Jerry Buss and George Steinbrenner were winning owners -- and the similarity ended there


Here's what I used to love about covering an NBA Finals game at Jerry Buss' place.

Among the Los Angeles Lakers pre-game notes and cold, hard statistics would be a glittering list of the Hollywood types scheduled to be in attendance that night. A starting lineup of stardom. Jack Nicholson, et. al.

Showtime. Pat Riley directed it. Magic Johnson led it. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored for it. Oscar winners paid through their noses to watch it. But Buss owned it, lock, stock and limos parked outside.

That's Dr. Jerry Buss, and we can start right there with how unique this man was, because how many other team owners can you name with a doctorate in chemistry?

But there was more that set him apart. "The greatest owner in the world," Magic Johnson called him in 2010 after the Lakers finished off the Boston Celtics.

Greatest? That's a tricky one. How do you measure, by sheer trophy tonnage? In that case, it's a rout. His teams won 10 championships in three decades, and no need to look for anyone else in any sport who did as much during that time, because there isn't.

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Or by fame? Well, there was always George Steinbrenner to rival that on the other coast. Buss and the Boss. But Buss was Steinbrenner without the off-with-their-heads atmosphere or temperamental bluster. He won more titles, and had less need of an overcoat. Alike in hunger to win and a habit of doing it, they seemed as different in ambience as Laker Girls and pinstripes.

Let's just agree Buss was one of the greatest, without any burdensome argument. And more importantly, nobody was more right for the sensation he created, or traveled a more interesting road to get there.

He was a child of the Great Depression who ended up captivating the super-rich.

He was the risk taker who began with next to nothing, and wound up with nearly every dream.

He catered to the celebrities at courtside, and the blue collars in the cheap seats, and seemed to know how to appreciate both.

He charmed a city famous for its fashion obsession on the red carpet, and did it wearing blue jeans.

He was perfect for the Lakers, and they for him. He understood that sport is show business and show business is sport, and since you can make a lot of money from each, imagine what might happen if you put them together. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but do you mean the players or the customers?

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This was great chemistry from the old chemist. Out-win winners, and entertain entertainers. Build not just a dynasty but a glitzy, ritzy, must-see blockbuster.

Buss was good at what he did, and lucky.

He needed just the right charismatic floor general to woo the masses and lead the troops, and there was Johnson. Later, Kobe Bryant.

He needed a man savvy with the ways of winning and the ways of the world, and there was Riley to hire. Later, Phil Jackson.

He needed a basketball brain to do the true team building. Jerry West.

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Had he been blessed with less able help, had the Lakers failed, heaven knows where Buss might have landed. Maybe working somewhere along Hollywood's Walk of Fame, instead of having a star on it. But every epic needs a moment of truth, or several of them.

As an owner, he came – to borrow the cliché of his filmmakers/season ticket holders – from central casting. Bold, daring, dashing. Charming any time he could be, ruthless any time he had to be. Generally loved by the working hands. And in the end, a monumental winner. I don't know if he participated in all the Lakers victory celebrations, but if he did, he was in more parades than the Budweiser Clydesdales.

"I think we want it more,'' he said in 2010, upon the Lakers giving him his 10th NBA championship, and as it turned out, his last. He was an example of how you can get what you want if you know what you're after, and there is no house limit on success if you're visionary enough. In that regard, he was indeed the greatest owner out there.

Come to think of it, Magic Johnson might have been right.

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