Video: Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who was suffering from cancer, died on Monday morning at the age of 80. Buss won 10 NBA Championships with the Lakers and was inducted into the Basketball HOF in 2010.
In 31 years of covering professional sports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta, I’ve known both good team owners and bad, some who celebrated with fans and players, some who existed only as a name on corporate letterhead, some who hid like cowards when their team was sold and moved away (hypothetically speaking). But the best owner I’ve ever known just passed away.
Jerry Buss died of cancer Monday. He was 80. Because I'm from Los Angeles, I had a chance to know the man a little. I covered two teams that he owned, first the NHL's Kings and then the NBA Lakers. There are several stories I could tell from the early 1980s that would illustrate how emotionally invested Buss was in his teams, how he was driven to succeed in sports as much as he had in real estate, where he amassed his fortune. (True story: Buss once told me he could be broke one day and immediately go out and make a million dollars. When I asked him how, he responded, "I could tell you but you would never do it.")
But when I heard the news of Buss’s death, my first memory wasn’t of him a sports owner but as being almost one of the guys. I was covering the Lakers as a beat for the Los Angeles Daily News during the 1982-83 season. The Lakers were still playing in the Forum and within that building was the Forum Club, which was open following games to club members, celebrities, anybody who managed to score a pass from the owner and us media dregs.
Buss often showed up for a couple of post-game beverages, with the blonde of the week on his arm. (Actually, that reminds me of another story: One of the greatest comebacks in NHL playoff history took place in the Forum and Buss missed it. His Kings trailed Edmonton 5-0 but scored five goals in the third period and then in overtime to beat Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers 6-5. Buss didn’t see the comeback. He had left after the second period with his date, Linda Evans. Nobody could blame him.)
Anyway, back to the Forum Club: This one particular night after a Lakers game, there was a lot of drinking going on. There were a half-dozen writers, a few team officials, Buss, his entourage, I think Jackson Browne and a few others.Buss was fascinated to talk to the sports writers. (I know. I couldn’t figure it out, either.) He wanted to know what we thought of his teams, ours views of the Los Angeles sports market, the future of sports, Magic, Kareem, Iran-Iraq, anything.
The evening wore on. The crowd thinned to a handful. PM turned into AM. At around 1 a.m., Buss sent home his girlfriend. At around 2 a.m., he sent home his chauffeur. At some point, he dismissed the bartender. The bar stayed open.
Eventually, and I seem to recall it was just before the sun came up, it was time for the last four or five of us to leave. Somebody had to drive Buss back home – to Pickfair. I regret to say it wasn’t me -- it would’ve made this story better. But I have this lingering memory of leaving the parking lot, looking in the rearview mirror and barely seeing the top of Buss’s head in the car behind me as he was slowly sinking down in the passenger seat.
It was the end of the show for one night. But there would be others.
Magic Johnson starred in “Showtime,” but Jerry Buss produced it. He was a rarity for a sports owner then, and even now, one who connected with people at every level.
The sports world has lost a great one. It was cool to have known him.
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