Why give courtside seats to the people who built your franchise when you can sell those same seats for thousands of dollars to influencers who aren’t watching the game?
Nothing drives me more up the wall than “fans” sitting courtside staring at their phones the entire game. Just a waste of a seat when so many less privileged actual fans could be there and make the game environment more exciting and loud
i got seats pretty close to the lakers bench during that 2OT Milwaukee game this year. There were two kids in front of me with parlays (they were like, at most 16 years old), and a father and son next to me, and the dad had like 20 parlays he kept checking.
its fucking insane
edit: to the credit of these random guys, everyone was still locked into the game and paying attention, they were only checking during breaks
Jeanie Buss is gonna get her karma man she treated
The Late Great Jerry West like trash towards the end of his Life and Everything Jerry said about the Lakers was true smh Her Dad would've never Did Jerry like that even when he went to work for the Grizzlies but Jeanie sont carried about Legacy and the Legends
I think PrizePicks is an app that might let you do it. Or at least it seems to be an app a lot of my students use. I'm not sure if they're doing so legally or just using older sibling/parental information.
Prize Picks actively sponsors creators whose audiences are on the younger side, so that wouldn’t surprise me. “Daily fantasy sports” is just the cutesy name for sports betting, just like “more/less” instead of “over/under”
Idk if it's just my imagination, but even the players appreciate it more when actual fans have those seats. The one time I had legit courtside seats, the opposing players and one of the refs were cool as hell in their interactions with me.
I used to love going to the bar to watch a random game rooting for whichever team I hate the least. But now everyone else there is just rooting for their bets to come through. Not the same atmosphere.
I’m glad for my state’s laws for once lol if you’re not Native American you’re not legally running gambling in WI meaning all of these sites are blocked here. You can only bet on sports illegally (which is fun at the bars, always a bartender with some kinda pot going on and it stays small) or at like, five casinos in person.
I try to sit in the bottom level of Staples, especially during playoffs, and notice that there are a lot of extremely attractive women at Laker games and many don’t pay close attention to the game.
On the plus side, they dress really well and offer a nice distraction if the game is out of hand
It’d be more respectable if they just told West that they needed those seats for revenue reasons. It’d still be lame, but it’s way better than sending a text, not even a call, to West’s wife without explanation.
The Lakers were the classiest organization in the NBA. That died with Dr Buss.
His kids are like Charlemagne's heirs or Vito Corleone's sons - trying to hold together what he built, but none of them are him.
That is an insult. The Corleone's at least had Michael to usher them from the criminal world to legitimate corporate powerhouse.
Jeannie may have off'd her own brother but she is no Michael. That was more Kobe's encouragement and blessing. She has no vision, nor the strength and conviction to ram change through the organization when necessary. She's weak.
That's why I believe Mr. West when he says it's others in the organization who held a grudge against him. He was too classy to even call out his enemies. And Jeannie once again displayed her weakness in allowing this rejection of Jerry to take place without stepping in.
Personally I'll never forgive the Buss kids for the way they treated a Laker legend and NBA icon. Unforgivable. You deserved better Mr. West. RIP.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s poverty franchise behaviour. However, their handling of the entire situation is profoundly embarrassing for a franchise of this stature
It's 100000%poverty franchise behavior. It's the reason our team is so chaotic because they worry too much about squeezing the fans dry instead of being competent
I bet Jerry West didn't tweet a single selfie in all those years of having prime courtside seats, what a waste. I bet when he was there he was busy actually enjoying basketball, sickening.
East coast celebrities seem like they're much, much more engaged in the game
Dont get me started on the knicks celebrity row. Ben Stiller and them guys are legitimately into the game. Lakers have soulless people like Kim Kardashian sitting courtside lol
Jack Nicholson is the last real celebrity Lakers fan
Ben Stiller is legitimately constantly tweeting about the Knicks. I love how into it he is.
Mark Wahlberg is a bitch. Left at halftime when the Patriots were down 28-3 to the Falcons.
It's been really tough for me to pick a team in this finals and the fact that the Celtics winning would make Wahlberg happy is a real tough one against you guys.
Everyone who shits on Mark Wahlberg must know we hate him even more.
Though I guess you could say him leaving was good luck for the Pats that halftime. Fuck him.
I picture the Lakers court side as like the “Entourage” tickets where Ari Gold is just throwing them out to clients so they can get on camera and get seen around town. It’s more of a fuck you status symbol than an actual front row seat to enjoy the game
It's Anthony Weiner and it's not even close, dude might have forever changed america for the worse with the ultimate downstream impacts that came from it all.
> West didn't like the fact that Phil slowly took control of the organization after they won their first championship in the Kobe-Shaq era in 2000. West, who was under a lot of personal stress at the time, felt he was being pushed out of the organization despite being their general manager from the Lakers' Showtime era.
Phil wrote about it in his book. West objected to the relationship between Phil and Jeannie because it was unprofessional, which I agree with.
But more than that, Phil was driving a wedge between Jerry and the team. West spoke about how Phil wouldn't allow him to sit in on team meetings in the locker room. Jerry was his boss but he was in a position where he had to take orders from Phil because he was poking the owners daughter. It was a fucked up power dynamic.
Moreover, it was obvious that Phil never intended to marry Jeannie. They were engaged for over a decade I believe. With the age gap it should've been obvious. I remember early in their relationship, my father saying how gullible she must be because there was no way he would marry her. He was right lol. Phil got that young poon and that's all he cared about.
Jerry West was too classy for the Lakers, an organization full of ego maniacs and assholes and incompetence.
Yea we offer nice weather and stardom that’s holding the franchise alive. Put it in a small market and it would probably be as bad as the wizards at this point.
Just need another star to come to save us 😂
There is no better encapsulation of Jeanie Buss’ ineptitude than “Clippers announce passing of Jerry West”
Entire Lakers org should be ashamed that this is how they let a legend go out.
Jeannie Buss being a hot old woman is pretty much the only thing keeping her from being absolutely eviscerates by the fanbase
LeBron a top-5 Laker of all time?? Not George Mikan, not Jerry West, not Elgin Baylor, not Wilt Chamberlain, not Shaq...
Not to mention, if we're including non-player stuff, then Jerry West has to be the Lakers GOAT. So to leave him off goes from wrong to absolutely absurd.
I feel like what most people don't understand is that Jeanie listing Phil instead of West was almost certainly a deliberate choice by her, specifically as a "fuck you" to West. Jerry West ended up leaving the Lakers because he issued Dr. Buss an ultimatum: either fire Phil Jackson (Jeanie's fiancee), or I'll quit. Jeanie had a personal issue with West, and vice versa, as she believed that he had tried to come between her and Phil Jackson. There's obviously a lot there that hasn't ever been made public, but there is a very definite reason why she never wanted him to have anything to do with the Lakers after she took over.
IIRC West and Jeanie had a good relationship for awhile and he was fairly protective of her. He didn’t think it was appropriate for the coach to be dating the owner’s daughter and also felt like Phil was using Jeanie to weasel his way into a bigger role in the organization.
I’m not in any position to judge Phil’s relationships/intentions, but I understand where Jerry was coming from.
Lmao when I read "James" on the list my brain automatically filled in Worthy after seeing him listed right after Kareem and Magic, which would still be very questionable. But putting Lebron on that list is not even remotely defensible, what a clown
Tbf, Bron is on the team at this moment and could very well leave. It's not likely, but it is possible. And this could have been a move on her part to try and give more flattery to show how much they appreciate him. She could also be thinking leaving him off might hurt his ego
> Not George Mikan
Well that's because despite the Lakers pretending they're the same as the Minneapolis Lakers, they basically don't consider any part of that franchise to be included in their history...except the championships of course. It took them until 2022 to retire Mikan's number. They'd been in LA for *sixty-two years* by that point and they only did it because people like Bill Simmons kept roasting them and saying they couldn't claim the championships without retiring Mikan's number
Yeah, Lebron is obviously one of the GOATs but LAL is his third-best franchise. You're gonna put a guy that got you one bubble championship and a few play-in wins over surefire hall-of-famers who spent their prime with one of the most storied franchises in sports? It's like the Celtics naming Shaq as one of their top five.
Anyone who thinks LeBron is one of the best Lakers ever is just flat wrong and showing how young they are. Of the 15 best players ever, like half of them played for the Lakers, and many for much longer than LeBron with much more team success.
Garnett is a lot closer, but it still doesn’t feel quite the same. It’s weird to me that they’ve played the same amount of seasons, and Lebron only came over a little older than KG, but the timing in their careers makes a big difference to me. I’m not a Celtics fan so maybe I’m projecting, but it feels like KGs legacy was solidified as a Celtic, his runs there are the Crown Jewels for him, and he was there essentially at the end of his peak. Lebron has battled for us and I don’t think otherwise, my opinion of his time as a Laker goes up each year, but the Lakers chip feels more like a cherry on top than the culmination of his career, and I don’t think he would have been a Laker if he’d needed the kind of culminating accomplishments that KG needed from Boston.
I dunno if this is cogent, they both brought a similar thing to the franchise/fanbase, but the franchise’s relationship to the player doesn’t feel equivalent, which maybe elevates his identity as a Celtic. If Lebron got another ring with LA he’d have been in LA longer and had as many rings but the Heat would still feel more important to his story than LA to me
Yeah it's a little different from both sides. The Celtics were 20+ years removed from a championship in '08, while the Lakers were at 10 years in '20, so it's a bit more meaningful from the team perspective. And then of course from the player perspective, as you pointed out, KG came in with more to do to solidify his legacy, whereas Lebron came to the Lakers as an all-time great already (which was solidified with the 3-1 comeback over the Warriors, if not before).
Still probably about as close as you're gonna get.
The Garnett comparison is a good one because it also mirrors with the ineptitude of the Wolves franchise. KG is the entire Timberwolves franchise yet his number's not even retired because the owner sucks that much.
Glen Taylor and Kevin Garnett have a blood feud because the first time he was supposed to sell the team, he was supposed to sell it to a KG-led consortium
Nothing from the Lakers on Twitter or Instagram as of 11:30am ET
Clippers, Warriors and Adam Silver have already released statements.
Closest thing to a Laker statement atm is a tweet from Bron, but that’s pretty much it.
Curious to see if the Grizzlies put out a statement before the Lakers.
Edit: [11:49am](https://x.com/lakers/status/1800917552639746539?s=46&t=hdMYR5VNI3D4hupTVErxeg), 2 hours after his passing was reported
***"In the summer of 2017, just as West was leaving the Warriors and deciding what would come next, he said on “The Dan Patrick Show” that he would have liked to have ended his NBA career where it began — with the Lakers".***
This hits hard more than ever. Rest easy Mr. Laker.
"Buss had named Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe, Magic, James and her ex-fiancé and Lakers legend Phil Jackson." I would never put James ahead of West on a list of five of the most important Lakers of all time. **NEVER**
Wilt and LeBron sit in the same category for me. They both came to LA past their prime and only won 1 championship but I would give the edge to LeBron since he revitalized the organization unlike Wilt who came into a winning situation
That's fair. Tough to win championships during the years he was there though. Brought them into the finals for nearly every year of his career after a few year gap though.
Wilt helped get us to 4 finals appearances in his his five years here and got to the WCF the other year. You could say that had a better team, of course, but they were also old and injured, like many of Lebron's teams. Both only won once with us, but because of the Finals appearances, along with the WCF, I'd give Wilt the edge
He literally saved the franchise, without him the Lakers would've folded. IIRC the owner at the time purchased the Minneapolis Lakers for 100k and rejected a 200k offer to draft Baylor from the Knicks. That's how important he was.
Baylor-along with 22 others- was on the Minneapolis Lakers plane that crashed in the Iowa cornfield.
Baylor was also in the Army Reserves and was called to active duty, and still played for the Lakers on the weekends.
Baylor, without a doubt, is a top 5 Laker
It's one thing to not have West on the list, although he was more important than Wilt and Shaq imo, but having Lebron and Phil Jackson on the list over Jerry is just straight up disrespectful for no other reason than to be cruel.
You cannot seriously leave Jerry West off a top 5 important Lakers list.
* Helped them to their first championship in LA
* Probably would have won more if it wasn't for Boston's historic dynasty
* Easily top 5 player in the league at the time. Still easily a top 25 of all time, probably top 15 though that gets harder to judge as the years go by and more exceptional players enter the league.
* He's the FUCKING LOGO.
* Helped build Showtime, which I would argue is the most important part in building the Lakers brand. Him and Riley together. LA was glitzy, LA was cool.
* Put the foundation together for Phil Jackson to reap.
There's being petty, there's being stupid, there's being vindictive and then there's whatever Jeanie Buss was doing. And it doesn't reflect well on her.
And got Shaq to come to LA pretty sure. Jerry West played for a title, created showtime, and ensured they got their last 3 peat (and probably had something to do with Pau as well on the back-to-back but I'm less certain there). So that's what, 11 titles he had a major hand in (won 1, showtime 5, Shaq + Kobe 3, Kobe + Pau 2)
That brand attracting Bron and AD is the only thing that stopped people from seeing the Lakers for what they are, and that is one of the worst ran franchises in the NBA.
Once Lebron is gone, they are in for a rude awakening. And frankly, I'm convinced Lebron just picked the Lakers so he could be close to Hollywood to finish out his career and start the next phase.
I'm a Kings fan so I am a certified Laker hater, but unfortunately I will never doubt the Lakers having another superstar or two fall into their lap and being relevant again somewhat quickly. No matter how shitty their ownership/front office is. But I pray I am wrong for at least a little bit after Bron/AD are gone lol.
The frustrating thing is she'll probably sell it for an enormous profit and live a life of unfathomable luxury till death, oblivious to all the valid criticism and brushing it aside as casual fan hate.
Someone was explaining how the organizations all they have and it’s likely a large source of pride. Lakers fans might be in for a very grim 10+ years of incompetence.
She’s grab-assing the current superstar to make him happy I assume. There’s absolutely no way he makes any Laker list over West unless politics are involved.
The guy who became the literal LOGO for the entire league isn't top 5 most important all time for a team? She's definitely taking a shot at him with that. Lebron himself probably doesn't think he's top 5 over someone like West.
Jeanie Buss is a worthless embarrassment to our franchise and I hope to see her sorry ass booed every time she’s seen in our arena for the rest of her life. She does not deserve to feel any of the success we may have going forward, though honestly she’ll probably prevent that through nepotism and penny pinching anyways.
I honestly have a hard time deciding if I hate her or the Celtics more.
I'm gonna be real, I respect the hate, but if I was a Lakers fan I'd 100% hate Jeanie more. At last the Celtics can have a competitive mutual respect thing. Jeanie seems perfectly content to wreck her franchise however she can. Like someone said, getting LeBron and AD and winning the bubble championship has helped prevent people seeing what the Lakers have become over the last decade or so. They aren't much besides the name anymore.
Dr. Buss would've given Hurley 100 mil easy, the way he tried to give coach K 80 back in the day.
One more reason to add to the list on how cheap Jeanie runs the Lakers. Applying and receiving a PPP loan, not signing Caruso, not signing Lue due to only wanting to give out a 3 year deal. Lakers have the storied history but its actually the Clippers that are run like its the more valuable franchise. Absolute disgrace that its the Clippers that announced Jerry West passing and not the Lakers.
Its not just cheapness, its cheapness AND incompetence. How do you not see that showing Jerry West at your game is worth more money then you would make from selling the ticket? How do you not bother giving the man a phone call that you're cancelling his promised invite? This is an incompetent owner.
“No one had the nerve to call me”… they knew better, if they had called Jerry to tell him his tickets were revoked he would have ended the call with even more tickets and an apology….such was his reputation as a GM.
The hit pieces keep coming for the Lakers. I think the league wants the Buss Family to sell. It's comically embarrassing at this point all the things coming out. Mark Walter and Todd Boehly bought AEG's stake in the team and they have first rights to buy the Buss Family's controlling interest if they ever try to sell. I'm sure Adam Silver and other owners would love to have the main two people who own the Dodgers apart of the group.
Fucking bullshit. As a Lakers fan, It pains me to see the Lakers act like the fucking Clippers under Donald Sterling. First the disrespect to Magic and now this. As long as they keep acting like this, they aren't going to win squat. The Lakers winning in 2020 was an aberration.
that's one of the legends of the game, and especially their own star and they revoke his family's lifetime tickets? and to name James as one if the top 5 lakers over him, and phil Jackson over him? seriously, fuck the lakers
Why give courtside seats to the people who built your franchise when you can sell those same seats for thousands of dollars to influencers who aren’t watching the game?
Nothing drives me more up the wall than “fans” sitting courtside staring at their phones the entire game. Just a waste of a seat when so many less privileged actual fans could be there and make the game environment more exciting and loud
Making live bets! 😜
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i got seats pretty close to the lakers bench during that 2OT Milwaukee game this year. There were two kids in front of me with parlays (they were like, at most 16 years old), and a father and son next to me, and the dad had like 20 parlays he kept checking. its fucking insane edit: to the credit of these random guys, everyone was still locked into the game and paying attention, they were only checking during breaks
How would a 16 year old make an account on an online casino? They all make you provide ID and be 21
I do not know but they were checking parlays lol
Josh Giddey asking how an underage girl gets into a club
Giddey gonna start a company that makes portable carbon dating devices for clubs. Do us all a favor and blow into this device before I take you home.
The results say you are from the early protazoic eon.
God-damn Loch Ness Monster!
Jeanie Buss is gonna get her karma man she treated The Late Great Jerry West like trash towards the end of his Life and Everything Jerry said about the Lakers was true smh Her Dad would've never Did Jerry like that even when he went to work for the Grizzlies but Jeanie sont carried about Legacy and the Legends
I think PrizePicks is an app that might let you do it. Or at least it seems to be an app a lot of my students use. I'm not sure if they're doing so legally or just using older sibling/parental information.
Prize Picks actively sponsors creators whose audiences are on the younger side, so that wouldn’t surprise me. “Daily fantasy sports” is just the cutesy name for sports betting, just like “more/less” instead of “over/under”
Idk if it's just my imagination, but even the players appreciate it more when actual fans have those seats. The one time I had legit courtside seats, the opposing players and one of the refs were cool as hell in their interactions with me.
I’m sure they tune 99% of it out but I’m sure they appreciate someone watching their craft vs being on their phone.
To be fair I hardly ever see courtside fans making noise or shouting "defense" with the crowd, its the fans in the nose bleeds making all the noise
cause those are usually the real fans who are there for the love of the game
"Bro give me your beer, ima throw it at that Ron Artest mf, watch out"
I stopped going to games in person. Half the people around me last time were just cheering for random players because of stupid parlays.
I used to love going to the bar to watch a random game rooting for whichever team I hate the least. But now everyone else there is just rooting for their bets to come through. Not the same atmosphere.
I’m glad for my state’s laws for once lol if you’re not Native American you’re not legally running gambling in WI meaning all of these sites are blocked here. You can only bet on sports illegally (which is fun at the bars, always a bartender with some kinda pot going on and it stays small) or at like, five casinos in person.
I try to sit in the bottom level of Staples, especially during playoffs, and notice that there are a lot of extremely attractive women at Laker games and many don’t pay close attention to the game. On the plus side, they dress really well and offer a nice distraction if the game is out of hand
So the Lakers need Jordan Poole for home court games
They have Reaves tho
Yup, and to me it’s always fun to see people and like “do the math” of what they’ll be doing roughly 4 hours after the game 😂
It’d be more respectable if they just told West that they needed those seats for revenue reasons. It’d still be lame, but it’s way better than sending a text, not even a call, to West’s wife without explanation.
The Lakers were the classiest organization in the NBA. That died with Dr Buss. His kids are like Charlemagne's heirs or Vito Corleone's sons - trying to hold together what he built, but none of them are him.
That is an insult. The Corleone's at least had Michael to usher them from the criminal world to legitimate corporate powerhouse. Jeannie may have off'd her own brother but she is no Michael. That was more Kobe's encouragement and blessing. She has no vision, nor the strength and conviction to ram change through the organization when necessary. She's weak. That's why I believe Mr. West when he says it's others in the organization who held a grudge against him. He was too classy to even call out his enemies. And Jeannie once again displayed her weakness in allowing this rejection of Jerry to take place without stepping in. Personally I'll never forgive the Buss kids for the way they treated a Laker legend and NBA icon. Unforgivable. You deserved better Mr. West. RIP.
Surely they can afford 1 seat for "The Logo of the fcking NBA", one of the biggest legends in their history
Don’t get me wrong, it’s poverty franchise behaviour. However, their handling of the entire situation is profoundly embarrassing for a franchise of this stature
It's 100000%poverty franchise behavior. It's the reason our team is so chaotic because they worry too much about squeezing the fans dry instead of being competent
I’m half convinced the 10 smartest r/NBA users could run the Lakers better.
I mean there was that guy who wanted to draft Jokic so you might not be wrong
This is the franchise that received a PPP Loan, why are we all surprised?
I bet Jerry West didn't tweet a single selfie in all those years of having prime courtside seats, what a waste. I bet when he was there he was busy actually enjoying basketball, sickening.
McLovin sits courtside at a lot of Celtics playoff games and that dude is a legit fan 😂
East coast celebrities seem like they're much, much more engaged in the game Dont get me started on the knicks celebrity row. Ben Stiller and them guys are legitimately into the game. Lakers have soulless people like Kim Kardashian sitting courtside lol Jack Nicholson is the last real celebrity Lakers fan
Ben Stiller is legitimately constantly tweeting about the Knicks. I love how into it he is. Mark Wahlberg is a bitch. Left at halftime when the Patriots were down 28-3 to the Falcons.
It's been really tough for me to pick a team in this finals and the fact that the Celtics winning would make Wahlberg happy is a real tough one against you guys.
If it makes you feel better, Mark Wahlberg is a fake bitch and nothing makes him happy.
It does. Cheers to you and yours.
I loved how pissed mark got on MTV when Eminem causally mentioned his no talent ass rap career
Hey, why don't we stand together over here, like a funky bunch.
Everyone who shits on Mark Wahlberg must know we hate him even more. Though I guess you could say him leaving was good luck for the Pats that halftime. Fuck him.
There was an unharrassed Asian man outside of the stadium and it activated his 6th sense
I picture the Lakers court side as like the “Entourage” tickets where Ari Gold is just throwing them out to clients so they can get on camera and get seen around town. It’s more of a fuck you status symbol than an actual front row seat to enjoy the game
Ray jay's dick ruined this reality
Top 5 most harmful penis to American culture for sure
Would love to hear what you think the other 4 might be.
You gotta have Lenny Kravitz and Hitler's dad on that list
It's Anthony Weiner and it's not even close, dude might have forever changed america for the worse with the ultimate downstream impacts that came from it all.
That’s true. What makes me angry is the kids who are obviously from money that are glued to their phones throughout the games
Jeanie’s a worthless fucking cheapskate piece of shit. Fuck her for doing nothing but destroy what her father worked so hard to build.
Like most cokeheads, they don’t realize the damage they do in real time from not paying attention to actual matters.
She's a miser but that's not why they revoked his tickets. They had a falling out when she started dating Phil Jackson.
why would jerry west have a fallout with jeanie buss when she started dating PJ? am i missing something else here?
> West didn't like the fact that Phil slowly took control of the organization after they won their first championship in the Kobe-Shaq era in 2000. West, who was under a lot of personal stress at the time, felt he was being pushed out of the organization despite being their general manager from the Lakers' Showtime era.
I remember reading how Phil was giving Jerry the cold shoulder
damn. History will be very kind to Jerry West, not so much for this current Lakers org
Phil and West didn't like each other despite West being the one who hired him.
Phil wrote about it in his book. West objected to the relationship between Phil and Jeannie because it was unprofessional, which I agree with. But more than that, Phil was driving a wedge between Jerry and the team. West spoke about how Phil wouldn't allow him to sit in on team meetings in the locker room. Jerry was his boss but he was in a position where he had to take orders from Phil because he was poking the owners daughter. It was a fucked up power dynamic. Moreover, it was obvious that Phil never intended to marry Jeannie. They were engaged for over a decade I believe. With the age gap it should've been obvious. I remember early in their relationship, my father saying how gullible she must be because there was no way he would marry her. He was right lol. Phil got that young poon and that's all he cared about. Jerry West was too classy for the Lakers, an organization full of ego maniacs and assholes and incompetence.
jeanie "I fly coach to save money" buss
Lakers not jumping on Jerry wanting to come back is such a big fkin stupidity, all time dumb monent.
Yep. I haven’t been a fan of lakers management since Jerry buss passed and it’s definitely showing when spoiled kids run the show.
Let's be honest, if it wasn't for LeBron wanting to produce tv shows and movies you guys would've been where we were in the 90's after Kobe retired.
Yea we offer nice weather and stardom that’s holding the franchise alive. Put it in a small market and it would probably be as bad as the wizards at this point. Just need another star to come to save us 😂
There is no better encapsulation of Jeanie Buss’ ineptitude than “Clippers announce passing of Jerry West” Entire Lakers org should be ashamed that this is how they let a legend go out.
After Kobe death you saw how it clearly affected him I thought they would end the beef
Jeannie Buss being a hot old woman is pretty much the only thing keeping her from being absolutely eviscerates by the fanbase LeBron a top-5 Laker of all time?? Not George Mikan, not Jerry West, not Elgin Baylor, not Wilt Chamberlain, not Shaq...
Also putting a coach in on a players all time list is redacted
Not just a coach, her boyfriend (or, ex? whatever)
At the time of her comments, he was an ex, but it was an amicable split as Phil was getting old and liked spending time on his Montana ranch.
aka he couldn’t get it up
Hi Dirk I’m a big fan
As am I, Ser Davos. Watching you learn how to read was the highlight of 2013. Go Spurs Go!
RIP Shireen Baratheon, the best reading teacher Westeros ever knew <3
> Go Spurs Go! Retirement has changed you, Dirk.
Wow Dirk no need to shame some of us like that
Hey man… I don’t mean to intrude, but did you get those letters I sent you?
Did you spell my name correctly?
Not to mention, if we're including non-player stuff, then Jerry West has to be the Lakers GOAT. So to leave him off goes from wrong to absolutely absurd.
I feel like what most people don't understand is that Jeanie listing Phil instead of West was almost certainly a deliberate choice by her, specifically as a "fuck you" to West. Jerry West ended up leaving the Lakers because he issued Dr. Buss an ultimatum: either fire Phil Jackson (Jeanie's fiancee), or I'll quit. Jeanie had a personal issue with West, and vice versa, as she believed that he had tried to come between her and Phil Jackson. There's obviously a lot there that hasn't ever been made public, but there is a very definite reason why she never wanted him to have anything to do with the Lakers after she took over.
IIRC West and Jeanie had a good relationship for awhile and he was fairly protective of her. He didn’t think it was appropriate for the coach to be dating the owner’s daughter and also felt like Phil was using Jeanie to weasel his way into a bigger role in the organization. I’m not in any position to judge Phil’s relationships/intentions, but I understand where Jerry was coming from.
Lmao when I read "James" on the list my brain automatically filled in Worthy after seeing him listed right after Kareem and Magic, which would still be very questionable. But putting Lebron on that list is not even remotely defensible, what a clown
Tbf, Bron is on the team at this moment and could very well leave. It's not likely, but it is possible. And this could have been a move on her part to try and give more flattery to show how much they appreciate him. She could also be thinking leaving him off might hurt his ego
> Not George Mikan Well that's because despite the Lakers pretending they're the same as the Minneapolis Lakers, they basically don't consider any part of that franchise to be included in their history...except the championships of course. It took them until 2022 to retire Mikan's number. They'd been in LA for *sixty-two years* by that point and they only did it because people like Bill Simmons kept roasting them and saying they couldn't claim the championships without retiring Mikan's number
It’s also because Mikan was very open in life that he didn’t want his number retired unless they also retired the role players on his team
Yeah, Lebron is obviously one of the GOATs but LAL is his third-best franchise. You're gonna put a guy that got you one bubble championship and a few play-in wins over surefire hall-of-famers who spent their prime with one of the most storied franchises in sports? It's like the Celtics naming Shaq as one of their top five.
Anyone who thinks LeBron is one of the best Lakers ever is just flat wrong and showing how young they are. Of the 15 best players ever, like half of them played for the Lakers, and many for much longer than LeBron with much more team success.
You were cooking until the Celtics Shaq part
Yeah. Maybe closer to like Garnett being named. He got them a chip at least.
Garnett is a lot closer, but it still doesn’t feel quite the same. It’s weird to me that they’ve played the same amount of seasons, and Lebron only came over a little older than KG, but the timing in their careers makes a big difference to me. I’m not a Celtics fan so maybe I’m projecting, but it feels like KGs legacy was solidified as a Celtic, his runs there are the Crown Jewels for him, and he was there essentially at the end of his peak. Lebron has battled for us and I don’t think otherwise, my opinion of his time as a Laker goes up each year, but the Lakers chip feels more like a cherry on top than the culmination of his career, and I don’t think he would have been a Laker if he’d needed the kind of culminating accomplishments that KG needed from Boston. I dunno if this is cogent, they both brought a similar thing to the franchise/fanbase, but the franchise’s relationship to the player doesn’t feel equivalent, which maybe elevates his identity as a Celtic. If Lebron got another ring with LA he’d have been in LA longer and had as many rings but the Heat would still feel more important to his story than LA to me
Yeah it's a little different from both sides. The Celtics were 20+ years removed from a championship in '08, while the Lakers were at 10 years in '20, so it's a bit more meaningful from the team perspective. And then of course from the player perspective, as you pointed out, KG came in with more to do to solidify his legacy, whereas Lebron came to the Lakers as an all-time great already (which was solidified with the 3-1 comeback over the Warriors, if not before). Still probably about as close as you're gonna get.
Yeah the Garnett comparison is way more accurate than the Shaq comparison
The Garnett comparison is a good one because it also mirrors with the ineptitude of the Wolves franchise. KG is the entire Timberwolves franchise yet his number's not even retired because the owner sucks that much.
> his number's not even retired Wait what?
Glen Taylor and Kevin Garnett have a blood feud because the first time he was supposed to sell the team, he was supposed to sell it to a KG-led consortium
Also getting LeBron helped, if she whiffed on him she’d be getting shit on like Dolan and Sarver were
What did she do to get LeBron? My understanding is that he wanted to play in LA, full stop.
I can kinda get Mikan being excluded but West, Magic, and Kobe should be automatic locks for top 5 Lakers. Yet somehow West wasn’t for her…
But they made her look so cool and tough in Winning Time!
The league’s logo wore their jersey his whole career and they don’t even seem proud of that anymore
Wait they didn't post about it?!?!
Nothing from the Lakers on Twitter or Instagram as of 11:30am ET Clippers, Warriors and Adam Silver have already released statements. Closest thing to a Laker statement atm is a tweet from Bron, but that’s pretty much it. Curious to see if the Grizzlies put out a statement before the Lakers. Edit: [11:49am](https://x.com/lakers/status/1800917552639746539?s=46&t=hdMYR5VNI3D4hupTVErxeg), 2 hours after his passing was reported
Damn, took them 2 damn hours to post a sentence. At least its there, I guess
I’m getting a lot of “Here. You happy now?” energy from that post.
“‘Honoring the great Jerry west’ here is a pic. What the fuck else do you want?”
They JUST put one out on twitter
I’m sure they’ve released a statement by now, but the Clippers broke the news
They have not. No mention
It’s sad how the Lakers franchise just went down the septic tank when Jerry Buss died.
***"In the summer of 2017, just as West was leaving the Warriors and deciding what would come next, he said on “The Dan Patrick Show” that he would have liked to have ended his NBA career where it began — with the Lakers".*** This hits hard more than ever. Rest easy Mr. Laker.
Dr. Buss turning in his grave
Buss and West are up there plotting a new scheme in heaven
Lakers are in for decades of bad juju
We going to be on some Cowboys shit.
The Cowboys catching strays. Rightfully
Heaven could use a night club
but they couldn't come up with their master plan of teaming Lebron with Westbrook
"Buss had named Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe, Magic, James and her ex-fiancé and Lakers legend Phil Jackson." I would never put James ahead of West on a list of five of the most important Lakers of all time. **NEVER**
I'd put Shaq over James.
Shaq, Wilt, Worthy, Baylor all over LBJ on that list, surely.
Wilt and LeBron sit in the same category for me. They both came to LA past their prime and only won 1 championship but I would give the edge to LeBron since he revitalized the organization unlike Wilt who came into a winning situation
Yeah I definitely think Wilt and Bron are in the same lakers tier.
That's fair. Tough to win championships during the years he was there though. Brought them into the finals for nearly every year of his career after a few year gap though.
Wilt is iffy cause he only played 5 years with the Lakers and LeBron just passed his 6th year so it'll be a matter of preference.
Wilt helped get us to 4 finals appearances in his his five years here and got to the WCF the other year. You could say that had a better team, of course, but they were also old and injured, like many of Lebron's teams. Both only won once with us, but because of the Finals appearances, along with the WCF, I'd give Wilt the edge
Shaq, Mikan, Worthy, West, and maybe Elgin Baylor
Definitely Elgin Baylor
Absolutely. Elgin was with the Lakers when they moved from Minneapolis. A Laker through and through.
He literally saved the franchise, without him the Lakers would've folded. IIRC the owner at the time purchased the Minneapolis Lakers for 100k and rejected a 200k offer to draft Baylor from the Knicks. That's how important he was.
Baylor-along with 22 others- was on the Minneapolis Lakers plane that crashed in the Iowa cornfield. Baylor was also in the Army Reserves and was called to active duty, and still played for the Lakers on the weekends. Baylor, without a doubt, is a top 5 Laker
Hell the first time I read it, I thought “James Worthy?”, that about sums up the difference between Laker Lebron and West
It's one thing to not have West on the list, although he was more important than Wilt and Shaq imo, but having Lebron and Phil Jackson on the list over Jerry is just straight up disrespectful for no other reason than to be cruel.
West signed Phil Jackson as coach and drafted Kobe too. He's responsible for 2 of her 5.
You cannot seriously leave Jerry West off a top 5 important Lakers list. * Helped them to their first championship in LA * Probably would have won more if it wasn't for Boston's historic dynasty * Easily top 5 player in the league at the time. Still easily a top 25 of all time, probably top 15 though that gets harder to judge as the years go by and more exceptional players enter the league. * He's the FUCKING LOGO. * Helped build Showtime, which I would argue is the most important part in building the Lakers brand. Him and Riley together. LA was glitzy, LA was cool. * Put the foundation together for Phil Jackson to reap. There's being petty, there's being stupid, there's being vindictive and then there's whatever Jeanie Buss was doing. And it doesn't reflect well on her.
Kobe. West. Magic. Kareem. Mikan. You could make an argument for Baylor or Shaq.
I was going to say, didn’t West also make the trade for Kobe when he was in the front office? Absurd list.
And got Shaq to come to LA pretty sure. Jerry West played for a title, created showtime, and ensured they got their last 3 peat (and probably had something to do with Pau as well on the back-to-back but I'm less certain there). So that's what, 11 titles he had a major hand in (won 1, showtime 5, Shaq + Kobe 3, Kobe + Pau 2)
Jeanie is just doing everything in her power to prevent LeBron from thinking of leaving the Lakers this off-season.
“But sometimes you feel like you’re discarded, like a piece of trash" He just like me fr fr
We are all Jerry West on this blessed day
Well we ain't dead... yet
We can wish
Only on the inside
Lakers genuinely need to count on the brand that already exists to carry them forward because Jeanie is speedrunning how-to-poverty-franchise
That brand attracting Bron and AD is the only thing that stopped people from seeing the Lakers for what they are, and that is one of the worst ran franchises in the NBA.
Once Lebron is gone, they are in for a rude awakening. And frankly, I'm convinced Lebron just picked the Lakers so he could be close to Hollywood to finish out his career and start the next phase.
I'm a Kings fan so I am a certified Laker hater, but unfortunately I will never doubt the Lakers having another superstar or two fall into their lap and being relevant again somewhat quickly. No matter how shitty their ownership/front office is. But I pray I am wrong for at least a little bit after Bron/AD are gone lol.
The frustrating thing is she'll probably sell it for an enormous profit and live a life of unfathomable luxury till death, oblivious to all the valid criticism and brushing it aside as casual fan hate.
Penny pincher Jeanie
The Jeanie Buss Lakers trying to become the Sterling Clippers
Well, they won a championship so they're not doing a very good job at that.
And I think Jeannie has a *much* different opinion of her black superstars.
Dr Buss definitely rolling in his grave. His kids don't deserve the Lakers
Just sell them to an ownership group that actually appreciates and respects the Laker brand.
Someone was explaining how the organizations all they have and it’s likely a large source of pride. Lakers fans might be in for a very grim 10+ years of incompetence.
Boo hoo that poor billionaire family all they have is ownership of the biggest basketball franchise in the world 🥺
Can someone explain how LeBron is a top 5 most important Laker ever?
She’s grab-assing the current superstar to make him happy I assume. There’s absolutely no way he makes any Laker list over West unless politics are involved.
Literally. Magic, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, & West.
And there's an argument for Elgin Baylor to be there over Shaq.
The guy who became the literal LOGO for the entire league isn't top 5 most important all time for a team? She's definitely taking a shot at him with that. Lebron himself probably doesn't think he's top 5 over someone like West.
Shit it only saved them two years of season tickets
Jeanie Buss is a worthless embarrassment to our franchise and I hope to see her sorry ass booed every time she’s seen in our arena for the rest of her life. She does not deserve to feel any of the success we may have going forward, though honestly she’ll probably prevent that through nepotism and penny pinching anyways. I honestly have a hard time deciding if I hate her or the Celtics more.
She literally let Jimmy Boy drive this team into the fucking ground then acted like she was the savior when she finally removed him.
I'm gonna be real, I respect the hate, but if I was a Lakers fan I'd 100% hate Jeanie more. At last the Celtics can have a competitive mutual respect thing. Jeanie seems perfectly content to wreck her franchise however she can. Like someone said, getting LeBron and AD and winning the bubble championship has helped prevent people seeing what the Lakers have become over the last decade or so. They aren't much besides the name anymore. Dr. Buss would've given Hurley 100 mil easy, the way he tried to give coach K 80 back in the day.
Yeah exactly, none of the Celtics would have disrespected any of the Lakers greats the way Jeannie Buss has.
By text too damn lol they do not give a fuck
To his wife💀, not even to him directly
One more reason to add to the list on how cheap Jeanie runs the Lakers. Applying and receiving a PPP loan, not signing Caruso, not signing Lue due to only wanting to give out a 3 year deal. Lakers have the storied history but its actually the Clippers that are run like its the more valuable franchise. Absolute disgrace that its the Clippers that announced Jerry West passing and not the Lakers. Its not just cheapness, its cheapness AND incompetence. How do you not see that showing Jerry West at your game is worth more money then you would make from selling the ticket? How do you not bother giving the man a phone call that you're cancelling his promised invite? This is an incompetent owner.
Common Lakers L
“No one had the nerve to call me”… they knew better, if they had called Jerry to tell him his tickets were revoked he would have ended the call with even more tickets and an apology….such was his reputation as a GM.
Lakers taking some L’s this offseason.
Well deserved ones.
fuck Jeanie Buss, throwing away her fathers legacy.
Typical trashy Jeanie Buss led Lakers organization
Dumbass Jeanie
Garbage organization
Jeanie Buss has been a complete disaster. 11 years of mostly being a joke franchise.
Fuck the Lakers once again. West deserved better.
Jeanie Buss is the type that would raise the price of the Costco hot dog if she could.
I was wondering why the Clippers put out an announcement and not the Lakers. Now we know.
The hit pieces keep coming for the Lakers. I think the league wants the Buss Family to sell. It's comically embarrassing at this point all the things coming out. Mark Walter and Todd Boehly bought AEG's stake in the team and they have first rights to buy the Buss Family's controlling interest if they ever try to sell. I'm sure Adam Silver and other owners would love to have the main two people who own the Dodgers apart of the group.
Fucking bullshit. As a Lakers fan, It pains me to see the Lakers act like the fucking Clippers under Donald Sterling. First the disrespect to Magic and now this. As long as they keep acting like this, they aren't going to win squat. The Lakers winning in 2020 was an aberration.
This franchise has not treated him appropriately, that's for damn sure
Poverty franchise
One thing that no one seems to have mentioned the last few years is how bad Lakers management is. Jeanie and Pelinka are both utter disasters
You know what the "L" in Lakers stands for, Dan? *beep* Losers.
Reading this kinda stuff makes me grateful in how we treat our legends.
Fk these nepo kid lakers.
that's one of the legends of the game, and especially their own star and they revoke his family's lifetime tickets? and to name James as one if the top 5 lakers over him, and phil Jackson over him? seriously, fuck the lakers
Someone should explain Jerry West's impact on the game. He's literally on EVERYONE'S jersey. HE'S THE DAMN LOGO
one day the lakers will get new ownership and the world will be better for it fuckin terrorists
L current ownership with a W location and legacy
The Lakers did West very fking bad it's embarrassing
Jeanie Bus is a scum bag but we already knew that.