Good article that pretty much sums it up, though that makes it a rather gloomy read if you're a Lakers fan. Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe also discuss the situation
here on Grantland. On Jim Buss:
He's also reinvented himself on Twitter and Facebook, given a few compelling interviews and established himself as the premier "I don't give a shit, I'm old, I'm gonna be gone soon, I'm just saying what I think" athlete in sports. Big year for Kobe. Going forward, it's going to be fascinating to see what matters to him more — retiring as a lifelong Laker with five rings and somewhere between 35,000 and 38,000 points, or chasing that sixth ring somewhere else (and matching Jordan).
I don't think he will win another ring with the Lakers, and here's why: They're an absolute mess behind the scenes. Jimmy Buss is like James Dolan 2.0 — it's like the Dolan Experience all over again, only if Dolan had even fewer credentials and couldn't stop feuding with other members of his family. You know why that Phil Jackson situation was handled so poorly last November? Because Jimmy Buss has an enormous complex about Phil and his sister Jeannie, that's why. For one thing, Jeannie is well respected around the NBA as a sharp thinker; people always assumed that Dr. Buss would turn the Lakers over to her. But apparently, Buss wanted one of his sons to assume control because of the always-frightening reason of Jeannie already has something for herself, I want one of my sons to have something, too.
That's how Jimmy Buss ended up in charge of the Lakers. You can't even find decent information about him on the Internet. Seriously, surf around online and try to figure out what Jimmy Buss has been doing since college, or even if he graduated from college. It's murky. He's not nearly as accomplished as his sister … and that's an understatement. Now he's running the Lakers instead of Jeanie, to the utter confusion of just about everyone. So what happened when his sister's boyfriend positioned himself as the savior of this year's Lakers team, and Lakers fans were clamoring for him to come back? Not only did Jimmy Buss swerve against the grain and pick a different coach, he had GM Mitch Kupchak call his sister's boyfriend late at night to drop that bomb on him … presumably as his sister was lying in bed next to him! This wasn't a coaching hire as much as a rejected plot from Parenthood.
Zach, I will leave you with this: If we've learned anything from professional sports over the years, it's that nobody can inflict more damage on a franchise than an incompetent owner. Just look at how the Maloofs destroyed basketball in Sacramento, or what James Dolan did to the Ewing era, or what Donald Sterling did for his first 25 years with the Clippers. There's a really good chance that Jimmy Buss might be THAT bad. And if that's the case, I guarantee Kobe is already coming up with an exit plan. We will see.