Jeanie Buss: People Feel Lakers 'Have an Unfair Advantage But That is Not True'
Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss opened up about the shocking trade that landed her team Luka Dončić during an interview with Phil Harrell and A Martínez of NPR and pushed back at the notion that things always seem to work out for the Purple and Gold with such moves.
"You know, I learned from my dad—and I point to when the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol—people hadn't heard about it," she said. "Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and Mark Cuban in Dallas threw a fit that we ended up with Pau. They never got a chance to bid on him or probably talk Memphis out of trading him to us.
"You realize in our business that a lot of the rumors are planted by people in the industry who are trying to curry favor with the media. There's kind of this 'write good things about me as general manager and I'll feed you my inside information. Then we both win.'
"In this particular case, I felt that if anybody heard about the trade through a rumor that there would be many parties trying to undermine it. When Pau Gasol came from Memphis to L.A., we won two championships because of it.
"And then there was the famous Chris Paul trade that was vetoed by the commissioner, that people feel somehow the Lakers have an unfair advantage. But that is not true."
From the Dallas Mavericks' perspective, letting teams around the league know they were interested in trading Dončić surely would have worked to their advantage. They could have pitted competing bids against each other and driven up what surely would have been an astronomical price for a 26-year-old superstar.
Alas, the Lakers completed the trade in a move that few, if any, saw coming in advance.
Despite Buss' insistence that the Lakers don't have an unfair advantage, there is a long history of things working out in their favor.
The allure of playing in Southern California for a storied franchise has helped them convince free agents such as LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal to sign. Even draft-related fortune has consistently worked out, as they won a coin flip for the right to the No. 1 pick in the 1979 NBA draft.
All they did with that pick was select Magic Johnson, who changed the franchise and NBA forever.
Of course, they also landed one Kobe Bryant with a draft-day trade with the Charlotte Hornets and then helped the Black Mamba win more rings by trading for Gasol.
While the vetoed Paul trade didn't sit well with Lakers fans at the time, things have generally worked out well for them throughout their history. And that is certainly a credit to the front office and the way the organization is run, as it is no accident so many star players have seen Los Angeles as a desired location.
Trading for Dončić is yet the latest fortuitous development, and now the Purple and Gold are better set up to pursue a ring this year and for the foreseeable future because of it.
