Lakers owner Jeanie Buss taking heat from fans about Jerry West

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Lakers owner Jeanie Buss taking heat from fans about Jerry West

The world according to Jim:

• Jeanie Buss has been taking some serious incoming flak on social media the past few days, and I can’t say some of it isn’t warranted.

• The Dan Hurley episode was portrayed nationwide as an embarrassment to the Lakers, although that thinking seems an overreaction. The Lakers’ mistake was probably that the six-year, $70 million contract offer was insufficient, but I noted earlier in the week that I wasn’t sure going up to $100 million would have made a difference. Hurley confirmed that in a Thursday interview with radio host Dan Le Batard, noting that he’d already negotiated the basics of a lucrative extension at UConn.

I give Jeanie and Rob Pelinka credit for aiming high. But now they face the risk of circling back to JJ Redick even though the world now knows he wasn’t their first choice. How does that go over? …

• But Jerry West’s death on Wednesday, and the statements by Buss personally and the Lakers institutionally reacting to his passing, made the organization look … well, small. They were called out for it on social media, as they should have been. …

• Jerry West was the Lakers, more than anyone could have been in the franchise’s rich history even going back to George Mikan and Minneapolis. He was the franchise’s touchstone to multiple generations as a player, a coach and an executive before leaving the organization after the 2000 championship. His statue outside the building formerly known as Staples Center depicts him in a Lakers uniform. And, as I wrote of the team’s previous home in a 1995 story:

“The Forum is Jerry West’s building. Other men have owned it, and other men and women have made it their own, be it for a moment or a season or a career. But when it comes to sweat equity, no one can equal Jerry West’s claim on the Forum.’ …

• Consider: If West and Elgin Baylor had not made the Lakers and the NBA popular in Southern California, Jack Kent Cooke might never have bought the franchise, the Forum might never have been built, Jerry Buss might not have ultimately bought the team from Cooke, and who knows how else history might have been dramatically changed. …

• Jeanie Buss’ Instagram message following West’s passing: “Today is a difficult day for all Laker fans. I know that if my father were here, he would say Jerry West was at the heart of all that made the Lakers great. He was an icon to all – but he was also a hero to our family. We all send our sympathies to Karen and the West family.”

On the surface, fine. Considering the back story, not so fine. …

• There were several slights the last few years. Jeanie was asked to list the five greatest Lakers of all time and left West (and Elgin Baylor) off the list. West’s son Ryan, who had been a scout for the Lakers, was let go. After leaving the Golden State Warriors in 2017, where he’d been a consultant, Jerry West joined the Clippers in a similar role after the Lakers showed no interest. And, three seasons ago, the club rescinded the lifetime season tickets that Jerry Buss had given to West before Buss died in 2013. …

• But I still wonder if the origin of the beef went back to the moment he walked away from the organization. West did not attend his resignation news conference on Aug. 7, 2000, a couple of months after the first Shaq-Kobe championship. The assumption was that he was worn out, that the stress and pressure he put on himself forced him to step away.

But other sources indicated at the time – and I reported it in The Press-Enterprise two days before the news conference – that two other changes in the dynamic of the Lakers organization sped his exit: The rising influence of Jim Buss in basketball operations decisions, and the then-relationship between Jeanie Buss, then the executive vice president of business operations, and Phil Jackson, the coach. …

• As an executive for a Pacific Division opponent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me at the time: “You’ve got Baby Buss coming in. He’s a layman, he’s not even a basketball guy, and he has all this credence. I think that bothers (West) a great deal.”

Subsequent events, specifically  the family dispute during the 2010s over who was in charge following the death of the patriarch, suggested West was right. By then, he had moved on – four seasons in Memphis as general manager, followed by consultant’s roles for the Warriors and Clippers, where he also was a member of the executive board. …

• By the way, helpful reader Craig Lesly reminded me that West’s memorable shot from 63 feet to send Game 3 of the 1970 Finals against the New York Knicks to overtime “was worth only two points.” That underlines this stat: West remains the all-time leader in Finals scoring from an era when there was no 3-point shot. …

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