"That's true," Jackson said. "I would always say 'the Buss family' because I don't want to put it out there. But that's right." Wait. So, if Phil wasn't in love with Jeanie Buss, the daughter of owner Jerry Buss, a Lakers executive and one half of America's most powerful sporting couple, there is no Siddhartha presence in the locker room? No closing in on a 10th NBA coaching title -- one more than Auerbach's nine with the Boston Celtics? Remember "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh," the cornball 1979 sports movie with Julius Erving, about an astrologer named Mona Mondieu who becomes the architect of an outhouse-to-penthouse team?"Without that relationship, he's not the coach today," Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said a few days before the team was on the cusp of its 15th NBA title and fourth of this decade. "If that's not in place, he's not here." He didn't return for Red Auerbach's record. Or Kobe Bryant's legacy. Or money. Now that Phil Jackson is one win from coaching immortality, the story can be told:“I think Kobe very definitely understands how hard I made the effort to get sufficient talent to win,” Buss said. “I was talking to him on the phone right as the Pau Gasol [trade] came through, and he said, ‘Wow, I can go win with this now.’ I think Kobe and I get along pretty well.”
The team is winning with machine-like efficiency, there are no injuries to worry about, guys are accepting roles, and everyone’s getting along swimmingly. Just what in the hell is going on here? I have no idea, but team owner Jerry Buss seems content with things, and is ready to open up his wallet to keep the good times rolling. Well, sort of. Well enough to open the vault again if Bryant leaves $47.8 million on the table and rips up his contract after this season? “We really don’t address those issues until they come up because we don’t know what the environment is, but we can’t afford to lose Kobe,” Buss said.
