Name your five favorite athletes.
An easy enough exercise for any sports fan, athletes have their faces all over the news and receive the glory whenever their team comes out on top. But when it comes to putting together a successful team, it isn’t always just about the players, it’s about a person who knows how to build a core, build hype and put on a show.
Jerry Buss was that person.
The long-time Los Angeles Lakers owner died of kidney failure Monday at 80 years old, leaving behind one of the most successful careers, not only in basketball, but in all of sports.
After growing rich off shrewd investments in real estate, Buss entered the sports world by purchasing the Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings in 1979 for $67.5 million. At the time, that was the biggest financial transaction in professional sports history. He would eventually sell the Kings, but with the Lakers, Buss would go on to build a dynasty on the hardwood.
In the decade prior to his purchase of the team, the Lakers had seen moderate success — making the playoffs eight out of 10 years, making the NBA Finals three times and winning one league championship — but they struggled to find consistent playoff success.
That changed once Buss took over. In his first year with the team, Buss rode rookie sensation Magic Johnson to the 1980 NBA championship. In 1982, he won another one. 1985? Another. 1987 and ’88 saw the Lakers win two more to earn the first back-to-back titles since the ‘50s.
The offense for the Lakers in the 80s, affectionately known as the “Showtime” era, was predicated on an up-tempo, run-and-gun type attack that would keep scores high and fans in the seats. Buss hired an in-house band to play during games. He hired dancers to entertain during breaks in play. In many ways, he is the father of the current NBA game experience. And he was doing this 30 years ago.
The entertainment quality of the games brought out the best and brightest in La-La Land to Laker games. It’s hard to watch an L.A. game without seeing Hollywood’s best and brightest — from Denzel Washington to Leonardo DiCaprio to Jack Nicholson — lining the courtside seats.
Things cooled off in the 90s when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls ran the show, but after drafting Kobe Bryant and signing Shaquille O’Neal away from the Orlando Magic for $121 million in 1996, along with the hiring of Phil Jackson to coach in 1999, Buss put the Lakers back on top.
Los Angeles would go on to win three-straight titles from 2000-’02, losing only three NBA finals games over that span. It was the biggest dynasty since the Jordan-era
In all, Buss won 10 championships with the Lakers and did so over three decades, showing his ability as an owner to recreate his team after superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson and O’Neal came and went.
According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the Lakers made it to the NBA Finals in 48.4 percent of their seasons under Buss. Take a minute and let that number sink in. Los Angeles made it not just to the playoffs — or the conference semifinals or conference finals — but all the way to the finals at a rate of nearly once every other season. For 32 years.
Bigger was always better for Buss, a 2010 NBA Hall of Fame inductee, and with his deep pockets and a premier location in Los Angeles, he truly had the perfect storm for success.
It will be interesting to see where the Lakers go from here. Now that Jerry is gone, will daughter Jeanie and the rest of the Buss family pull in the reigns and put an end to the Los Angeles persona? Unlikely, but the team will surely undergo some changes under their new management.
Buss turned the Lakers into a show, he turned Los Angeles into a basketball mecca, and he turned that $67.5 million dollar investment into a one billion dollar franchise that is unlike any other in sports.
What are your thoughts on Jerry Buss? What impact do you feel he’s had on today’s NBA? Let Matt know what you think by emailing him at sports@dailycardinal.com
