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Byron Scott on Lakers sale: 'We topped the Celtics! We beat them by $3.9 billion!'
The Lakers' rivalry with the Celtics apparently extends way further than the hardwood -- as Byron Scott was all smiles on Thursday realizing the sale of L.A.'s NBA franchise this week topped Boston's by nearly $4 billion!!! The former Lakers player and head coach was thrilled to see Jeanie Buss get $10 billion for her beloved team on Wednesday ... happily gloating that it bested Boston's $6.1 billion sale in March. "That's all that matters," Scott said of the price difference with a big grin. "We topped them. We topped them! We beat them by $3.9 billion!"
All jokes aside, Scott did say he was "extremely happy" for the Buss family, whom he's known for decades. He did admit, though, Jeanie's decision to sell did surprise him a little. "We all know at the end of the day it is a business," he said. "And business is always in business to try to make money. But I think the Buss family has done it right for so many years, led by Dr. Jerry Buss, who, in my mind, is still to this day the best owner I've ever seen in professional sports."
In 2005, The Times’ Hall of Fame basketball writer, Mark Heisler, wrote about Buss’ succession plan coming into focus. “Jerry Buss wanted a crowd-pleasing basketball team the movie stars could relate to but might have gone too far,” Heisler wrote. “He wound up with the greatest floating soap opera in sports, and basketball was almost beside the point.” Still, it was Buss’ legacy. “I just can’t visualize myself walking away, relinquishing control,” Buss said in a 2002 story in The Times. “My relationship with this team is a lifelong marriage.”
The Lakers still operated a profitable business in recent years as the salary cap grew exponentially, sources said. Since Jeanie Buss became governor in 2013, the Lakers have spent more than $1.5 billion in salaries and tax, eighth in the league in that span according to ESPN NBA front office insider Bobby Marks, and won their 17th title in 2020. The only team with more championships since Jerry Buss left the franchise to his children is the Golden State Warriors and their dynastic run of four. But in the NBA, teams endlessly scheme to discover every little advantage they can, and the relatively cash-poor Lakers struggled to keep up with the arms race.
Ramona Shelburne: Dr Jerry Buss structured the trust that owns the Lakers so that only his six children could decide on a sale. And it had to be a majority vote to sell. In 2017 the older brothers tried to force Jeanie Buss out as chairman of the board but lost that vote. Wednesday a majority of the six Buss siblings voted to sell to Mark Walter for $10 billion. Jeanie Buss was one of them.
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Mark Walter’s pending $10B purchase of the Lakers was an offer that controlling owner Jeanie Buss could not refuse at a time the Buss family had prioritized estate planning and had begun to contemplate a sale, sources said Wednesday. “I believe it’s a good day for the family, and [Dr. Jerry Buss] is smiling down from heaven,” said a source close to the franchise, confirming that the Buss family will retain roughly 15% of the team.
Magic Johnson: I know that my sister Jeanie would have only considered selling the Lakers organization to someone she knows and trusts would carry on the Buss legacy, started by her father Dr. Buss. Now she can comfortably pass the baton to Mark Walter, with whom she has a real friendship and can trust. She’s witnessed him build a winning team with the Dodgers and knows that Mark will do right by the Lakers team, organization, and fans! Both are extremely intelligent, visionaries, great leaders, and have positively impacted the greater Los Angeles community! I love both my sister @JeanieBuss and my business partner Mark Walter.
How special was it for you to have your No. 21 jersey retired by the Lakers? What did that moment mean to you? Michael Cooper: That’s the one that brought me to tears. Hall of Fame I cried a little bit because I was a little emotional because you’re thinking about all the people that helped you out along that path. But the criteria for getting your jersey number retired I was told by the late great Jerry West was a little different and you had to be an All-Star; you had to have certain criterias — you had to average 15 or something points, but with Jeanie Buss taking the lead of her dad Dr. [Jerry] Buss, who’s always been an innovator and creator and just doing different things out of the norm; when they came and told me that they were going to honor me, and I think a little bit of that had to do with me being in the Hall of Fame, I never ever could see my jersey being hung up in the rafters for however long basketball to be played wherever it is that the Lakers play is the ultimate honor and I’ve always played this game for the love of the game and once I got the love in me, I’ve always played for championships and I’ve always wanted to be part of something special; and the Lakers is like family. That’s the only organization that I’ve ever known. I’ve never played for another owner — I’ve played for different coaches, but Pat Riley was THE COACH for me.
Jeanie Buss: What was happening with my brother and the general manager was that they had made the decision that — once Kobe [Bryant] was retired — they were going to let the team fall all the way down to the bottom and collect draft picks. Well, [our father] never ran the team that way. He didn't want to do a rebuild. What I saw was our fan base beginning to erode, losing faith. My brother and I were butting heads on that. I kept saying, 'I can't raise ticket prices if we're not winning.' And we just went season after season after season. And I'm like, I've lost patience with this. I had to make the very tough decision to let my brother go.
Michael Cooper: "You know what? The Forum Club was a different place. It was almost like Studio 54 in New York at the time, and Dr. Buss wanted that. He paraded women that came to the game around, and then he’d take his entourage and go sit up by the flag. That was part of LA." "The only ones that really partook in that a lot—well, I was married. Byron Scott was married. Norm Nixon and Magic Johnson were the only single guys, so we kind of lived vicariously through them. They were at the Playboy Mansion or wherever they were at, and then they’d come back. We’d all be sitting on the bus the next day like, ‘Yo, what happened? What happened?’ So we were hearing all the stories."
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It has been over a decade since Jeanie Buss took controlling governorship of the Los Angeles Lakers after the death of her father, the legendary Jerry Buss. In that time, Jeanie has seen the Lakers through tumultuous seasons, a full-scale rebuild, the signing of one of the greatest players in basketball history in LeBron James and a championship. In the meantime, Buss has also been in the Los Angeles limelight. She has never shied away from attaching her name to documentaries about the Lakers and speaking publicly about her thoughts and plans for the franchise. And her lates media venture, a Netflix workplace comedy based on her assuming power with the Lakers, is set to premier on Feb. 27. Kate Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, a woman entrusted with one of sport’s premier franchises despite competition from siblings and a negative public perception in a male-dominated sports world. Jeanie, an executive producer, publicly commented on it after the release of the Mindy Kaling production was announced:
Netflix: The ball’s in her court now. Kate Hudson stars in Running Point, a brand new comedy from executive producer Mindy Kaling. Premieres February 27. Jeanie Buss: This looks a little familiar 🤔 @mindykaling and Kate Hudson on @netflix - sounds like a winner 🏆
Michael Cooper: "The biggest win was in 1980 because we were just playing basketball. We were playing the Philadelphia 76ers, and that team... Jerry Buss had bought the Lakers, and he wanted us to entertain the entertainers. And so what it was, was all about Showtime. So when we were playing Showtime, not once did we talk about winning a championship through that season. The fifth game of that championship season against the Sixers, Kareem twisted his ankle. We’re going to Philadelphia to play without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and that was the first time that I really realized what basketball meant because we were all scared. And all of a sudden, Magic gets on the plane and he goes, 'You know what? What are y’all sad about? Have no fear, Magic Johnson’s here.' And we went to Philly, and we won. And that was the biggest win because that set off a chain, or that taste, of what championship basketball was about."
Mark Cuban says he almost acquired Kobe Bryant in 2007 for Jason Terry, Josh Howard and picks
Mark Cuban: "You know how close we were to trading for Kobe in 2007. Oh my God, it was like literally this close. I talked to Jerry Buss and worked something out. Kobe wanted to leave. Jerry said, 'if you want to leave, we'll take care of it.' We were going to trade Josh Howard, Jason Terry, and picks, but no Dirk. I said, ‘Anyone but Dirk.’ Kobe wanted it, and Jerry was willing to do it, but Mitch Kupchak talked Jerry out of it. It was going to happen. I remember telling this dude,’ I’m like, ‘Kobe’s going to be a Mav,’ and I thought it was done. But Mitch Kupchack stepped in, and that’s how it fell apart. The rest is history."
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