That holds true for most, if not all, enterprises in life, particularly those at the intersection between business and sports. To be successful, an organization must have competent, visionary leadership at the helm that can set a tone for everyone else in the chain of command to follow.
That's what the late Dr. Jerry Buss did as owner of the Los Angeles Lakers for more than three decades. He didn't handle all of the logistics on his own, be they on the business side or the basketball side, but his confidence making the final decision reassured and reinforced those whose hard work had led to that pivot point.
With Dr. Buss gone, the Lakers remain in search of someone (or someones) to serve as that rock, that backstop to protect the franchise and embolden everyone within it to go about the work of winning.
The sooner, the better. The 2013-14 NBA season has "potential disaster" written all over it for the Purple and Gold.
Between Kobe Bryant's recovery from a torn Achilles, the aged fragility of Pau Gasol and Steve Nash, the "replacement" of Dwight Howard with Chris Kaman and of Metta World Peace with Wesley Johnson and Nick Young, and Mike D'Antoni's derriere dangling near the hot seat, this year's Lakers squad could very well devolve into a powder keg of chaos and futility by season's end.
That makes the task of settling and solidifying the team's new hierarchy in a timely manner all the more pressing. In theory, Jeanie and Jim Buss are supposed to split those duties. Jeanie is in charge of the business side of things, while Jim oversees the team's basketball operations.
As Jeanie recounts in an excerpt from the re-release of her book Laker Girl (via The Los Angeles Times):
My dad made it clear to the entire family that he put me in charge of the team's business operations and my brother was in charge of the basketba...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
