Jerry Buss

Phil Jackson won five championships and advanced to two other NBA Finals while coaching the Lakers for owner Jerry Buss. His words were as anticipated as anybody's Thursday at Buss' memorial service at Nokia Theatre. Jackson said he first remembered meeting Buss in 1999 after being hired to coach the Lakers. Buss was wearing his standard attire, Jackson remembered -- jeans, running shoes and an open-neck shirt. “He told me how much fun he'd had in the '80s, winning five championships.

In the summer of 2004, Laker owner Jerry Buss was faced with an extremely hard decision: Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal. The two superstars were feuding and Buss had to choose one Hall of Famer over another. Buss chose Bryant, a decision that Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke acknowledges that he didn't support at first, calling it a "Shaqtacular mistake. " But in a Friday column , Plaschke argued that Buss actually made the right call.  As Plaschke wrote. " Less than a month after Buss' death, his memory is most alive every night through a scarred veteran whose 17th season might be his most impactful yet. "Buss picked Bryant as if he knew that not only would he win two more championships with some of his best teams, but that he would shoulder the Lakers' most disappointing team with dignity and strength through a season of uncertainty and loss.

Without a doubt, life is smiling at Jerry Buss these days. "Like all gamblers, we feel like we're on a run," the Lakers owner said while reclining in a black leather chair near his luxury suite Sunday at Staples Center. The Lakers are five months removed from an NBA championship and favored to win another, leaving Buss in an upbeat mood as one day turns to another. In a wide-ranging 30-minute interview, Buss revealed why he was willing to spend a league-high $112.7 million to satisfy the Lakers' soaring player payroll demands.

He was speaking only for his weary and rumpled self, speaking in the singular, sorrowful tones of someone who just lost a boss and friend of more than three decades. But, in one poignant moment while publicly mourning the death of Lakers owner Jerry Buss on Tuesday, Mitch Kupchak could have been speaking for every Lakers fan. "Just knowing that he was there was a good feeling to me," said Kupchak, the Lakers general manager. "And he's gone now. " Just knowing Buss was there was a good feeling for everyone, and the fact that he's gone now has instantly become the most frightening development of the modern Lakers era. Buss was the Lakers' voice.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss was arrested early Tuesday morning in Carlsbad on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and faces two misdemeanor charges, according to a police report. Buss, 74, failed a sobriety test after being pulled over at 12:50 a.m. near downtown Carlsbad. Police said his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit of 0.08%, although the final results were not released.

The first sign this wasn't an ordinary day was the presence of the Rolls-Royce in the players' parking lot. It stuck out among all the other luxury cars because of its owner. Jerry Buss was at the Lakers' training facility Tuesday primarily to see his daughter, team executive Jeanie Buss , though the players interpreted it as a symbolic appearance 12 hours after they foundered in another playoff series opener. The Lakers' owner made a brief but grand appearance during practice, walking down a long stairwell that starts near the office of General Manager Mitch Kupchak and ends near the basketball court.

Jerry Buss did not enroll as a USC graduate student with aspirations of becoming one of the most successful owners in professional sports history. As a youngster, he thought he might be a photographer. But in high school, he shifted his focus to becoming a chemist. "I wanted to go on and teach school in a big university, preferably one with a really good football team," he once said in a television interview, "and that's why I went to USC. " The University of Wyoming graduate earned a master's degree and then a PhD in physical chemistry from USC in 1957, becoming the Dr. Jerry Buss who made a fortune in real estate and purchased the Lakers a little more than two decades later.

Jerry Buss navigated his way through life and business much as Magic Johnson navigated through a tight NBA defense. He had moves, a quick learning curve and a confidence. In the wake of Buss' death Monday, all sides of him will be in play in the news and tributes. There will be mentions of his gambling habits. He never met a poker table he didn't like. Also mentions of his fascination with younger women. He never met an attractive 22-year-old he didn't like. He was a major player in a big and complicated business world.

What had been softly whispered for months, almost as if saying it aloud might make a terrible thing come true, became sad and public knowledge Thursday. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, not seen this season around his beloved team and for nearly a year removed from the limelight, was reported to be in the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment of an undisclosed form of cancer. The news, which broke hours before the Lakers' 125-101 loss to the Clippers at Staples Center, wasn't a shock, but it was a reminder of the power of one man to transform a sports franchise and bring a unique and genuine sparkle to a city awash in contrived glamour.

The beloved mentor and his favorite student spent their final hours together holding hands on a hospital bed. Jerry Buss was entering the final stage of his life after a long battle with cancer, and he wanted to spend some of it with Magic Johnson. Buss summoned Johnson to his room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last fall and, together, for five hours, they clutched each other and told stories and cried. At one point, Buss summoned two nurses to the room. Johnson was worried something was wrong until Buss ordered the three to pose for a picture.