Lakers: Byron Scott's Enduring Friendship With Dr. Jerry Buss
Showtime Lakers starting shooting guard Byron Scott, who spent the first ten seasons of his NBA career in L.A. and won three titles with the club, shared a heartwarming story about his long-lasting friendship with then-Los Angeles team owner Dr. Jerry Buss.
Byron Scott recently revealed on his new-ish podcast Off The Dribble that he and longtime Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss remained close in the years and decades following Scott's last game as a Laker -- May 9th, 1993. The contest was a playoff game (and series) loss to season MVP Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. Scott started, playing 42 minutes and scoring 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting. He also pulled down five boards, dished out a dime and produced one steal.
Scott joined the Indiana Pacers in free agency that summer. He was selected by the then-Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies in a 1995 expansion draft, and played with Vancouver for one season. For the 6'3" Arizona State product's final NBA season at age 35, he returned to L.A., thanks in part to his ties to team ownership, to serve as a bench mentor to then-rookie Kobe Bryant, new All-NBA free agent signing Shaquille O'Neal, and the team's promising starting backcourt of point guard Nick Van Exel and shooting guard Eddie Jones.
After playing the 1997-98 season overseas for Greek club Panathinaikos, Scott returned stateside to begin his coaching career. He first plied his trade with the Sacramento Kings as an assistant, before becoming the head coach of a Jason Kidd-led New Jersey Nets team that went to two straight Finals in 2002 (where they would lose to the Shaq/Kobe Lakers) and 2003 (where they would fall to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginonili and David Robinson's Spurs), and then guiding a young Chris Paul and David West with the New Orleans Hornets from 2004-2009.
Scott was let go from New Orleans early into the 2009-10 NBA season, when the team went a meandering 3-6 in its first nine contests. Soon after his dismissal, he received a phone call from an old friend.
"I know when I got fired by New Orleans, Dr. Buss was one of the first people to call me and ask me when I was coming back home [to Los Angeles]. So to be able to come back to the Lakers and be a coach [from 2014-16], it was a dream come true. You know the only disappointment is that I wish Dr. Buss was still there [Buss had passed away in 2013]. And this is not a knock on Jeanie because she's been fantastic obviously. But he was just to me one of the best, if not the best, owners in all of sports. I mean the way he treated players, the way he treated employees, he allowed people to do their jobs. He allowed players to do their game. And he was just very supportive of everybody."
Dr. Buss has been widely praised as one of the all-time great sports owners. Heck, there are presently two ongoing TV series about his blockbuster run with the Lakers! With him at the helm from 1979-2013, the Lakers won 10 NBA titles. He also operated and subsequently owned the Los Angeles Sparks from 1996-2006. Led by Hall of Fame center Lisa Leslie, the Sparks won two straight WNBA titles from 2001-2002. Buss had quite the team ownership portfolio. He also owned the NHL's Los Angeles Kings from 1979-1988 and the Major Indoor Soccer League's Los Angeles Lazers from 1979-1989.
