Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss has been with the franchise essentially her whole life with her father, the late great Jerry Buss, purchasing the team in 1979. Jeanie has seen various iterations of the team from the Showtime era, to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, to Bryant and Pau Gasol and now to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Lakers have been a franchise known for having stars and winning championships, something that the Buss family is familiar with. They have made it a standard since inheriting the team when Jerry bought it, although one of the most influential players that crossed paths with the organization was Bryant in 1996.
He was able to win five championships for the organization, three with O’Neal early in his career and then two with Gasol later on. Bryant was someone who could score at will and the way his ‘Mamba Mentality’ is idolized, there are so many moments and stories that he has left Lakers fans.
Jeanie was asked about her favorite Bryant moments and while it is hard to pick a few, she has two that are prominent, via Big Baby Jonathan:
“There are so many great memories. I guess I would, you know think to the 81 point game and I’ve had to explain many times to people that it wasn’t Kobe just playing in garbage time and you know taking advantage of a team that was under manned. We were behind at halftime and Kobe did what Kobe had to do to make sure we won that game. So, he scored 81 points to make sure that the Lakers would walk away with that victory. A few weeks before that, he had gone for 60 or 61 points against the Dallas Mavericks and that was by just the third quarter. Phil [Jackson] took him out in the fourth quarter and I’ll never forget our drive home, I got in an argument with Phil and I said, ‘why didn’t you just leave Kobe in? You know he was scoring at will.’ He said ‘Jeanie we were gonna win the game, what was the point? You don’t do that, that’s not what you do.’ Then for him to you know a few weeks later, score 81 points because that’s what he had to do. You know that the willpower of Kobe was so strong and could never be underestimated.
Bryant has been the closest to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point record with that 81-point game, something that many people view as the league’s best scoring performance. His power to score at will was something to behold and Jeanie recognized that.
While Bryant’s passing was way too soon, it is always fun to go and watch some of many great scoring performances the Mamba has given the Lakers organization to appreciate the kind of player he was.
Derek Fisher named head coach at Crespi High School in Encino
A former championship teammate of Bryant, Derek Fisher, has landed another head coaching gig. Fisher will now be the head coach at Crespi High School in Encino. After coaching in the NBA and WNBA, Fisher will now experiment at the high school level.
More must-reads: