Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak is calling the "universal condemnation that has hit" Lakers Exec VP/Player Personnel Jim Buss this season "inaccurate," according to Mike Bresnahan of the L.A. TIMES. Kupchak said, "Jim gets way too much criticism and not enough credit with the success this team has had. He is following in the footsteps of the most successful owner maybe of all time, which is hard to do." Kupchak disputed ESPN NBA analyst and Lakers VP Magic Johnson's "recent comments that Jim Buss was running the team." Kupchak: "It is inaccurate because there are three of us that are involved in all the basketball decisions. [Owner Jerry] Buss still makes, to my knowledge, all the final decisions in the organization. He's always deferred basketball decisions at some level to his basketball people, and Jimmy is a part of the basketball people." Kupchak, who mentioned that he speaks with Jim Buss "almost daily," said, "Jimmy doesn't have any contact with the league or other teams or agents -- the stuff that's day to day. He leaves that to me. That's what I do" (L.A. TIMES, 3/13).
