The poker and sports worlds lost a friend Monday as Los Angeles Lakers’ owner Dr. Jerry Buss passed away at the age of 80. The end came after an extended battle with cancer, resulting in Buss spending much of the past year and a half in the hospital.
Buss was a self-made man, he grew up in poverty in Wyoming, doing whatever odd-jobs he could find as a child to make a few cents. He eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, from which he graduated in 1953 after just two and a half years. He then trekked south and earned a Masters and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California at the tender age of 24.
After working at the Bureau of Mines, at Douglas Aircraft, and at USC as a chemistry professor, he met Frank Mariani, with whom he partnered in a real estate venture. They both saved a little money each month with the goal of accumulating $1,000 each to start their business. In 1959, they joined up with two other investors to put $4,000 down on a $105,000 apartment building in Los Angeles. Buss and Mariani kept up the building themselves. The real estate market exploded in the 1970’s, making Buss a wealthy man and allowing him to grow his business interests.
Buss’s first foray into sports was not with the Lakers, but rather with an investment in the Los Angeles Strings of the World Team Tennis league. He lost a hefty chunk of change on the Strings, but it was a price he was willing to pay to learn about the sports business.
It was in 1979 that he purchased the Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke, part of a then-sports record $67.5 million deal. The Lakers cost Buss $16 million, but Buss also purchased the NHL’s L.A. Kings for $8 million, both teams’ home, the Inglewood Forum, for $33 million, and a ranch. Buss also gave Cooke some properties in the deal, including New York’s Chrysler Building.
Buss transformed the Lakers into the marquee name in the NBA, ushering in the “Showtime” era of Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and others. The team won five World Championships in the 1980’s (and five more since 2000) as it reflected the glitz and glamour of its home city.
Buss was also one of the first to sell the naming rights to an arena and made a mint when he started the Prime Ticket cable network to broadcast Kings and Lakers games.
Apart from sports and business, Dr. Jerry Buss was a fixture in the poker community, frequently playing in games in both Southern California and Las Vegas. Primarily a cash game player, he made several appearances on “High Stakes Poker.” He had four World Series of Poker cashes, his best coming in 1991 when he finished third in the $2,500 Seven-Card Stud event for $33,250.
While he was always known as a solid poker player, he was best known to poker players as one of the truly good guys to sit with at the table. On Two Plus Two, poker players commented on their experiences with Buss:
amberdosh: The only way you’d know who he wasn’t just some random poker player was the stakes he played and people telling you who he was. He strolled around humbly and quietly, just like any other old dude who likes to play cards. No pretension, no ego, didn’t expect to be treated like the royalty that he is, dressed modestly etc.
GaminDeBuci: I remember several years ago at the WSOP when it was still downtown at Binions, he showed up to play poker with several of the cheerleaders for the Lakers. Let’s just say that everyone in the game had concentration “issues”.
Rich123: I didn’t know Jerry was Lakers’ owner until I had played with him at least half year. I was shocked to know this one day. As I had thought him as a retired man loved this game. He was good at this game and take[sic] it seriously all the time. He also talked friendly with other players on many subjects, very knowlegable [sic] in a respectful manner. I have never seen anything remotely related to show off from a famous person like him. He was a class act and a great ambassador to the poker game.
Most of the talk today will be about how Dr. Jerry Buss contributed to sports, but poker players know him as one of their own. He will be missed by all.
