Lakers Exec VP/Player Personnel Jim Buss "remains optimistic" despite the club's worst record ever last season and "expects to deliver and rebuild one of the NBA's top franchises," according to Eric Pincus of the L.A. TIMES. Buss: "I'm very competitive, so it hurts. It hurts terribly. I try to look at the future while I'm watching the present, and that is to find core players. I think we've done a good job doing that." Buss in April '14 said that he "would step down from his basketball operations position 'if this doesn't work in three to four years, if we're not back on top,'" and his sister, Exec VP/Business Operations Jeanie Buss, has said that she "will hold her brother to that pledge." Jim Buss said, "I don't mind that I said that, and I live by it. If we're not back contending in two years from now, then really I haven't done a good job. To me, the barometer of success at the end of next year ... is if we have eight core players that are going to be Lakers for the next five years." Buss: "I'm the one who put it out there because that's the way I feel. I'm not a core player if I can't get this back to where we're supposed to be." Pincus notes that Buss has "received plenty of criticism for over-investing" in 37-year-old G Kobe Bryant. But Buss said, "The man has done so much for the Lakers and the fans of the Laker nation, he deserves the money. I don't understand anybody trying to break down what I did for him. Let's break down what he did for us, then say, what is he worth? To me, he's worth that" (L.A. TIMES, 8/28).
