Jeanie Buss is the principal owner of the Lakers and visible face of a legendary franchise that is inevitably linked to his last name since it was acquired by his father, Dr. Jerry Buss, in 1979. Thus was born the golden story of a franchise that changed professional sports in those 1980s. Showtime and it was key for the NBA to leave behind a very deep crisis and move towards the best moment in its history, which finally crystallized with the rise to the altars of Michael Jordan.
Doctor Buss won 10 rings as owner before his death in 2013 at the age of 80. Since then, the franchise has been run by her children, with Jeanie at the helm ever since she gave a coup within the organization in February 2017. This is how his brother Jim was separated, and a convulsive stage began that has had very deep valleys but in which LeBron James was hired and won, in 2020, the seventeenth ring for the Los Angeles franchise.
Now, after a horrible season in which the team didn’t even make it to the play in, Jeanie Buss is going through her worst moment. Very questioned by a hobby that even asks him to sell the franchise, increasingly seen as a manager anchored in the past and unable to look beyond its own history. Jeanie does not question Rob Pelinka as a manager, who was an agent and close friend of Kobe Bryant. She continues to have Magic Johnson as an adviser despite his poor departure from the team in his last stage in the offices. She again counts on the opinion of Phil Jackson, her ex-partner and her trainer who won five of the last six rings of the team. AND, a recurring theme in the criticism of his figure, he blindly trusts Kurt Rambis and his wife, Linda. Despite the fact that in the NBA world marriage is considered, especially the former Angelenos player, a harmful influence and characters with too much power and generally questionable decision-making.
In a very hectic moment in social and sports terms, with the Lakers forced to find a new coach and turn their rotation around, with the future of Russell Westbrook as a Trojan horse, Jeanie Buss has spoken. She has done it in a juicy interview in Los Angeles Times with veteran journalist Bill Plaschke. In it, he has openly shown his disappointment for a horrible season (33-49), especially incomprehensible for a squad that has cost more than 200 million dollars if you count the 45 that the team has spent on luxury tax. Although Jeanie is also accused of underinvesting and falling behind other owners, especially Steve Ballmer and his constant, nonstop spending to totally overhaul the Clippers, she sees things differently.
Jeanie assures that the season has been like a “punch in the gut” and defines it as “extremely disappointing” and “one that breaks the heart”, for which she assures that she understands the anger and frustration of the fans of the Los Angeles team , which are legion throughout the world. But she asks for patience, assures that “they will be better” and trusts the continuity of LeBron James, who can sign a two-year extension on August 4because he believes that they can make him see that “he can trust that we will have the pieces to win the title again.”
The subject he least wanted to get into has to do with Westbrook and his future. He preferred not to say anything, especially regarding the sport of a team still without a coach after the dismissal of Frank Vogel: “It’s premature to talk about it. First, you have to find the ideal coach to lead this team. So, when we know how that coach is going to want to play, we will have to see how we put the squad together”. His confidence, yes, remains total in the other two stars of the team, LeBron James and Anthony Davis: “I don’t see any reason to think that we can’t be champions with them again. One thing I learned from Phil Jackson is that there is always a path to success.” In addition, he stressed that he continues to have complete confidence in Pelinka: “I think he can make a team and pick a coach that will get us back to where we need to be.”.
Something that his detractors can rule out is that he sells the franchise: “I am responsible and I take responsibility for every decision that has been made. But I am not going to sell the franchise because my father wanted it to remain in our family. I’m not moving from here, this is what he wanted. As I usually say, my father had his children but his baby was the Lakers. And he put me in the care of that baby, and I’m going to make sure that baby thrives.”
Of course, he also made it clear that he is getting tired of things not going as they have to go after two very difficult seasons after the ring won in the Florida bubble, in 2020: “We will value everything and take difficult measures if the Lakers they are not up to par. I’m losing patience because we had the fourth highest budget in the squad last season. When you spend that kind of money because you’re in the luxury tax, you expect to go deep in the playoffs. So yeah, it was like a punch for me to end the season like that. I’m not happy, I’m not satisfied at all.”
