Lakers owner Jeanie Buss on the trade for Luka Doncic: ‘We had to go for it’
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With three of the Lakers’ championship trophies sitting on a table behind her, Jeanie Buss sat on a prop desk and joked about a very real thing that had just happened in her life.
“Everyone thinks, ‘Was this trade done to promote the show?’” Buss said before Thursday’s game. “I don’t think so.”
The show, “Running Point” on Netflix, is a new sitcom headed by actress Mindy Kaling and inspired by Buss’ life running the Lakers. It’s fictional.
The trade, the Lakers dealing for Luka Doncic, is very real and a move that will shape her organization’s future — and it’s the kind she thinks her father would’ve made.
LeBron James finished with 33 points and 17 rebounds as the Lakers overcame a fourth-quarter surge by the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 111-102 victory.
“He’d be very proud. It’s like, when you get a player of that stature, you have to give up a lot. But it’s like, my dad was such a great poker player and he said that he always wanted me to remember that poker was a game of patience,” she said. “That you had to wait for the right cards, but once you got the cards, you had to go from zero to 100 and play the cards and not be afraid to play them. So, it was difficult because we were not looking to trade Anthony Davis or Max Christie. But it was a deal that he would’ve made, and we had to go for it.”
Buss applauded the discretion by general manager Rob Pelinka and his Dallas counterpart Nico Harrison, which made the trade one of the most shocking in recent NBA history, if not the most.
“Because these things fall apart all the time, it was really important to me that we didn’t blow up the team. If it had leaked out and the trade hadn’t happened, that would be really unfair to the progress that the coaching staff had made with the team,” she said. “Because it’s a huge distraction. And the trade deadline is part of the business. It increases the level of stress for everybody. And I’m really proud that it didn’t leak out and that we were able to execute the trade in a way that still was surprising to all the parties involved. But that goes with this business.”
Buss said she’s been pleased with the partnership between her front office and new coach JJ Redick.
Luka Doncic and LeBron James are playing inspired basketball, setting up the Lakers for success and paving the way for a championship run.
“I really wanted Rob to have a relationship with the coach where they had the same vision for the team. I think that JJ and Rob really share a vision for what this team can be. And that it’s proven,” she said. “The formula is being proven in real time, as we’ve seen what JJ’s been able to accomplish. Because I was worried about hiring a rookie coach. This team is so important to this community and to bring in a rookie coach that had no experience before, that was a big leap.
“But I knew that they would work well together, and I love watching the progress that they’re making.”
That progress included Pelinka pulling off a monster trade amid uncertainty about whether the Lakers could make a significant move at the deadline.
“He knows how to walk a deal through step by step to make sure that everything is complete and buttoned up,” Buss said, “and that’s exactly what happened.”
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