Los Angeles Lakers part-owner and Vice President of Basketball Operations, Jim Buss, is one of Los Angeles’ most scrutinized individuals. For seemingly everything that goes wrong for the Lakers, the blame is placed upon his shoulders.
There is obviously a vast array of reasons why fans dislike Buss, justified or not. One of those happens to be the limited amount of time he spends out in the spotlight, engaging the media, and allowing fans to get to know him better.
Well, he opened up about recent events and important topics regarding the Lakers to the LA Times in an exclusive interview with Eric Pincus, who joined us on the show Wednesday.
Buss discussed a wide range of subjects with Pincus, especially the youth of what he hopes to be the next star-studded core group of the purple and gold. He expressed excitement about all of the young key roster pieces, but specifically gushed about the man the Lakers drafted with the No. 2 pick back in June.
“My enthusiasm for D’Angelo Russell, I have to curb it because I’m so excited about it. He could be anything in this league.”
Buss also mentioned the franchise’s tendency to go after promising big men, alluding to Jahlil Okafor, but stated how impressive Russell was and how the team “didn’t feel right passing up on him.”
He obviously shares the same sentiment that virtually every Lakers fan does in terms of excitement about Russell.
Several videos have surfaced of both Russell and Jordan Clarkson’s individual workouts this summer, generating even more excitement that they will put in the work to become a dangerous backcourt duo for many years to come.
Only time will tell, but as each day passes, the anticipation grows with training camp scheduled to start in about a month.
You can view part one of Pincus’ fantastic interview with Buss here and part two here.
