FanHouse Jerry Buss

Dennis Hof is a poor man's Hugh Hefner. Who? Exactly. Perhaps it would be easier if I just said, "Air Force Amy." (NSFW, obviously). We're talking about the fat "not really a pimp" guy from the Bunny Ranch specials on HBO. Excellent.

Well, turns out, he has no problems going on the radio to talk about the people that roll through his little legal brothel. And one of those people is Lakers owner Jerry Buss! (Sort of.)

All has been fairly quiet on the Lamar Odom front for the past week or so -- too quiet, in fact, for those hoping that the Lakers would re-sign the heart and soul of their championship team to a new contract. Sure, there were reports leaked that Odom personally called team owner Jerry Buss to try to reopen the negotiations, (as well as a rumor that Kobe Bryant made a similar call to try to get the two sides talking), but nothing concrete for the hand-wringing masses of Laker fans to be able to hang their hats on.

Until today, that is. The L.A. Times is reporting that the two sides once again began talking on Wednesday. But with the Lakers likely offering less than they did at the beginning, is a deal any more likely this time around?

Lamar Odom still doesn't have a new contract with the Lakers. For observers like us, every day with no movement is another step to the grave. That's how it is for high-profile free agents -- take Trevor Ariza, for example. If something isn't done relatively quickly, there's a decent chance nothing with ever get done. It should be easy for the defending champions and their key players.

The Lakers and Odom aren't finding it easy, with the latest news out of L.A. being that the Lakers have pulled their most recent offer -- a $9 million annual salary -- off the table because Odom's camp didn't bite. The previous thinking had been that Odom wanted $10 mil and L.A. offered $8 million. But the new hesitation from L.O. stems from contract length: L.A. is only offering three years.

The Lakers celebrated their 15th championship as a franchise on Wednesday with a parade through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. The event culminated with a rally in front of 80,000-plus at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, but one person noticeably absent from the festivities was the team's owner, Jerry Buss.

Buss wasn't sick or out of town or anything, it's just that parades aren't really his thing. And actually, while all of this was going on, he was spotted sitting alone at a poker table inside a nearby casino.

Gambling, in Las Vegas, is perfectly legal. And poker is fun. Especially seven card stud. Jerry Buss would, in theory, agree with all of those statements, considering he spent most of the weekend in Las Vegas, playing in a World Series of Poker seven card stud tournament.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss entered a $10,000 7-card stud tournament in Las Vegas on Saturday, the day before his team played the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the NBA finals.

The three-day tournament was part of the World Series of Poker being played at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Buss was eliminated on the first day.

Because of the legality of playing poker in Las Vegas, there is nothing wrong with this on the front (especially considering Buss apparently plays in these things all the time).

Of course, it would not be a huge stretch to at least ask why Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, is spending the entire first weekend of the NBA Finals in Las Vegas. Particularly when the team he owns and operates is involved in this monster sports betting event that the NBA holds every year in June.

Not to say that Jerry Buss is in anyway gambling on or against the Los Angeles Lakers, but motive and opportunity mean a lot in speculation and both are at least present here. I suppose what I am primarily trying to say is that this seems like a bad weekend to be hanging out in Las Vegas if you own an NBA basketball team.

Just because you're an owner doesn't mean you're above the law: David Stern cracked down on Lakers owner Jerry Buss on Wednesday by announcing that Buss would be fined $25,000 and suspended two games for a drunk driving conviction in September following an arrest last May.

To be honest, all of this is very confusing to me. I like the message Stern is sending, but owners can be suspended? How does that work? I mean, Buss doesn't actually do anything, at least, not as far as the play on the court is concerned. Does a suspension only apply for home games? It seems not, as the L.A. Times reports that Buss will miss Friday's game in Phoenix as a result of the punishment (not to mention the convenient fact that not all owners actually travel with the team).

Who knows, maybe Buss' suspension will include talking to the press, which I think would suit Magic Johnson just fine. Magic, a minority owner in the Lakers, was critical of the team during Tuesday's TNT telecast regarding all of the public drama Buss has helped stir up regarding Kobe Bryant. From the Times:

"Right now you have too many voices -- Jim Buss, Mitch [Kupchak], you have too many people talking.

"Dr. Buss, if he wants to take the reins and be the only voice, he should be the only voice. Or if it's Mitch, whoever it is, it should just be one voice like we used to have with Jerry West."

I'm curious: does the "one voice" suggestion apply to Magic, too? Or are part-owners who are also part-time NBA analysts conveniently exempt?

Previously on FanHouse:
Magic Defends Fans Who Booed Kobe
Jerry Buss Goes Paris Hilton, Gets Busted for DUI

Kobe Bryant is too box office for the Lakers to move without some sort of fight. He's not only valuable to Jerry Buss, but to AEG, the company that owns 30% of the Lakers and all of Staples Center. They've been able to completely develop downtown L.A. and a lot of these properties depend on the Lakers success. Buss knows this. Dude's been doing this for too long to let the most box office player in the league go over unhappiness. Magic Johnson asked to be traded in the early 1980s, but Buss never let the guy go. He made things right.

The difference between this and the Kevin Garnett situation is that the Lakers are not a lottery team with no prospects of improvement. For the most part, injuries killed their season last year. Their number two, three, four, five and six guys each missed at least 25 games. You can't win in this league with injuries like that.

I've been trying in vain to get a handle on this latest Kobe Bryant business. Yes, Bryant might be traded, but I don't get why this has come on so suddenly, or why Buss standing up for himself would then compel him to push out his star.

Luckily, TrueHoop's got some insight from consummate Lakers expert Roland Lazenby. According to Lazenby, we've got to think about the larger context, which would be the public relations battle within the organization:

Usually, nobody plays this game better than Phil. He eviscerated the Jerries in Chicago with Jordan as his major card, had them begging for mercy by the end of the season ... Phil had primed the pump this time by getting his pal Sam Smith at the Chicago Tribune to write a column saying Kobe ought to sit out the season. Jerry Buss could see the play coming. So the owner walked into training camp and knocked Kobe almost unconscious. We'll trade your ass and put it on the table now, Jerry Buss told Kobe in so many words.

During the Kobe trade demand crisis, I was a big fan of Nate Jones's take: This was PR plain and simple. It was a statement, one designed to air grievances and call out Buss. It only makes sense, then, that Buss would eventually (ahem) bust back. I just don't think anyone guessed he'd do say so effectively.

Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have supposedly buried the hatchet. But it would still be surreal to hear Shaq seemingly get Kobe's back. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what he did after Jerry Buss pronounced Kobe eminently touchable.

From the Los Angeles Times:

"I guess it's business before loyalty. But, wow. He said that?" O'Neal said today in Miami after learning Buss told reporters he would trade Bryant under the right circumstances.

[...]

"Anyone can be traded, but mine was different because I walked into the office and demanded a trade," O'Neal said. "I don't take loyalty lightly. If you tell me you're going to do something, I expect you to do it. And then when you change your mind without telling me, that means you're disloyal so we can't be down anymore."

While I'm sure this was a rushed comment to a reporter, there's a lot to unpack here. For one, Kobe did initially demand a trade. Is Shaq suggesting that he was too passive aggressive about it? Or is the "loyalty" thing about the Lakers' commitment to winning? Heck, you can even read this as echoing Shaq's former beef with Kobe--"I don't take loyalty lightly" and all that. But at the end of the day, O'Neal knows how good (and popular) Bryant is, and is probably as surprised as anyone else that the Lakers would do anything to alienate him.

Good lord. The Lakers' frequently off-key owner spoke to the press for the first time since this summer, and had to get in the last word. From the Lost Angeles Times:

Buss, 74, also said Bryant was not necessarily off the table now that the new season had started ... "I would certainly listen," Buss said. "At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody. It's just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit. You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it."

Technically, everything Buss says makes sense. And I know that he bore the brunt of Kobe-gate as much as anyone; he even interrupted a vacation to try and talk the man down. But from the "Cleveland, leave LeBron alone" files, here's another case of when the athlete gets different treatment. Players yap about wanting trades, we write about it a bunch, and it usually blows over.

But when an owner explicitly says "maybe" on a guy, it create a vacuum in his heart and, if you're Kobe Bryant, in the entire team and city. I'm not saying that this makes sense, just that any smart owner would be at least somewhat cognizant of convention. Buss can try and change the game all he wants, but creating a rift between himself and the NBA's best player is hardly the smartest way to run a pro team.