My dad could see talent, and he knew how to approach and get the best out of each person. But one things I remember that stood out to me, as nice as Dr. Buss was, he was really a good owner but he looked at me and said, Look, I understand youre upset. If I was offended by the book, or what my feelings were. He was doing it because it was truly his passion. He talked about having two sons with this franchise, being Magic and myself. He was amazing with his connections and who he knew, and now, I just had to put the work in, and I did that. And thats what Dr. Buss did. We had something to talk about immediately, and he was flattered to know that I was aware. There was purity to that. 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. with JoAnn Buss Jeanie Buss born 1961, age 61 (approx.) with JoAnn Buss Janie Buss born 1963, age 59 (approx.) Dont be afraid of him just because hes Kareem, just because hes Magic. Such a meaningful and historical figure to all of us that who love this game and this League. But I hadnt seen him yet. Slow down. He was very patient and he loved timing things out, but not necessarily rushing to places. I go up to the suite, and I sit down on the stairs next to him, and I said, Well Doc, what do you think? He says, Its great. The trust makes it very difficult for any of them to sell their shares, and impossible without the approval of their other siblings. Think about somebody calling you to say goodbye, and we both cried for I dont know how many hours. But with cap space so precious, and stars so important, I looked at the draft and saw how late first round picks dont make a lot in salary. The whole way, hed keep track on his watch, and we had to get there on the dot at 12:00. That when you think L.A., you think Lakers. She is survived by : her children, Gail Kruse (Jim) of Sunrise Beach, MO and Jerry Buss of Beatrice; her grandchildren, Jennifer Surface (Matt), Brooke Pohlman (Jordan), Kelsey Weishahn (Spencer), Abbee Buss, Bryce Buss (Cheyanne) and Abby Morgan (Tristan); her great grandchildren, Kaysee Meyer, Collin Surface, River Morgan and Weishahn; her siblings, Anora Schoen and Ron Busboom (Verla); and her siblings-in-law, Marlene Busboom, Karen Buss, Betty St. Clair and Kenny Miller. He put his imprint on the league fast, and then we win the championship too? How he figured out our monetary system, the Coast Guard, customs, the first inspector general of the Army ridiculous. Thats not normal for most owners. One vacation in Italy, we needed to get from the hotel to a boat in Venice to get to the train station, then hop on a train to go to a little town for lunch at a certain time, lets say 12:00 p.m.; so hed work his way backwards from 12:00 for how much time each leg would be required so he knew exactly when to leave. Am I being traded? He says, Were not trading you, what are you talking about? So we start chitchatting, and talking about other things, and finally he says, Coop you know what, I got some other meetings I have to have, but I just want to let you know theres something for you at the tunnel. So I go, OK, this is it. I figured Jerry (West) or whoever the other team was at the tunnel at the Forum. Later it was Miller Genuine Draft. Because every family member of the Buss family Ive ever met knows how to treat people. And what Jerry Buss always wanted to accomplish was to have one of those players on his team, the Showtime part of it. Buss Family Trust is a 66% controlling ownership of the Lakers passed to Jerry Buss' six children via a trust, with each child receiving an equal vote (11% for each child). And I offered Vlade Divac to everyone, a starting center. In a limousine outside the office that day in . Id say, I call it the smorgasbord defense a little bit of everything.. Once that game got going, he was into it. It was a long time before the other franchises got wise like that. Never, ever. Any age group, any ethnic group. 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 was 80 years old. He was very, very friendly, and the door was always open. And how he conducted business, it was always, hey, Im holding all the cards. When he bought the team, there were literally two prices: the downstairs and the upstairs. As the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1979 until he passed away in 2013, Dr. Jerry Buss oversaw one of the greatest stretches in sports and entertainment history. with Karen Demel I remember when he explained it to me we all knew Wrigley Field, where the Cubs played. Had they succeeded, that would have removed her as the Lakers controlling owner and could have threatened the Buss familys ownership of the Lakers. In 2012, Buss was in a hospital for months with an undisclosed intestinal problem. Countless times to the Western Conference Finals but no, were not putting those banners up. In 1999-2000, we got to the Western Finals against Portland, which was absolutely exciting. That was the plan that I understood.. It didnt have naming rights like Staples Center. We just started talking about the crazy journey that weve been on. Coincidentally, I went to work out the next morning, and I was looking for gyms out there. It wasnt out of fear, it was out of respect, that players wanted to play hard for him. A few days later, the first time I met Dr. Buss was at the Forum Club, after a game. We just stayed the course. The entrepreneur, the Doctor. His dream was to own the Lakers, my dream was just to be a part of it, and we became part of a team that goes down in history, and then he built another one when he got Shaq and Kobe. The Lakers are on fire. with Karen Demel{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Demel", "gender": "Female" }, View Jerry Buss's Family Tree and History, Ancestry and Genealogy, Jerry Buss's father is Lydus Buss Jerry Buss's mother is Jessie Buss, Jerry Buss's son is Johnny Buss Jerry Buss's son is Jim Buss Jerry Buss's daughter is Jeanie Buss Jerry Buss's daughter is Janie Buss Jerry Buss's son is Joey Buss Jerry Buss's son is Jesse Buss, Jerry Buss had a relationship with Karen Demel, Jerry Buss had an on-off relationship with Puppi Buss Jerry Buss's former wife is JoAnn Buss. My dad only missed the playoffs twice in his entire 34-year tenure as an owner. He currently resides in Los Angeles. When we won Game 4 in the Garden, that was the big difference. My dad was working with Jerry West, trying to build this team that was a playoff team, but not a contender. He bought me dinner. Donald asks the courts to let him tweet. 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. He was an incredibly visionary. I didnt have firsthand memories of winning a championship, and felt like wed never get one, because it seemed so hard. It was very personal with him. with JoAnn Buss Jim Buss born 1959, age 63 (approx.) We talked about where we came from, what our lives were like, and in a lot of respects we had some similarities in our lives. If everyone took as much care and time to plan for the end of their lives, there would likely be much less fighting among family members when it came time to administer their estates. Because Id worked on prior events like Championship parades and so on, event mode planning started. Dr. Buss actually started in his first season, 1979-80, with a combination of USC and UCLA pom girls, and the USC band. He was that fast. *In the 2004 Finals, Detroit beat L.A. 4-1. Jerry was soft spoken, he had a great charm about him, and was just a unique person who believed in me for a long time, and I dont think in my life Ive ever had anybody who was as straight forward with me as him. The team folded in 1989 and the league folded three years later. Thats when I got to meet Magics family. One story showed how appreciative he was for the work that he did, and for playing hard for the city of Los Angeles. He joined the Lakers in 1998 as an apprentice to General Manager Jerry West. Most owners are coming in, they have security, they go to their box, they get in and they get out. I remember once getting a math, or maybe I should call it a business lesson. I couldnt be more thankful for all the parties involved in that trade, because it really changed my career here in the NBA, and gave me a second life. Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson, Jerry Buss, and Phil Jackson Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers Center (1975-89) 6X Champion, 2X Finals MVP, 6X MVP, 19X All-Star, Hall of Fame He always treated me very. Dr. Buss, many nights after the games where hed come down to the locker room after everybody cleared out. They traded their starting center for a guard. We won that as a group. The $24 million he purchased for the Lakers and Kings would be $95.57 million in today's money. Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss was born on Jan. 27, 1933, in Salt Lake City. He then earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Southern California. He really wanted to own the team.. Sports ownership. It was really his love, his heart. He basically created premium seating, and nobody else was doing this stuff at the time. Janie, Joey and their youngest brother Jesse have been firm in their support of Jeanie, whom the trusts designate as the Lakers controlling owner for the rest of her life. Pat learned his job on the fly. 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. But in February Johnny and his brother Jim proposed a board of directors that did not include their sister. I know you may not believe that, but trust me, we do. It was just great to be able to watch and learn. And guess what, a few months later, it ended up happening, and our paths crossed and we had an incredible run and were able to win championships. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Janie and Joey Buss replaced them. We all understood that, we all knew that, we were all for it. He really maximized his time and was very efficient with his time, and he knew later on that he didnt have much time left. In other words, how offensive could it be? Explore how the celebrity world connects. The very first time that I met him was when he had purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke. So its strange to have a guy whos your mentor, father figure and best friend all rolled into one And then when Jeanie called me (to share the news that he had passed away (one of the) toughest days in my life. At the very end, wed get to business, and he always had an opinion. Buss purchased the team, reported to be worth around $1 billion, in 1979. It was amazing how he had it all down. Ultimately we came back and made another offer and Lamar took it. Jerry's 66 percent ownership of the team passed to each of his six children via a trust, equating to 11 percent per child. But he insisted he never wanted to push out his sister. He loved to play cards, and wed talk about the season, and then what we could do to get the team better. 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). He ran the WNBAs Los Angeles Sparks while the family still owned the team. We didnt plan to meet, but after work one time, I stopped at Dan Tanas by myself. The 11 years that I was coaching as an assistant and head coach, that team went to the NBA Finals eight or nine times and we won five championships, probably should have won two more. Well, at that time, Jack Kent Cooke was going through a divorce, and he moved to Nevada to establish residency in order to process his divorce as a citizen of Nevada, which had different settlement laws. That was a long process, too, and stressful. Meghan Mountbatten Windsor, The Duchess of Sussex. He inspired the Lakers' Showtime era with his vision that basketball games must be entertaining. Until last week when Jeanie Buss fired her brother Jim Buss, all six children spanning 31 years in age from eldest to youngest worked within the Lakers' organization or for the team's NBA. And he got it right every single time. The Finals were tough, though, against Boston. 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. Born in Santa Monica, California, [1] Buss was the third of four children to Joann and Jerry Buss, and one of two daughters; she grew up with older brothers Johnny and Jim and younger sister Janie. 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. and his wife, JoAnn, had four children: Johnny, Jimmy, Jeanie. It wasnt an accident, and the Laker brand exploded. Theyre respectful, theyre loyal and theyre good to other people as human beings. He just said he was going to get (expletive) done. When the deal was complete that Dr. Buss bought the Lakers, we had lunch, and we hung out for the whole weekend. Announced as a member of the 2010 induction class of the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 5, 2010, he was formally enshrined as a contributor to the sport on August 13 of that same year. He was always sitting behind the bench during games and was such a basketball junkie, he just loved being around. 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. I hope he was looking down happy, and we hoped that the Buss family was happy with everything. Very genuine, honest guy, and I respected him a lot. James Jim Hatten Buss was born on November 9, 1959, and is the second eldest son of Jerry Buss. That confluence doesnt happen very often, and Dr. Buss was very much able to get with the moment and enjoy the moment. Really cool. But it was one of the toughest things Ive encountered physically, mentally and emotionally. He wanted everybody to be together, and he was right in the middle of 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. Magic was worth every accolade or attention he got, because he carried us. (Towards the end) we were just talking and reminiscing about old times. Then I went back home, and the next time I saw him was training camp. We actually ended up making an offer, and then taking the offer off the table, because it still was not acceptable. We talked about where he was at in his life the Lakers we covered everything. Finding great success in the real estate business, he pursued real estate investing full time. with JoAnn Buss Joey Buss born 1985, age 37 (approx.) And when we were all kids and we were together growing up, wed always watch the games. I think I hurt his feelings, Johnny said. Everyone is tight. 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. Make sure relatives of Betty Jean Buss know they have sympathy messages here. Money has never been a part of my being. I think the everyday element had taken its toll, so he probably was spending more time with his family and a little bit less with the team. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Eventually, all three teams moved into a more modern arena in downtown Los Angeles, the Staples Center, which opened in 1999. Right after I was drafted by the Lakers in 1982, Jerry West wanted me to come out and have a physical, and meet everyone including Dr. Buss. Mr. We knew when we got on that plane and we were going to beat the Celtics in Game 6. There were eight or nine different price codes, and each one had so many thousands of seats, not counting the floor seats. Through his 80th birthday on January 27, 2013, he had not attended a Lakers game during the 201213 season due to health concerns. All six of his children worked. He had thought about it. So I was just wandering around, and I walked right by this one man who was wearing jeans and maybe an old sports jacket. Because when the Lakers were playing, the men got the stage and the platform. 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. 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.) She was predeceased by : her husband Gerald Buss; her sons, Phil Buss and Chris Buss; her parents, Ehme Busboom and Jennie Busboom (Ideus); her siblings, Rosie Miller and Gerald Busboom; her siblings-in-law, Barbara Wrightsman (Don) and Robert Schoen; and her parents-in-law, Herman and Alvina Buss. Before that, I remember my dad telling me about this workout for an up-and-coming high school kid, and how Jerry West told him that he was going to be this special player. Im sure he had a lot of things, having just won a championship, a lot of different engagements, but he was reaching out to me. 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. Before he embraced the Playboy philosophy in the mid-1960s, he. Hed always end the discussion with something like, Mitch, thats my opinion but youre the expert and Ill trust your judgment. Now, the one thing that was unique about him, if it ever involved numbers, I never saw him ever write anything down or calculate anything in shorthand or with a calculator or anything like that. We didnt have 10 people doing it. As business people, our job is to drive a profit, but you do that also by taking care of your customers. This is two days after the parade and everything. We were all super excited to see him play, and one of the referees threw him out early on for arguing calls. Many Los Angeles Lakers fans mourned the passing of the teams primary owner, Jerry Buss, on Monday. Buss also owned other professional sports franchises in Southern California. He, with his real estate background, realized that people would pay just like for a house on the beach. I connected with him more through others, some of the people that were tight with him, who would always tell me that Dr. I remember growing up in the 1990s, and often losing to the best teams in the West, like the Supersonics, and then the Jazz. In the late 1980s, we were living in Encinitas, California, and my father was home with a family friend, and they needed to go watch the Lakers game against Boston, so they locked themselves up in his bedroom. Unless you were John Wooden, you couldnt win every year, so he had some realistic expectations about some things that could happen even to dynastic teams. Space-X continues to reach for the stars. After a decade of competitive teams that werent yet contenders, Dr. Buss and Jerry West signed free agent Shaquille ONeal, and traded for teenager Kobe Bryant, in 1996, then eventually brought Phil Jackson in to set up the next run of Lakers championships. Rookie owner, rookie player and we did it. When Jack Kent Cooke sold the Lakers, the Kings, the Forum and a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County, Jerry Buss met him at an office in Palos Verdes. Jerry always planned to pass down the Lakers to his children via a trust. Dr. Buss told me how (Stone) came up with the title. Buss was an inaugural member of the USC College Board of Councilors. There becomes a bigger trust by an owner, a greater dependency on the people whom youre working closely with. The next season, they wanted more of a team, so they called them the Golden Girls, and they had big pom poms. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979. Previously, she spent six years covering football, first for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., then the Houston Chronicle and ESPN. We had growth within our own team, like Andrew Bynum, to go with Kobe and Lamar. And I was happy to be a part of it, because Jack Kent Cooke, as great a businessman as he was, he was tough. He revealed that he wasnt very interested in the familys sports ownership business, and his interest further diminished after his fathers death. He was a very, very, very generous man. He showed that you dont really have to lock yourself down in one area as a person. You saw his mannerisms go with every little gyration that was going on. Smiled and laughed, drank champagne and went to the White House. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry by age 24. This is the way owners should operate. [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. You could say he and Steinbrenner were the first to grow probably bigger than the franchise. He really was in a lot of ways a mentor, in business, in life and in basketball. He was in Hawaii at that time, and I called him. (Jerry and JoAnn divorced in 1972.) I love him, and his family, and I thank him to this day for the opportunity. He just shook the trophy in that tiny little locker room in Boston. This is a year after Id left, and I remember we had dinner up on Sunset Boulevard, and Id signed this humongous contract, or at that time it was, and he looked me in the eye and said, Read my lips, do you realize how much money that is? He tried to put things in perspective as to what I was about ready to do in New York, and what they were going to pay me, and that I deserved it, I earned it, everything that Id done in Los Angeles he was proud of, and he was proud that Chris and I could go to New York and start our careers over again there. He was with Brent Musberger after the game with the trophy in his hand, and he was shaking it: This has removed the most odious sentence in the English language It can never again be said that the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics.. Dr. Buss said how proud he was of us to be there in the Finals, and it was just a nice moment. Jeanie, Dr. Buss and I spent a lot of time talking about price sensitivity. Jeanie (Buss) was just 19 years old, or 18 years old. So I came to this park, and I was with Jerry West and somebody from the Lakers front office, and I got disconnected from my hosts. Johnny says its all a misunderstanding. Just sit and let the dust settle, and a decision will be evident to you. 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