Jeanie Buss Quotes
President of the Los Angeles Lakers
It's nice to be able to go back and reflect and see how much my dad meant to people.
The team will always be bigger than any one owner, or any one player, or one coach. The team is always first.
Even before my dad passed away, people tried to buy the Lakers. Sony tried in the 1980s. People have always wanted to buy the Lakers. They're not for sale.
I can't tell you how many letters I get from grandmothers who say, 'It's the only thing I can talk to my 15-year-old grandson about.' The Lakers are more than just a basketball team to this city. They're part of this community.
The way my dad set things up was for me to oversee the business side and for my brother to oversee the basketball side. I know my dad felt that was a good system, and that's the system we're trying to make work.
Any free agent that would be afraid to play with Kobe Bryant is probably a loser, and I'm glad they wouldn't come to the team.
That's what people don't understand, that in the NBA these are the best 450 players in the world, in the game of basketball, are in the NBA.
I'm a 55-year-old woman; I'm not, like, one of the Kardashians. I'm not that interesting.
The NBA requires that one person is the acting owner, the one person they can get on the phone and is accountable for anything that happens. That's why my dad started taking me to NBA board of governors meetings in 1995; you have to be approved as the owner.
Being able to make people laugh is a powerful tool.
I think the Lakers are a legacy franchise. Players know when they come here, this is the ultimate platform.
But I don't look forward to the day that Kobe Bryant's not in purple and gold.
Dr. Buss set the bar high for the Lakers.
The teams that use tanking as a strategy are doing damage. If you're in tanking mode, that means you've got young players who you're teaching bad habits to. I think that's unforgivable.
When it comes to major decisions in any area of the organization, I like to get the blessings of the shareholders - of which my siblings are the majority - and build a consensus even if it isn't something that all of them agree on.
I'm at the top of the food chain.
I don't want to see Kobe Bryant ever leave. If he was 100 years old and still playing, I'd be happy.
The Lakers have been part of the process of revitalizing downtown L.A. That's what my dad's passion was. He loved to win, but he loved this city. He wanted this city to be proud of its team.
In my position, I can make changes. I can make changes across the entire organization. If John Ireland doesn't do his job, in his radio broadcast play-by-play, then we would make that change. If the Laker Girls drop down in caliber and couldn't do a dance number, then we'd make changes there.
We understand the realities of the sports world. Take Shaq for example, he was traded from here and went on to several other teams after that. But once he was retired, he asked us to retire his jersey. He wanted to be remembered as a Laker.
I have a great relationship with all my brothers. I've got three other ones. There's four boys and two girls. It's a family business.
There's no crying in basketball!
I think you can tell by the people who surround me the type of person that I am, and the people I rely on in my close circle are trusted, respected, experienced.
For me, the burning desire has always been about building what my family had.
We could not be more proud to have LeBron James as part of our Lakers family. He is an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent leader and clearly appreciates the power sports has to unite communities and inspire the world to be a better place.
Who wouldn't want to own the Lakers?
Did you know I once tweeted at Red Bull, 'Would you ever consider making a sugar-free, caffeine-free Red Bull?'
People didn't even know where the Lakers' training center was, because we didn't have a flagpole to say, 'This is our home.' We were kind of hidden in the back of the L.A. Kings' practice facility.
The Lakers have figured out how to win in every era.
I think it's impossible to tell your coach and tell your players, 'Try not to win.' That goes against everything an organization is about.
I wanted to get married. That's who I am.
I had a tough year, losing my dad. And I really needed to have some quiet time, and not be engaged the way I normally would be with the Lakers.
A relationship isn't just about space; it's about emotion and heart and all those good things.
Phil is of a generation that probably would have been happier never getting married. He just doesn't want to get married again; it's not that he doesn't want to marry me. It took me a while to understand that, and I'm fine with it now. We've been together for over 10 years. This relationship has been my longest and most successful.
I really wasn't expecting to fall so hard for Phil. As a matter of fact, when my dad said he was talking to Phil Jackson about him coming to L.A. to coach the Lakers, I tried to argue against it.
I have a lot of role models.
I took a stand-up comedy class because I'd always wanted to.
I just like working with my family; I like building something together.
From the time I was in elementary school, I wanted to work in the family business.
I can't say that I grew up saying, 'Someday I want to be vice president of the Lakers,' because that's not how it happened. I work for our family business, and that happens to be the Lakers.
I am here to say that there is no drawback to being a woman in business. But if you think it's a drawback, then it probably does work against you. It's like playing poker. People will look for your weak spot, and your weak spot is only what you allow it to be.
I always tell Phil we're like the party poopers. If we ever get invited to a player party, between the two of us, we're like the downers. Like, 'Put down that beer!' Or, 'Should you really be eating those nachos?'
Yes, I was given a privileged position at a young age. But if I had not been willing to work hard and prepare myself for all the challenges I would face, I would not have held on to my position all these years, regardless of my family ties.
I think that when Magic decided that he didn't want to be with the organization any longer in an official capacity that took me off guard.
Kobe is worth every penny, and I'd never had any doubt that he'd contribute to this team.
I can't compare myself to Phil Jackson in any way, shape or form. His view on the world and his intellectual approach, I don't have that in common with him.
I get a lot of letters from people saying, 'I want to follow in your footsteps,' and I don't know how to tell people how to follow in my footsteps, because I can't give them the opportunities that I had.
I want people to know that I don't take for granted what's been given to me.
What I love about our league is that players have an opportunity in their career to be a free agent and decide where they want to invest their time and their talent, in whatever team and whatever system. They deserve that right. They've earned that right.
There's the gold standard, and then there's the purple-and-gold standard.
One thing Dr. Buss asked me to do was to make sure the team continues to evolve and to put a new light on the team, and we've certainly tried to embrace that vision of his, evolving the brand while paying tribute to the past. That's what Laker fans expect and what we try to deliver.
I've always said that our fans are our most important asset.
My dad empowered me and made me believe I could accomplish whatever I set my mind to.
There's a whole other chapter of my life where I was, for 15 years, the significant other of coach Phil Jackson.
I think people have to realize that - and basketball fans do, Lakers fans do - that we have to operate under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, which means you can't just go and grab every player that you want.
To have Kobe retire as a Laker, that to me is really important.
You can't just live in the past, peddling the '80s Showtime Lakers, and expect everyone to know what that is. We have many fans who weren't even alive in the '80s.
In terms of basketball decisions, I will always defer to Magic. He's brought a vision of the kind of team we're going to build and a vision of what Lakers basketball is going to be.
Everybody will give you a certain amount of respect just because you're the boss' daughter. But if you don't follow through, you lose that pretty quick.
There certainly was a time when I started when people looked at me as the secretary to Dr. Buss. Being the boss' daughter amongst your peers, you gotta show up every day.
The Lakers are my life.
Phil is always a quotable guy. He keeps everyone entertained.
I can't tell you the difference between the triangle offense and the Princeton offense.
Any time you have a change of leadership in an organization, everything kind of shifts.
I think as long as you have Kobe Bryant on your team, anything can happen in the playoffs.
What I made clear to our front office is we're going to be judged by wins and losses. It isn't about having a marquee star player and coming in last place. That's not what Lakers basketball is. Lakers basketball is winning basketball.
I have 100% confidence in Rob Pelinka running our basketball operations. I've always had confidence in Rob. Whatever the speculation is out there, we don't need the outside media to validate what we do.
Every fan wants to win every year, that's how my dad was. It would be nice to be able to do that every year, but I think Lakers fans know, as long as they see progress, and steps going in the right direction, they'll be patient.
Kobe is part of the Laker family and he always will be. There's not many players who play 18-19 years with the same franchise, and it's important to us that he has a chance to play his entire career with the Lakers.