When Jeanie Buss first took over as the primary owner of the Lakers, she was among the most accessible owners in the NBA. She regularly addressed the media, either as a group or in one-on-one interviews, to discuss the state of the Lakers and what they were doing.
However, in the months since Magic Johnson’s abrupt resignation as president of the team, Buss has not spoken publicly. She didn’t come to the arena for the final home game after he made his sudden announcement and, with the Lakers not having any playoff games, there haven’t been any real opportunities for her to talk.
That changed on Monday ahead of the NBA Awards in Los Angeles when Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times got Buss to talk briefly on the record about the tumultuous offseason that’s been in L.A., in which she made sure to note that Rob Pelinka has the full confidence of ownership in running the basketball operations department — which also served as the official confirmation that a hire to fill the president role created for Magic will not happen.
I caught up with Jeanie Buss at the NBA Awards: “I have 100 percent confidence in Rob Pelinka running our basketball operations.”
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 25, 2019
“There will be a lot of changes. Lakers fans, be patient. We’re going to get there. We’re not going to stop until we’re all proud.”
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 25, 2019
“I’ve always had confidence in Rob. Whatever the speculation is out there, we don’t neee the outside media to validate what we do. I’m very happy. I think we’re on the right path but there’s still more work to do.”
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 25, 2019
There is obviously more optimism going into this summer now after the Anthony Davis trade than there was a few weeks ago, but it remains to be seen what kind of roster they’re able to put around their two superstars. That will be Pelinka’s task and it seems as though he’ll have final say in those decisions, and the braintrust in place is the one they’ll be going with moving forward.
