RealGM

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/9660465/jim-buss-comes-los-angeles-lakers

Among other things, Jim Buss saved a voicemail from his father from Jan. 20, less than a month before the Lakers' Hall of Fame owner, Jerry Buss, died after an 18-month battle with cancer. He has replayed it so many times he knows it by heart.

" 'Hey Jim, it's your dad,' " Buss says, mimicking his father's squeaky voice. " 'What an incredible waste of talent. Oh well. The experiment didn't work.' "

Buss had missed the call. His dad had wanted to talk to him about the Los Angeles Lakers' disappointing season. Run though all the decisions they'd made together that hadn't turned out the way they'd hoped. The offseason trades for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard that were supposed to make the $100 million Lakers title contenders, but ended up turning into an injury-riddled flop. The early-season firing of coach Mike Brown and surprising hire of Mike D'Antoni (over Phil Jackson) that could have made them look like savvy geniuses but instead came off as misguided and hurried. They had discussed those things backward and forward a thousand times already, and all roads came back to the same place.

Lol even on his death bed Jerry was watching the Lakers and giving his input into the franchise. Take from that quote what you want to take from it lol

We could've sat there and cried and said, 'Boy, oh boy, we just lost this kind of money.' We could've done this or that. But we were all on board. Every decision was made as a team. And we went down as a team. We'll live in the future the same way."

I like that quote there by Jim Buss. Its gotten to the point Lakers fans we have to invest our full support into both Jim and Jeanie qually now. Not just Jeanie, its a reason Jerry left the basketball operations to his son Jim and we need to support the guy and give him a chance to adjust to this new CBA and field another title contender.

Great article by Ramona Shelburne here.

It's going to be a long few (or many) years. I seriously hope for the sake of the franchise going forward, that we have one hell of a nightmare season from hell and luck into a top 2 pick.

A rather interesting quote from that article:

"We did the coaching search and interviews and fed him all the information," Buss said. "And he said, 'This is who I want. D'Antoni's the man.' Knowing that in the future we had to rebuild, he felt that Phil was not a guy to rebuild. It's not fair to him. It was actually more of a respectful thought towards Phil."

LakeShowAK7 wrote:It's going to be a long few (or many) years. I seriously hope for the sake of the franchise going forward, that we have one hell of a nightmare season from hell and luck into a top 2 pick.

A rather interesting quote from that article:

"We did the coaching search and interviews and fed him all the information," Buss said. "And he said, 'This is who I want. D'Antoni's the man.' Knowing that in the future we had to rebuild, he felt that Phil was not a guy to rebuild. It's not fair to him. It was actually more of a respectful thought towards Phil."

**** doesn't make sense to me at all. So i call lies.


So according to JIm, Jerry Buss was speaking of rebuilding after 5 bad games? Really??? Lol. And that is the reason we didnt hire Phil? Because were going to rebuild in the future??? Really??? And that is the reason we hired an inferior coach in Dantoni whos more suitable for a"rebuilding" team? what a joke. Hey atleast hes good at mimicking his late father's voice.

this is what it basically comes down to for me:

Like everything in Lakerland for the past 35 years, Jerry Buss' judgment gave everyone comfort. He'd won enough big bets in his life that if he said something was a good risk, people tended to trust in it. In his last 10 years of life, and in his final will and testament, Jerry Buss trusted his son Jim to make the basketball decisions for the Lakers.

and once mitch made good with gasol, we were all "in mitch we trust!"

all it takes is one gamble to pay off and all of a sudden!

"jimmy, we always knew you had it in ya!"

Aki wrote:and once mitch made good with gasol, we were all "in mitch we trust!"

all it takes is one gamble to pay off and all of a sudden!

"jimmy, we always knew you had it in ya!"

Well said Aki

to be honest, had dwight decided to stay

we'd already be saying that.

Unfortunately, Jim was a veto away from having a statue of himself erected outside of Staples Center.

I agree with some other posters on this board. The best option for the Lakers this season is to crap the bed and hope for a top 5 pick. Making the playoffs and getting smoked by OKC or SAS in the first round is much more disappointing than possibly getting Wiggins or any of the other top studs.

I actually dont have any problems with the player personel moves in recent years.

I just hated the Mike Brown and Mike DAntoni hirings. And I know I wasnt alone in this. I think the pro-Jeanie anti-Jim sentiments come solely from this.

I don't have a problem with what Jim has tried to do player wise, the man swung for the fence. You can't be mad at that. I only questioned his coaching moves but even those was solely on him.

I love Dr. Buss, but I largely put the last two titles under Jimmy Buss and Mitch. Dr. Buss wasn't nearly as involved as he was with Showtime and the Shaq - Kobe dynasty for those titles. He may have had the final word or "hammer" if you will, but Jim and Mitch did all the heavy lifting. IMO, it all really started with Jim digging in and insisting that the Lakers draft Andrew Bynum. That move opened up a world of opportunities for the Lakers.

Ironically, it is in the draft once again where Jim and his staff must shine, in lieu of the new restrictive and punitive CBA. The Lakers are going to have to unearth viable starters and role players in the draft - just like a lot of the downtrodden teams need to do - and they have failed badly at it. What are the Lakers going to do to make sure they evaluate and acquire players more like the Spurs and not the Bobcats?

With the new cap, I think "big threes" and super teams will be out and the best you can do is one superstar or at best a dynamic duo. You will need good young role players who could grow into more, and astute old veteran FA signings, that will be the formula going forward.

I still think that the way Jim and Mitch built the last two title teams together is vastly under appreciated. Putting enough highly talented players together who were willing to defer to Kobe and still have good team chemistry, championship chemistry even, was quite remarkable.