Lakers president Jeanie Buss remains worried that Los Angeles’ most successful sports franchise seems far removed from when she can add another NBA championship trophy on her office shelf.
The reasons go beyond any debilitating loss. Or when fans vent their frustrations to her as she watches from her front-row seat at Staples Center.
• L.A. Sports Top 50: Introduction
Buss also feels the pressure from up above. She has sensed her father, the late Lakers owner Jerry Buss, would “feel really down ” over the team’s 21-61 mark in the 2014-15 season, its worst record in the franchise’s 67-year-old history. That starkly contrasted from when he oversaw the Lakers morphing into a global brand as they won 10 of their 16 NBA titles.
“My dad did not tolerate losing very well,” Jeanie Buss recalled in an interview with Los Angeles News Group. “He would be anxious to make moves to get us back into contention.”
After purchasing the Lakers, the Forum, the NHL’s Kings and real estate for a combined $69.5 million in 1979, Jerry Buss made plenty of moves that brightened the purple and gold glitter. But with Jerry Buss’ passing in February 2013, the Lakers no longer can lean on his comforting presence.
But as one of the Los Angeles News Group’s 50 Most Powerful in L.A. sports, Jeanie Buss stressed she will maintain her father’s legacy.
• Photos: See full list of the Top 50 Most Powerful in L.A. Sports
Before his passing, Jerry Buss left his six children, including Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse, in charge of a family trust that holds a 66 percent ownership stake of the Lakers. Jeanie Buss reiterated no scenarios exist that would prompt the family to sell the franchise, which Forbes recently valued at $2.6 billion.
“He worked very hard in a position so that our family could keep this team forever,” Jeanie Buss said of her father. “We’re committed to doing that.”
Since her father’s passing, Jeanie Buss has overseen the Lakers as both the team’s president and governor during NBA Board of Governor meetings. Upon Jim Buss reportedly telling Jeanie he would step down if the Lakers do not reach the Western Conference Finals within three years, Jeanie Buss said she will make changes if the Lakers do not achieve that goal. Yet, Jeanie Buss also said she has tried to emulate Jerry Buss’ style, which entailed giving the team’s basketball operations monetary support without micromanaging.
“My responsibility here is to give all the tools to our basketball front office that they need to accomplish the job,” Jeanie Buss said. “That is to build us a winning team. Whatever they need, all they have to do is ask me.”
All of which Jeanie Buss believes she can fulfill after working for the NBA’s most accomplished owner.
“My dad wouldn’t have put me in a position where I couldn’t succeed,” Jeanie Buss said. “But I had to prove myself. That made me tougher.”
L.A. Sports Top 50: Dramatic change in Los Angeles sports power structure
That all started when Jeanie Buss was 19 years old and her father asked her to become the general manager of the World Team Tennis’ Los Angeles Strings. Jeanie Buss initially thought that meant she could drop out of USC, but her father said her hiring hinged on staying in school. In 1993, she then parlayed that gig into becoming the owner of the L.A. Blades roller hockey team. Prior to her father’s passing, Jeanie Buss spent 14 seasons as the Lakers’ executive vice president of business operations.
Along the way, Jeanie Buss learned valuable lessons that included event planning, finding new revenue streams and thriving in a male-dominated industry. She took notes from her dad, who was the architect of the Showtime Lakers. He built that team with star power, and added the Laker Girls, live music and soon celebrities were sitting courtside. In 1985, Jerry Buss also launched Prime Ticket, a regional sports network available on basic cable that carried all of the Lakers’ home games.
Jeanie Buss played a key role three years ago in the Lakers launching Time Warner Cable SportsNet, which carries both games and around-the-clock programming.
As the Lakers work to restore the franchise to where it once was, Jeanie Buss has a long to-do list. In the upcoming season, the Lakers will host training camp in Hawaii for the first time since 2007, an idea Jerry Buss started in 1988. Jeanie Buss also plans to hold tributes for Kobe Bryant at home games next season in honor of his 20th year.
“My dad was one of a kind and a visionary,” Jeanie Buss said. “I want to make sure I continue to protect that legacy and move in a direction that would be what he would want.”
