Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who helped transform the franchise into the most successful and glamorous team in North American professional sports, died Monday, the team and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center confirm. He was 80.
Buss died at 5:55 a.m., according to Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman Sally Stewart.
Buss had spent time in the intensive care unit at CedarsSinai Medical Center with an undisclosed form of cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In December 2011, he was hospitalized for treatment of blood clots in his legs that officials said were caused by extensive traveling.
In 1979, Buss purchased the Lakers, Forum, Los Angeles Kings hockey team and a 13,000-acre Kern County ranch from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million, then the largest transaction in sports history.
When Buss purchased the team, it had won one championship in the previous 25 seasons and had lost nine times in the NBA finals during that span, including four seven-game series.
Buss combined show business glamour and sex appeal with shrewd personnel moves—both on and off the court—to make the Lakers become what NBA Commissioner David Stern once said was “the standard by which all L.A. sports franchises and most American franchises get measured.”
In Buss’ first season as owner, the Lakers won the NBA championship, then added four more titles in the following eight seasons, as the Magic Johnson-led fast-breaking “Showtime” offense enthralled both the general public and celebrities like Academy Award-winning actor Jack Nicholson, who became regulars in the courtside seats.
Under Buss, the Lakers became the first basketball team to have a dance squad, the Laker Girls, who also developed a devoted following and inspired similar squads by every other team in the league.
The Lakers won three more NBA championships from 2000-2002 with teams led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Bryant-led teams won titles in 2009 and 2010.
The Lakers’ 10 championships under Buss’ ownership are the most by a team in any of the four major North American professional leagues since he purchased the team. Buss’ 10 championships as an owner are the most in NBA history.
Buss was selected for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. During the induction ceremony at the Springfield Symphony Hall in Springfield, Mass., the site of the Hall of Fame, Buss said he was “probably happier than anyone” to be inducted “because most of the people that come up here have an inkling of the idea someday they may make the Hall of Fame.
“Believe me, when I was 21, I never thought I’d be enshrined,” Buss said during the ceremony.
Buss, accompanied on the stage by fellow Hall of Fame members Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson and Pat Riley, recalled how he “was an overly competitive, but underly endowed player” in high school, who “turned to heavy studies” and “eventually won a scholarship to the University of Wyoming.”
Born Jan. 27, 1933, in Salt Lake City and raised in the tiny mining and sheep ranching community of Kemmerer, Wyo., Buss came to Southern California to attend graduate school at USC, where he received a doctorate in physical chemistry.
Buss taught at USC and worked in the aerospace industry, then joined with aerospace engineer Frank Mariani in forming Mariani-Buss Associates, a real estate firm, whose initial goal was to provide Buss with income to pursue his love of teaching.
Instead, Buss parlayed an original $1,000 investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building into a fortune that would enable him to enter professional sports ownership.
Buss made his initial foray into professional sports in 1974 when he purchased full control of the Los Angeles Strings of World Team Tennis.
In 2006, Buss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honored in the television category for co-founding with the late cable pioneer Bill Daniels the Prime Ticket regional cable sports channel in 1985, which showed the Lakers’ home games, along with other events from the Forum, college sports and other events.
Despite others’ fears that televising home games would hurt attendance, Prime Ticket generated millions of dollars annually through the sale of television rights fees and ended up bolstering the Lakers’ attendance by creating greater interest in the team.
The Lakers are expected to remain in control of the Buss family. Son Jim is the team’s executive vice president of player personnel and daughter Jeanie is executive vice president of business operations.
Another son, Johnny, is executive vice president of strategic development and another daughter, Janie Drexel, is director of charitable services, while son Jesse is director of scouting.
In addition to his five children involved with the Lakers, son Joey is chief executive officer of the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers’ NBA Development League affiliate.
-City News Service
Will always remember the great Laker's 1980s team he built with Magic, Jabar, Worthy, Rambis, and Pat Riley coaching.
God bless . l. marano
Now The Dumb and the Willfully Ignorant are unemployable so they spend their days comment on the Patch. Even when the article deals with topics they know nothing of; they live to spew their ignorance and hatred. They don't use their real names because they claim speaking your mind can be dangerous. Tell that to Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X, Nathan Hale, Thomas Paine... They are cowards and like all cowards they bully if you point out their complete lack of logic. They ruin online communication and any chance we may have had to learn from each other. They will continue to do so until we stand up and shout them down.
Would you like a little sip of some truth serum? heh. Not just the kind that releases your inhibitions, but the kind that forces you to acknowledge the truth as well. My God, if such a product were available they should put it in our drinking water. The human condition would be transformed for the better overnight. Our churches, universities, police deparments, political system and millions of bloggers nationwide would undergo remarkable transformations. You are a real hoot and a half, sir. On second thought, don't sip. The entertainment is priceless! :^)
Also, one should never confuse the writer with the writing. Quite often writers employ personas that have nothing in common with themselves. Perhaps as a writer I wrote that in a way to suggest condescension and snobbery because that is what the people I'm writing about employ as their only rhetorical strategy. You needn't look any further than JustUs's comment to me to see that I am correct in that assertion. By the way, I worked on more than one assembly line in my life, including a pickle processing plant, enjoyed Miller before I learned about quality, etc. etc. etc. Writers write about what they know.
With that said, your writing style actually sucks. Far overshadowed by your self-indugence and self-loathing. :^)
Although I didn't find JustUs' original comment offensive, included in the total body of work I'd suggest people have grown weary of the hammer with which you drive. Take a deep breath and pull back a little -- let people grieve or remember the dead in a way that doesn't necessarily include commentary that can be construed as sarcasm. If you don't have anything nice to say that's genuine, sincere and focused on the person, maybe you keep it to yourself when it involves the deceased. I suspect the reaction to your comment was because of a breaking point that had been reached. Also, to those who were offended or take issue, the comment was in its most literal form, complimentary and you may have unnecessarily read too much into it based on the whole of this person's other comments. Focus on Buss, not JustUs. Seriously, let's be nice to each other.
You seem to selectively target me when others make really nasty remarks on these boards and get a total pass. My remark of praise toward Dr. Buss was sincere and heartfelt. It was NOT intended to be sarcastic toward him IN ANY WAY, so an apology would be appreciated. Dr. Buss made ALOT of people very rich who otherwise would have lived very very ordinary lives. IMO that is a compliment of the highest order whether you agree or not. I even called him a 'genius' and wished him to enter God's kingdom! So what are you attacking me for? Why not name AVERY specifically for provoking me and spewing vitriol all over your board? There is NO mistake about what he wrote - and there is no way that you could interpret his comment to me as 'complimentary'. Go look at the other blogs boards. He follows me around like a provocateur to incite fights. Why don't you tell him to desist? Because he writes a blog?
But I am very disappointed that you, as a Patch moderator, would target me for these innocuous reasons and name me specifically while you fail to specifically name others who offend and violate board guidelines on a routine basis and in an extremely blatant manner. So let's show a little equity here. You ask us to be nice. I am asking you to show consistency with your customers and fair in managing your boards. I am available for questions, if need be. Thank you.
Second, you didn't read my comment. I didn't accuse you of anything. Third, I just defended you but your reaction seems so defensive that you completely fail to "get it." Fourth, each of your comments isn't necessarily mutually exclusive. Taken as a whole, you've developed quite the reputation—so much so that that people are complaining about you in direct emails to the local editors. Fifth, the previous comment to you on the other thread was explained fully; I let you say your piece, and then asked that everyone be respectful given the tragedy of the deceased motorcyclist. I couldn't be any more clear. Sixth, the comment here to which you replied was written with everyone in mind. The message to all: Be nice to each other. Seventh, I don't get an opportunity to read every post to every story, so do people get "passes" as you suggest? I'm sure they do. You are one of them who has gotten such a pass. This thread isn't your first rodeo so don't act like you've never written anything incendiary just because you didn't write anything this time. Eight, I've read two of Avery's blogs—ever! He's not getting preferential treatment for that reason. Ninth, humor, sarcasm & tone are difficult to perceive in the written word. If Avery & others had that reaction, I suspect it's because of your total body of work. Tenth, this reply to you contains no humor or sarcasm, and my tone is serious.
(2) If that's 'defending me', with friends like that who needs enemies? (3) I have well thought out and engaged opinions on topics of the day. Some people dislike my opinions. And they have as much right to dislike my opinions as I have to express them. I have not been counseled by the Patch staff (other than you which I refuted) for any of my writings. So whatever complaints were filed must have been frivilous. There are some opinions that I oppose too. The difference is I don't write the Editor and complain about the author. And there are those who openly attack, ridicule and demean me for my opinions on a routine basis. Still, I do not run to the Editor and whine. I consider it part of the comment board aura. If I complained to the Editor everytime I was attacked, ridiculed or demeaned the emails would be a mile high. (cont)
(4) You don't have to read every blog to see the attacks that I sustain for merely stating my personal opinion on a matter. Avery follows me around from blog to blog like a provocateur inciting fights. Why not counsel him by name in public? Naturally he is a blog writer. Does that give him leeway to constantly attack me at will without rebuke? (5) Being nice to one another is a wonderful aspiration for all. But when someone attacks me on the board, I am not going to sustain punch after punch without defending myself. If people do not like my opinions they have the right to express that. And I welcome it. But the personal attacks are over the line, and whenever someone attacks me for my personal opinion I will fight back. I never make a comment personal unless I am attacked or the person has a history in lodging personal attacks against me. Go back and read my comments if you question that. I am an honorable and upstanding board commenter. But I will defend my honor. And if this board is a 'rodeo' as you suggest I feel like I've been ridden hard and put up wet. I suggest you spend more time counseling those who malign me for merely stating my opinion on controversial subject matter. (6) Why would you give Avery or the other the benefit of the doubt in evaluating my comments. Why don't you do it yourself instead of judging me based on other's reactions? (7) If you resent me defending myself here, go ahead and ban me, if that is your policy.