Jeanie Buss has witnessed the Los Angeles Lakers raise 11 banners since her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, bought the team in 1979. She understands the sky-high expectations of the rabid fanbase better than anybody — expectations that align with her own.
Despite a dismal 33-win 2020-21 season, Buss is confident the Lakers can find their way back into title contention. Jeanie loves to reiterate how the Lakers brand is synonymous with starpower and banners. Aptly, she believes the championship pedigree of LeBron James and Anthony Davis can deliver another ring.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Ot0D0tHM49p8zV7PPjmUp?si=99468dc03a5940af
Buss spoke with GQ to promote the Hulu series on her family's tenure running the Lakers. She touched on topics including her dad, Magic, Kobe, Phil, “Winning Time,” as well as the current iteration of the team — and the significance of awarding LeBron a two-year extension worth up to $111 million.
“With the Lakers comes the expectation of winning, and we obviously didn’t do that last season, so some changes have been made. Always, the Lakers want to contend for championships, which means you need a certain level of talent or resources for the coach to be able to put a team in a position to win. The expectation is for this team to win. But it’s hard to win a championship. You need a lot of things to go your way. But, if you’re not part of the conversation or you’re not a team that’s getting into the playoffs, well, you really can’t win a championship can you?
I look at my job as providing the resources needed to contend. And re-signing a player like LeBron James to an extension is giving us an opportunity to contend.”
Buss expressed optimism about Darvin Ham and the younger roster, yet knows their fortunes rely on the availability of the stars.
“We changed coaches, so that’s a new voice. And we are continuing to, hopefully, stay injury-free. We want to see Anthony Davis stay on the floor and be healthy the whole season. And when you have Anthony and LeBron, there’s a lot of great things that can happen. But you have to have a supporting cast of players that can fill roles and also stay injury free. We have Kendrick Nunn coming back after missing last season, and a lot of young players that…I can name names, but until we see how they play there really isn’t…we have to give Darvin Ham all of the time and resources he needs to put the team together to see how they move forward.”
Even with ideal health, the Lakers' path to another title this season is hard to envision. Of course, you wouldn't expect Jeanie Buss to say — or expect — anything else.
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