Buss, Jerry (Gerald Hatten Buss),
1933–2013, American businessman and basketball executive, b. Salt
Lake City. He worked in the aerospace industry until the late 1950s, when he
struck it rich in the booming Los Angeles real estate market. He purchased
the Los Angeles Strings of World Team Tennis in 1974 and Los Angeles Lakers
of the National Baskeball Association (NBA) and other sports holdings in
1979. Buss built the Lakers into the NBA's most successful and glamorous
team, hiring superb coaches, e.g., Jerry West, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, and great players, e.g., Magic
Johnson, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar,
Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe
Bryant. He also
added glitz and pizzazz to the sport, including half-time entertainments,
making pro basketball one of the most watched sporting events. In 1985 he
cofounded a regional cable sports network. Buss's Lakers were in the NBA
finals 16 times, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. He was inducted
into the Baskeball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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