Remembering Dr. Jerry Buss

Doctor Jerry Buss, who died yesterday at age 80, has a very positive association with “80” as in 1980 and did a truly kind deed two days after his Lakers won the NBA Title.

I was as intense a Lakers’ fan as there was dating back to the days of Wilt Chamberlain and even before then feeling their “pain” in so many Championship Round losses to great Boston Celtics’ teams.

In 1980, I paid my way from New York to Los Angeles feeling I had to be there for the remaining games of the NBA Finals which were tied two games apiece vs the Philadelphia 76ers. I went to Game 5 at the Los Angeles Forum, a close Lakers win, but in the game Kareem Abdul Jabbar got hurt.

Kareem did not even accompany the team to Philadelphia for game six but with Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Jamaal Wilkes leading the way the Lakers captured the title with a stunning (123-107) win. It was a great win for the team, fans like me, and a rookie owner named Dr. Jerry Buss.

I tried to get all I could from the victory and two days later stood in the parking lot of the Forum hoping to get into the “Victory Party.” I deserved to be there as I lived and agonized with the Lakers’ quest. In hindsight, I realize that not only did I talk with Buss’ sister but a young girl introduced as his daughter, who had to be Jeanie, later to win titles of her own as part of Lakers’ management. They loved my story of coming from New York and my loyalty to the team. However, they could not get me into the victory party.

I was walking in another direction when a limousine pulled up and out came Dr. Buss with a beautiful starlet on his arm. This man had money, power, a beautiful woman and most important to naive me, an NBA Title in his first season as owner.

I approached him and told him my story asking if I could go into the party. He said “Sure come on in” and it was one of the nicest things to ever happen to me. That fact is sad but what Buss did was a great kindness that meant so much to me. On that alone, and he did so much else, when Buss gets to the “pearly gates,” surely God will echo what Dr.Buss said to me on May 18, 1980, “sure come on in.”