You could say he and Steinbrenner were the first to grow probably bigger than the franchise. He completely got something that all of us take for granted: athletes love entertainers, and entertainers love athletes. I knew he and Magic were really close. It was too good to be true. change the face of US sport as we know it. Like the Lakers, the To me, that sums up everything about who he was and how much he cared about always wanting to his players to feel good about him and about the brand, especially for somebody that played as many years for the Lakers as I did. But Jerry West and Jerry Buss nurtured me, they mentored me. He brings a unique perspective and analytical approach to his writing. The very first time that I met him was when he had purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke. Just go out there and play. According to Janie Buss, Wed go out to different musicals and shows and dinners with my dad. A teacher doesnt turn off the student with a tone of voice. Dr. Buss soon turned an initial $1,000 investment in a West L.A. apartment building into assets eventually allowing him to purchase the Lakers and other properties, as he at different times owned the Los Angeles Strings of World Team Tennis, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. Im not going to tell them what trade to make. 66% share of the Lakers and passed this down equally to his children, who now Id never been in a Porsche before. You have to look at me coming in as a rookie, with Hall of Famers like Phil Jackson, Kobe and Shaq, and the history of the Lakers. He really, really, really enjoyed the game of soccer. He was the first one to see that opportunity to sell the naming rights of the building, which really was an asset to the company, because now instead of going to Forum, you were going to the Great Western Forum, and Great Western was one of the big banks in Southern California at the time. I thought they had a great relationship that seemed to blossom until the day that Dr. Buss passed away. Also, check Bohdan Bondarenko: Early Life, High Jump & Net Worth>>. Should you have information that conflicts with anything shown please make us aware by email. Buss celebrated his birthday on the 27th of January, and his zodiac sign was Aquarius, which represented his personality as creative, talented, advanced, and hardworking. He would listen to things. Buss married JoAnn Mueller and had four children; Johnny Buss in 1957, Jim Buss in 1959, Jeanie Buss in 1961, and Janie Buss in 1964. This was the start of a lifetime of Dr. Buss was there with us. There was no secondary market, but he knew that he was leaving money on the table and he was under indexing for certain price points. I sense that youre deferring to these guys a little bit. Back in those days you could actually raise your voice to players and theyd understand. We didnt tell Mitch (Kupchak), we didnt tell anybody about that. People would say, What about George Steinbrenner? The difference between Steinbrenner, Dr. Buss was loved by everybody. The NBA and US sport, in We had a bunch of guys who were great guys that all knew their roles, and they werent out seeking attention for themselves. This is two days after the parade and everything. From online or printed sources and from publicly accessible databases. The Sparks 2002 season He wanted people to come to the Forum and be entertained, not just by the basketball team and the talent on the court, but leave the arena thinking, That was really fun, I had a great time.. Even though after the death of Hazzard in 2011, he was still an employee of the Lakers. The Western playoffs were predictable, and we won pretty easily*. We really were a family, and we were intact as a team, and all the families were invested. I get up, I go there at 10 a.m. to his office (at the Forum) and they tell me I have to wait, Dr. Buss is in a meeting with Jerry West. We had finished the parade, and Gary Vitti and the organization made the decision I needed surgery. I think he knew, with me being 20 and alone all the way from Michigan, he became a father figure to me. away due to kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It was like family. Id say, I call it the smorgasbord defense a little bit of everything.. closed in 1978 (although it has returned since), and Jerry Buss would make He always wanted to make his family feel important, and he showed that in many different ways. questionable behavior in his private life, Jerry Busss legacy is two-fold. When Dr. Buss first bought the team, he looked at what we were charging for floor seats, and knew based on anecdotal data of talking to people that with a young Magic Johnson and this team, he could charge more. history. 5 stars - The first hour was always just talking and telling stories and visiting. After Jerrys death, Jeanie became the president of the Lakers. get along. Wed watch Lakers games together before he bought the team, and all hed talk about was, Someday Im gonna own that team. And (a couple of years later) he did. And when (my wife) Chris and I would have dinner with Dr. Buss, he was very gracious with Chris. And his business smarts (also kicked in), and the Laker Girls got branded through Reebok. When Jerry Buss purchased the LA Lakers from former owner Jack Kent Cooke in 1979, he was divorced from his first wife, JoAnn Mueller. 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. Explore how the celebrity world connects. But Buss was wise to plan early for the team and make his wishes specific and legally binding. He really was in a lot of ways a mentor, in business, in life and in basketball. Explore how the celebrity world connects. 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. See FameChain's massive Trump family tree. So I became obsessed with it, and how that process worked. Incredible. Buying the Forum, Lakers, Kings and other properties was the largest sports transaction at that time. Were just talking basketball for hours, until 2 a.m., and Im telling him about how I love being a talent evaluator. Furthermore, this businessman has also owned the Playboy Club of the Phoenix. Dr. Buss also provided resources for scholarships at Wyoming and USC, and endowed the Magic Johnson Scholarship at Michigan State University. He was one of a kind, man. Donald asks the courts to let him tweet. Id played the whole season with a torn ligament. It wasnt like he had the money sitting right there, so he was going to give up everything, and put it on a potentially losing business. He wasnt born in Los Angeles, but it was his home, and he loved it here. tributes. He was always sitting behind the bench during games and was such a basketball junkie, he just loved being around. The oldest and adopted child of Jerry Buss, Lee Buss is the sister of Jeanie Buss. This was like brothers. I dont think other teams really wanted to deal with us to begin with, and then (that happened). As a millionaire businessman and real estate investor, Jerry was also fond of playing poker. Dr. Buss was a graduate of the University of Wyoming, earning his Bachelor's degree in chemistry, and subsequently a Ph. Dr. Buss used to come down to the locker room after every game, starting in the 1981-82 season. We had a bunch of ideal guys Kareem Abdul Jabbar and James Worthy next to Earvin. We used to sit at his house and eat the same thing, Chinese chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen, and wed sit there and just talk. *In the 2004 Finals, Detroit beat L.A. 4-1. It was a long time before the other franchises got wise like that. early positions in the aerospace industry and USCs chemistry faculty. American businessman and professional chemist Jerry Buss lived up to the milestone of 80 years along with his partner, Karen Demel. Jerry Busss first job At the time, they only had a dial up internet connection, and a lot of data needed to be presented to my dad from the front office, so theyd use the fax machine. It was a great relationship for a number of years. He lost some weight worrying about whether he was going to be able to convince the big fella to come West. 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.) But lo and behold, we had won again, in dramatic fashion, and I remember the look in Dr. Busss eye, like, We made the right decision.. Before he embraced t The LA Kings, the other It didnt just happen. Everyone is tight. Where is Jerry Buss Daughter Jeanie Buss Now. Jerry was the owner of Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), Los Angeles Kings Hockey (NHL), and The Forum. Whatever Lamar got paid was worth it. That was wonderful, to get my game back in gear for the next five games (after the Memorial Day Massacre). In 1989, he gave me a five-year contract, and they hadnt even hired the head coach yet. El SEGUNDO - Dr. Jerry Buss, longtime owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, passed away on Monday, February 18th after a long illness. Buss became an owner of the Los Angeles Strings in World Team Tennis. Our first year! And then we went to the hotel and we danced all night. Buss started working for his stepdads plumbing company while still in school. Im this young guy out of UCLA, and when you first meet him coming into the locker room, and he comes to shake your hand, theres no greater form of nervousness in this town at that point in time. with JoAnn Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "JoAnn Buss", "gender": "Female" }, Joey Buss{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "Joey Buss", "gender": "Male" }, born 1985, age 37 (approx.) That helped motivate you to want to keep doing that. Once that game got going, he was into it. Apart from the Lakers, Jeanie also co-owns Women of Wrestling. Space-X continues to reach for the stars. See the Elon Musk family tree here at FameChain. Theres a picture I have in my office where guys are grabbing his shoulders, throwing champagne on him, Im messing his hair up. Pat learned his job on the fly. In a later interview, Jeanie said that one of the reasons for firing Jim was because she didnt believe he made the right player trades. Wed played pool until 2 or 3 in the morning he loved to play 8 ball, and he was much better than me. He would do math tricks when we were going places all the time. Thats how he was. I was fascinated about how cards accrued value, and Id always ask questions to my dad about it. Luckily, Buss got a rapid and massive success in real estate investment and earned good money from it. Later, when the WNBA was formed in 1996, Buss took charge of operating that league's Los Angeles franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks. (Eventually) I became his eyes and ears about college players. He had a 66 percent stake in the team when he died, and judging by the trust he set up years ago to hold the ownership stake, it has long been his intention to keep the Lakers in the Buss family. We all held the trophy together. Ultimately, one way or another, all four of Jerry Buss sons ended up being associated with the LA Lakers. RIP Jerry Buss the greatest owner in the history of American sport. Dr. Buss never sat and waited a month or two. Jerome "Jerry" Carl Buss, 85, of Rochester, passed away Friday, December 31, 2021, at his home with his loving family by his side. (Towards the end) we were just talking and reminiscing about old times. Daniel's 5th outing as Bond gets bums back on seats in the cinema. He was really a very nice guy who enjoyed the fun things in life. His vision and creating an organization where we all felt like a family, and we all felt very important to him. They traded for the The NBA lost a great man. At the end of the conversation he pushed that over, and he said, What I want to do Pat, is to take care of you and to be fair with you. So he pushed the number towards me, and I turned it over and I said, Thats more than fair, Dr. Buss. Shook his hand, and we had a deal on a new 3-year contract. It had just come out, and somehow he got his hands on it, and wanted to know my thoughts on it, especially because he knew I was Italian and I was raised Roman Catholic. throughout the regular season and the playoffs, finishing with a combined Countless times to the Western Conference Finals but no, were not putting those banners up. So that was one of the things I noticed about him. His father, Lydus, Buss was booked for driving under the influence when two Highway in 1972), and Joey and Jesse with his girlfriend Karen Demel. That book opened up a whole world up to me about the founding fathers. It didnt have naming rights like Staples Center. 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