BUSS INSISTING NAMING RIGHTS DEAL DOESN'T GET IN WAY OF MOVE

          Lakers Owner Jerry Buss "wants a federal judge to
     declare" that his Great Western bank naming-rights deal
     "cannot force" his team or the NHL Kings to play in the
     Forum through 2002, instead of moving to the new Staples
     Center this fall, according to Liz Mullen of SPORTSBUSINESS
     JOURNAL.  Washington Mutual Inc., which bought Great Western
     in '97, has "demanded" that Buss' company, California Forum,
     pay $28.4M in damages, and claims it will "sustain
     substantial damages when the Lakers and Kings leave the
     Forum."  Mullen reports that Washington Mutual "maintains
     that it has no intention of blocking the teams from moving."
     The Forum has offered to pay Washington Mutual $6M for the
     remaining four years of the naming-rights deal, but the bank
     rejected that offer and the Forum "filed a lawsuit asking
     the courts to give it relief from Washington Mutual's
     'unjustified demands'" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/26).