A professional basketball team will not survive without a team owner. The team owner is the one responsible for the financial needs of the basketball team. He does not only provide financial support, he even gives his moral support during the team’s games.
He proviedes the team with what they need, for example, the team’s bus for transportation services, the team’s uniform for the games and for practice games, and the like. Most importantly, the team owner is the one that gives the players,and all the members of the team, their salary.
Who?
So, who is the Los Angeles Lakers owner? The Los Angeles Lakers owner is none other than Gerald Hatten “Jerry” Buss. Jerry Buss was born on the 27th day of January, 1934 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. In 1953, he studied for two and a half years in the University of Wyoming where he graduated with a Bachelor in Science degree. At the age of 24, he transffered to Los Angeles and studied at the University of Southern California where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Physical Chemistry.
When?
After graduating at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Lakers owner started teaching Chemistry at the said university. He also started to work in the aerospace industry. After a brief career in the aerospace industry, Jerry Buss along with another aerospace engineer, Frank Mariani, started their career in the real estate industry.
Their first investment was in a West Los Angeles apartment building, where they invested $1000. At that time, their main goal was just to have a source of income. They didn’t expect the Mariani-Buss Associates would expand so fast, which demanded them to concentrate on the real estate business and leave their teaching career.
By the year 1979, Jerry Buss became the Los Angeles Lakers Owner. He baught the Los Angeles Lakers along with the Los Angeles Kings,the Forum, and a 13,000-acre ranch all for $67.5 million, which was the largest transaction in sports history during that time. Eventually, the Los Angeles Lakers Owner sold the Los Angeles Kings in the year 1987.
The New Los Angeles Lakers
Before Jerry Buss baught the Los Angeles Lakers, the team had only won one championship for 25 years. When Jerry Buss came into the picture, the Los Angeles Lakers won nine championships. Some players who played for the Los Angeles Lakers are: Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“My dream really was to have the Lakers and Los Angeles identified as one and the same. When I was just a fan, I used to really object when I would go to see the Lakers playing New York and most of the crowd would be ex-New Yorkers cheering for the Knicks. Then the next time, it would be the same with some other team. When you think New York, you think Yankees.
I wanted that to be the case here as well. That when you think L.A., you think Lakers. I believe I’ve accomplished that.” –what Buss told to ESPNLosAngeles.com
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