Over the past few years, the one person in the Los Angeles Lakers organization that has had tremendous pressure to succeed taking over for longtime owner and father Jerry Buss has been Executive VP Jim Buss.
As if gradually taking over for his father wasn’t a daunting enough task, Buss been highly criticized for his decision making and stubbornness in terms of refusing to trade up-and-coming center Andrew Bynum.
Despite not exactly being a fan favorite in Los Angeles, Buss has made strides to win over Lakers fans with Bynum turning into one of the best centers in the NBA and his obvious dedication to winning that reminds us all of his father’s desire to bring multiple championships to Los Angeles.
It could be argued that the Lakers somewhat exceeded expectations in the first season without Phil Jackson on the sidelines, the Lakers Executive VP wasn’t satisfied with the end result and talked about his disappointment on the “Mason & Ireland Show” on ESPN Radio on Thursday via Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com:
“I’m very disappointed in the season. I thought we were a better team than this, but you can look at it as this was the first year these guys have played together with this coach.
“There’s a lot of things you can look at and build for the future and say they haven’t had the time to gel like other teams.”
This is a typical response from someone in the front office of an NBA team, but it does show that Buss will settle for nothing less than a championship on an annual basis. This may be a good sign moving forward for the Lakers with a passionate leader helping call the shots with GM Mitch Kupchak.
On the other hand, this response from Buss might put more pressure on the Lakers coach Mike Brown heading into next season. Brown’s job may be on the line next year if he can’t improve on the results of this past season and throughout the NBA playoffs.
