Is Jim the Wrong Buss for the Job?

With the NBA lockout preventing basketball fans from enjoying the sport they love it is easy to forget some of the issues that were relevant prior to padlocks being placed on NBA arenas. One of those topics revolved around Jim Buss and his desire to run the Lake Show his way.

Since the retirement of Phil Jackson there has been no shortage of speculation that Jim Buss is making more enemies than friends around Lakerland these days. From his dismissal of long-time staffers like Ronnie Lester to the unceremonious good-bye give to Brian Shaw, there is no doubt that Jim has ruffled a few feathers.

While many Laker faithful are crying for Jerry to step in and reign in Jim, there is another faction out there that is angling for another Buss altogether. Roland Lazenby over at HoopsHype.com has been hot on the Jim Buss trail for years now and he’s offering a different view on which Buss should be at the wheel. Lazenby states that Jeanie should be the head Buss in charge.

Citing some of Jim Buss’ early failures (Rudy Tomjanovich anyone?) and the fact that he “doesn’t even have an office” helps Lazenby make the case for Jeanie who has always been knee deep in all things Laker.

It stands to reason that making a case for Jeanie over Jim is a smart move. It also stands to reason that making a case for Elgin Baylor over Jim Buss would make more sense. But let’s not start getting all suicidal in this discussion.

Thus far Jim Buss has managed to alienate some of the pillars of the Lakers franchise. He chose not even toss Kobe Bryant a courtesy call before announcing Mike Brown as the new head coach. That irked Kobe enough that he took his sweet time to even acknowledge Brown. Safe to say Jim has much to learn.

Unfortunately the Lakers aren’t in a position to allow a trust fund baby to slowly get his training wheels removed. This team’s window win is closing by the day, doubly so when you factor in how much damage this lockout could do.

This will be a topic we’ll all be talking about in the near future. Once we get hoops back I have no doubt you’ll see numerous accounts of Jim Buss’ misgivings come to the light.