Jim Buss
| Jim Buss | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Hatten Buss November 9, 1959 Los Angeles County, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | part owner of the Los Angeles Lakers |
James Hatten "Jim" Buss (born November 9, 1959) is a part-owner and former executive vice president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the son of former Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Buss was president of the Los Angeles Lazers professional indoor soccer team from 1985–1989. He later trained thoroughbred race horses for nine years before joining the Lakers in 1998 as an assistant general manager. He was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in 2005. After Jerry died in 2013, his controlling ownership of the Lakers passed to his children via a family trust, with each child receiving an equal interest.
Buss was born the second of four children to Jo Ann and Jerry Buss. He grew up with older brother Johnny and sisters Jeanie and Janie. Their parents divorced in 1972.
Buss attended college at University of Southern California (USC), majoring in math before he dropped out. He spent much of his youth at race tracks. Although he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), Buss attended jockey school when he was 20.
Buss invested in a small business with his best friend, but the friend died in a car accident in 1981. The death left Buss devastated and lost, and the business was left to fade. In 1985, Buss became president of his father's indoor soccer team, the Los Angeles Lazers, after his brother Johnny had quit. Buss brought annual losses down from $1 million to $500,000, but the team folded in 1989. He next became a horse trainer, receiving from his father the half-dozen thoroughbreds he owned. In 1997, Jerry divested himself of his horse racing stock that was increasingly unprofitable. Shortly after, he invited his son to join the Lakers, a basketball team he acquired in 1979 and built into one of the most lucrative and popular in all of sports.
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