CBS Sports’ Ken Berger really went in on Jim Buss and the current Lakers Management situation.
So here it is: The Lakers’ front office is an uncommunicative, rudderless fiasco, and the unrest and paranoia that have been festering for years threaten to derail the team’s plans to ride Bryant to his sixth NBA title while they still can. And much of it can be traced to the growing influence of executive vice president Jim Buss, the owner’s bon vivant son, who has helped transform a great franchise into a steaming pool of nepotism and nincompoops.
Berger goes in greater depth, explaining that management has seemingly removed any one connected with Phil Jackson or replaced long term scouts and assistants with Lakers majority owner Jerry Buss’ other sons Jessie and Joey or Jim’s friends. According to Berger, the Lakers front office has more or less become a weird inbred child with a large collective of yes men.
If the problem with the Lakers’ management continues to move in the direction that Berger believes they’re moving in, the Buss family could become the Al Davis of the NBA. A once great franchise seemingly out of touch with the rest of the sports world unwilling to adapt to the changes around them.
In the grand schemes of Southern Californian Sports, it feels like sports fans are trading in one villain for another. Embattled Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is finally selling the team, but now, Jim Buss and his rail bird buddies could drive the purple & gold into the ground. That’s what makes the rise of the Clippers this season even more interesting. Does the oblivious Clippers owner Donald Sterling sense a a change, or if you will, “Winter is Coming” for the Lakers and now is the time to capitalize?
