If writer’s right, Phil has the Busses real scared
Lakers coach reportedly irate that Jim, not Jeanie, is running show in L.A.
 Jim Prisching / AP Phil Jackson has recently hinted that he might not be back with the Lakers next season. |
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If there weren't drama, it wouldn't be the Lakers. Pau Gasol re-upped, which is great and cool and everything. Kobe can in theory opt out and join the Class of 2010, but he won't. And yet Phil is still floating out there, sitting on a fence, wavering on whether or not this will be his last season.
What gives? So much more than you ever thought. For the low-down, which I really can't encapsulate in this humble post, you need to check out Ronald Lazenby's piece over at HoopsHype.
Tracing everything back to internal tensions at the heart of the Lakers organization, it all has to do with Jerry Buss's decision to turn the team over to dim-witted prodigal son Jim, as opposed to daughter Jeanie. Since Jeanie — who deserves to run the show, by the way — is the longtime romantic companion of Phil, Jackson is taking the opportunity to play hardball here.
Against that backdrop, we get the following money-passage:
Jeanie’s friends have been furious over the situation for some time now. They like to point out that Jim Buss didn’t even have an office in the team compound, that his big move has been to put his personal bartender on the team payroll.
As one Jeanie confidant explains, Jerry Buss is a misogynist who refuses to accept the idea that his daughter might ascend to run the franchise that he has owned for 30 years.
Jerry has made up his mind and, according to Jerry West, never changes it. And so, an epic struggle has been set into motion, one that for starters, has arguably the best coach in the game's history threatening to pack up and leave.
Lazenby says that Jackson has done this before, especially when he lost patience with Bulls GM Jerry Krause. He got Jerry West to leave the Lakers. Phil does not mess around, and as Lazenby puts it, "it looks like Phil’s about to unleash another storm on the basketball world. Jerry and Jim Buss don’t want that."
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