When Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers, he knew the key to sustained success and championships in the NBA was to acquire superstars and treat them right so they don’t want to leave.
His daughter, Jeanie Buss, is currently running the Lakers in a similar fashion. She knows how important superstars are and recently traded for one of the best in the league in Luka Doncic.
With Doncic and LeBron James, there is a newfound hope in the Lakers organization that they can not only compete for a championship this season, but for years to come. And with that, Jeanie knows her dad would be proud of this trade even though it was difficult losing Anthony Davis and Max Christie, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“He’d be very proud,” she said. “When you get a player of that stature, you have to give up a lot. But it’s like, my dad was such a great poker player and he said that he always wanted me to remember that poker was a game of patience. That you had to wait for the right cards, but once you got the cards, you had to go from zero to 100 and play the cards and not be afraid to play them. So, it was difficult because we were not looking to trade Anthony Davis or Max Christie. But it was a deal that he would’ve made, and we had to go for it.”
In a stark contract, the Mavericks have done everything they can to trash Doncic on the way out the door. That’s also something the Buss family would never do as they understand that other stars are always watching.
The Lakers have built a reputation for treating stars right and because of that, they haven’t had an issue acquiring the next one whenever the time is right. Doncic didn’t choose to come to the Lakers, but if they treat him as they have their other franchise cornerstones, the way Dr. Buss wanted, they won’t have a problem keeping him long-term.
Jeanie Buss: Lakers embracing Luka Doncic
Jeanie Buss recently discussed her early conversations with Luka Doncic after the trade, and she talked about how the Lakers organization is embracing him and his family to make for a smooth transition.
“We’ve embraced his family, his management,” Buss said. “Everything we can do to make his transition smoother is what we’re doing. It takes time because he’s gotta decide, you know he doesn’t know L.A., he’s gotta figure out where he wants to live. There’s just a lot going on plus he’s gotta figure out how to fit in to this team. But JJ Redick played with him for, I think a month or so with the Mavericks, so they had a relationship. Dorian Finney-Smith, who had been his teammate with the Mavericks, we had just acquired a few weeks before. So we’re just trying to build that continuity, that community where he feels embraced and he can accomplish all the things that he wants to.
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