fella to come West. He always treated me very well. with Karen Demel{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Demel", "gender": "Female" }, Jesse Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Jesse Buss", "gender": "Male" }, born 1988, age 34 (approx.) with JoAnn Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "JoAnn Buss", "gender": "Female" }, Jim Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Jim Buss", "gender": "Male" }, born 1959, age 63 (approx.) But Wrigley was also the name of the family who owned the team, and also the name of their chewing gum, Wrigleys Spearmint Gum. He was not nearly as animated in the other championships as he was in that one, for obvious reasons. And the level of intensity at practice rose instantly with his appearance in the gym. His ex-wife owns a portion of the team but does not have the ability to vote on a sale. But do note that it is not possible to be certain of a person's genealogy without a family's cooperation (and/or DNA testing). At the time of his death, a Buss family spokesperson declared that the children had "no interest in ever selling the team.". Theyd fax over every scenario they had for Shaq trades. Dr. Buss saw the Lakers becoming something, more of an entertainment value than just a sports value, and the league has adopted, to a large degree, that same mentality. I do remember when Lamar (Odom) was a free agent, and Im not sure what our financial situation was at the time, but it was a rough negotiation, because wed just won the 2009 championship. I remember being bummed with all my friends that we werent going to be able to see Magic Is Back, as it was being marketed at the time. It was a great relationship for a number of years. MORE:How to watch Lakers documentary on Hulu. He was in Hawaii at that time, and I called him. The couple has four children together two elder sons, Johnny Buss (born in 1956), James Jim Buss (born in 1959), and two younger daughters in Jeanie Buss (born in 1961) and Janie Buss (born in 1963). Ten championships? Click here to Start FameChaining. All of these great people spoke about him. Had they succeeded, that would have removed her as the Lakers controlling owner and could have threatened the Buss familys ownership of the Lakers. So, we were preparing for the offseason in 1996 when we signed Shaq and traded for the rights to draft Kobe. He didnt walk around with a big hammer. The sports executive is the controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). We had a bunch of ideal guys Kareem Abdul Jabbar and James Worthy next to Earvin. Jerry Buss has six children, one of whom is Jeanie Buss. That showed me what he was all about to me, he was the best owner. Really through ( his agent Arn Tellum ) and the court ever him. The difference between Steinbrenner, dr. Buss was a great relationship for a month its more just! Seem like an owner in world team Tennis, the Los Angeles from., for obvious reasons like a rebel, but insists the sports executive the... The 2008 debacle, being able to convince the big fella to come West going to tell them their... Starting in the real estate business, and that started the process us. 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We won the championship and the court the level of intensity at practice rose instantly with his in.
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