Lakers Owner

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.

The Lakers and Clippers could have company in the fight for fans if the Sacramento Kings become the third NBA team in Southern California. The Kings, unable to get a new area deal in Sacramento, are looking into relocating to Anaheim to play at the Honda Center next season, multiple reports have stated. They have a March 1 deadline to apply to the league for the move. How this affects the Lakers and Clippers is not quite known, but neither team is overly excited about the possibility of the Kings playing about 30 miles from Staples Center.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss didn't want to predict the future for the NBA regarding its labor issues, but he knows the summer of 2011 has the potential for problems. NBA owners can opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement that summer and bring the players back to the bargaining table. The talk has been that the owners want "give-backs" from the players. When the owners locked the players out during the 1998-99 season, the schedule didn't start until February and included just 50 games.

As the black curtain fell and the purple and gold streamers floated through the air, Jerry West stared through teary eyes at the new statue erected in his likeness. Magic Johnson said one should have been there long before Thursday, when the 14-foot, nearly 1,500-pound bronze bust of West as a young Lakers guard, pushing the ball up the court, was unveiled at the Star Plaza at Staples Center. "Here's a man whose statue should've been out here even before mine," said Johnson, the Lakers great whose statue sits 10 yards away.

He has presided over the Lakers since 1979, turning the franchise into one of the most successful in sports. And for that, for all he has done to uplift the NBA, the Lakers and the game of basketball, Lakers owner Jerry Buss will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday in Springfield, Mass. He will be joined in the class of 2010 by Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Cynthia Cooper and high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. The 1992 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team known as the "Dream Team," which included Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and the 1960 team that included another Lakers Hall of Famer, Jerry West, also will be inducted.

As the responsibilities get handed down from Lakers owner Jerry Buss to his son and daughter, more and more will be asked and demanded of Jim Buss . Jeanie Buss has already been given the business side of the Lakers by her father, but Jim is now entrusted with about 90% of his father's decision-making processes on the basketball personnel side, according to Jerry Buss. It's a sensible time for the shift, seeing as how the Lakers won the championship in June and are favored to win another one this season.

Mike Bresnahan covers the Lakers for the Times. Readers' questions about the Lakers will be answered every week. Question: While approaching the restroom during halftime of a recent USC game, I noticed Jerry Buss standing ahead of me decked out in Trojan gear. The guy in front of me congratulated him on winning the championship. As I walked by I just pointed at him, smiled and said, "You should have never let Pau play in the European championships," to which he replied, "You know, I think you're right."

HONOLULU -- Jerry Buss looked relaxed in a seashell-print shirt and khaki shorts as he sat down near lush hotel grounds of botanical gardens and koi ponds, a paradoxical setting for his frank discussion of the very real possibility that his star player might not be on the team in two years, if not sooner.

Never, Memphis center Marc Gasol maintained, has he thought he could have been on the Lakers' championship team. Gasol said the trade that sent him along with three other Lakers and two first-round draft picks to Memphis for his brother Pau was the driving force behind the Lakers' winning the title. "They probably wouldn't have won a championship without Pau," Marc said. "So the trade had to happen. The Lakers gave me a chance to play. I didn't know if I wanted to come to the NBA or not. It took me a year to decide that, and I ended up here in Memphis, a city that I love."

The Lakers aren't planning on offering Jordan Farmar a contract extension this season, which in many ways leaves his future uncertain. Farmar, in his fourth season, in which he'll earn $1.947 million, saw the team pick up the options for his third and fourth seasons. But he's aware that if the Lakers don't offer him a deal by the deadline of Oct. 31, he'll become a restricted free agent next summer and the Lakers can match any offer Farmar receives from another team. Farmar said after practice Saturday he's not feeling increased pressure because this is a contract year.

Jerry Buss looked relaxed, maybe even amused, as he showed off his new Hall of Fame ring and then stared down the latest threat to the Lakers. "Suddenly, there's this juggernaut out there that we have a chance to play against and that excites me," Buss said of the Miami Heat, who signed free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade. "Quite honestly, I think we can beat them and I'm looking forward to playing them. " Buss, 77, was in good spirits a few days after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was lively in his assessment of the Lakers and their possible playoff opponents, not to mention his ever-growing player payroll and the fact that Shaquille O'Neal has a new team, the Boston Celtics.

He has presided over the Lakers since 1979, turning the franchise into one of the most successful in sports. And for that, for all he has done to uplift the NBA, the Lakers and the game of basketball, Lakers owner Jerry Buss will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday in Springfield, Mass. He will be joined in the class of 2010 by Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Cynthia Cooper and high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. The 1992 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team known as the "Dream Team," which included Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and the 1960 team that included another Lakers Hall of Famer, Jerry West, also will be inducted.

From Tempe, Ariz. I'm used to people running away, not returning phone calls or, like Manny Ramirez , vowing to never speak again. But when I ask team officials if I might see Arizona part-time resident and Angels owner Arte Moreno , he gets into his car and drives across town in rush hour to come to my hotel. I'm thinking he misunderstood, gets a message someone wants to buy Angels tickets, and by now everyone knows this guy will do almost anything to take care of a customer.

The Lakers' size and experience, plus the return of Andrew Bynum , should carry Kobe Bryant & Co. past the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA's youngest playoff team. … After that, it's anybody's guess. … Speaking of Bryant, his 81-point game was only the 10th-greatest moment in Staples Center history? … Kevin Durant and the Thunder already have exceeded expectations just by reaching the playoffs. … The Lakers have not. … Before Durant, the youngest scoring champion in NBA history was Max Zaslofsky of the 1947-48 Chicago Stags, also known as one of the few Jewish stars in NBA history.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss on Monday was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the role he has played in helping to shape today's NBA. He will be inducted with the Class of 2010 on Aug. 13 in Springfield, Mass. Buss bought the Lakers in 1979 and has presided over nine NBA championships, including last season. The Lakers have been to 15 NBA Finals during his ownership. Entering this season, the Lakers had the NBA's highest overall regular-season winning percentage (66%)

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson delivered an ominous message about his future with the team after L.A. was blown out by the Thunder, 91-75, on Friday night. Jackson sat in his office after a game in which the Lakers trailed by as much as 33 points, his legs crossed. Before the game, Jackson said he made "no decision" on whether he would coach the Lakers next season. After the game, Jackson seemed to be pushed in a direction by his team's horrible play. "After tonight, asking me that question when the team doesn't respond to your coaching, you're setting yourself up for a hypothetical like, ‘If they're not going to respond to your coaching, why do you want to come back and coach them?

Peter Sarkisyan is a fan of the Lakers and World Wrestling Entertainment, so when the 23-year-old Northridge resident found out WWE stars were unexpectedly coming to Staples Center on Monday because of a scheduling conflict with the Denver Nuggets, his two favorites suddenly merged. He wanted to watch the Lakers play Game 4 at the Pepsi Center in Colorado, but he also was skeptical that the outcome of the game was as scripted as the WWE action he watches.

So where will the Lakers turn to now that they have pulled the deals they offered to Lamar Odom off the table? The pickings left on the free-agent heap are slim, and were made even more difficult for the Lakers because they have exhausted their best spending tools. They used the mid-level exception of $5.8 million on Ron Artest and the "bi-annual exception" of $1.99 million on Shannon Brown.