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Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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When my dad bought the team I was 17 years old, so I was just a fan. That was 1979. And that year, when he bought the team, they had the
No. 1 pick.
He bought the team in May. In June, he drafted Magic Johnson, who was 19 years old. He’s only two years older than me. So, to me, Magic is like a brother. He is like part of the family. And whenever Magic was hurt … there was one year that he hurt his finger and my dad called me and said, “I am bringing Magic home. You gotta cheer him up. He’s hurt.”
The toughest day in my life was the day [in 1991] that we found out Magic was going to retire from the NBA because of HIV.
After that happened with Magic, I promised myself if there was ever another Laker that great I would not miss the opportunity to celebrate him, and that player was Kobe Bryant.
I think when you look at the celebration we had of Kobe this year, a lot of that was because of what happened with Magic. We never had that final tour. We never got to say goodbye.
Last year, we went into the season knowing we were going to celebrate Kobe’s 20th year, but we didn’t know it would be his last year and that is why when he announced it a month into the season, we had a lot of things already prepared.
I had always said, “Only Kobe knows when he is ready to retire,” and I felt when he told me, he had really found peace and could visualize what his future was, what he was going to do.
In 1996, we got Shaq and we got Kobe Bryant in that same year. And Kobe was only 17 and people were excited about it but people didn’t know what it would mean. But getting Shaq was monumental. To my dad, this is what Laker basketball is meant to be: having the most dominant player decide to come to your team.
So they come in ’96 and we didn’t accomplish what my dad set out to do, which was win a championship. And that is when he decided to get Phil Jackson.
When my dad first met with Phil and signed him to a five-year deal, my dad said, “My goal is to win a championship.” And Phil said, “My goal is to win five.”
I was totally against it [hiring Jackson] because I thought it would upset the balance of the team.
I didn’t meet Phil until the NBA had league meetings in Vancouver that year. And so we sent our contingent out and that’s when I met Phil. And, as soon as I met him, I was like “Whoa.”
I don’t know, there was something about him. I didn’t know if he was married or available or whatever, but he kind of surprised me.
People think that Phil is going to come back here to L.A. and it’s not true. He’s signed a five-year agreement. He is happy where he is.
What I am getting from people in New York is that he’s just doing it for the money. Phil doesn’t do anything for the money. He’s completely devoted to this job.
For him it really satisfies the full circle of his basketball career — starting as a Knicks player and now going back to New York.
The NBA requires there to be one decision-maker. Every team has to have one designated governor who is held accountable for all decisions that are made on behalf of the organization. I am that person. I am held accountable also by our shareholders, the majority of whom are the Buss family, but we have other shareholders who own stock in the Lakers.
Lakers basketball isn’t about any one style or any one system. Lakers basketball is about winning.
All the years that my dad owned the team, we never missed out on the playoffs more than one year. And we are now at three years in a row.
I want [brother Jim Buss, Lakers executive vice president of basketball operations and part-owner] to be successful. I want him to make the decisions that he is confident in making and putting the basketball team together the way he sees fit. You know, we have to give him that opportunity.
I think we are going to see now his vision of what he sees the NBA to be. Now they have the cap space they want and the draft picks and they can pursue the free agents that they want.
It’s easy to be in charge because it’s about all of us together.
Yes, I have [fired people]. I hate it. I don’t like firing people. But it’s easy if it’s what’s best for the team. Does that make sense? It’s not about a personal feeling that I have. It’s about making sure the team thrives.
I don’t think [firing people is] the hardest thing. The hardest thing is losing. And if you lose knowing you had everything you needed to win and it was either about commitment or something you didn’t follow though on — that’s the stuff that haunts you. And so … I don’t want to be in that area of regret that you didn’t do everything you could to make your team win.
