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Jerry Buss
Gerald Hatten Buss (January 27, 1933 – February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist. He was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning 10 league championships that were highlighted by the team's Showtime era during the 1980s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. Buss owned other professional sports franchises in Southern California.
Born in Salt Lake City, Buss and his three younger siblings were raised by their divorced mother, Jessie, who worked as a waitress. His father, Lydus, was an accountant who went on to teach statistics at Berkeley, who abandoned Buss after his first birthday and never returned. When he was nine years old, Buss moved with his mother to Los Angeles; three years later when she remarried, they then moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming and lived in a six-room home with his half-brother Mickey, his half-sister Susan, and stepbrother Jim. One of Buss' boyhood jobs was working for his stepfather, Cecil Brown, who owned a plumbing business. Other jobs in Buss' high school days included carrying bags at the Kemmerer Hotel (paid $2 per day (~$24.08 as of 2025), setting pins at the bowling alley, working on the Union Pacific Railroad, selling stamps, and shining shoes.
Buss earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, graduating with a BS degree in two and a half years in 1953. He then returned to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he earned an MS and PhD in physical chemistry in 1957 at the age of 24. Upon completion of his PhD, Buss moved to Boston and worked for Arthur D. Little. Buss started as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines (now the Mine Safety and Health Administration); he then briefly worked in the aerospace industry for McDonnell Douglas and was on the faculty of USC's chemistry department.
Buss originally invested in real estate to provide supplementary income so he could continue teaching. His first investment was $1,000 in a 14-unit West Los Angeles apartment building in 1959. Finding great success in the real estate business, he, along with longtime business partner, Frank Mariani, formed real estate investment company Mariani-Buss Associates. In 1979, Buss purchased Pickfair, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; he sold it in 1987. Buss claimed his company owned—across Arizona, California and Nevada—roughly 700 properties by 1979.
In 1974, Buss produced a movie named Black Eye starring former gridiron star Fred "the Hammer" Williamson.
Buss was an owner of the Phoenix location of the Playboy Club.
Buss became an owner of the Los Angeles Strings in World Team Tennis.[when?] On May 29, 1979, he purchased the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, The Forum, and a 13,000-acre ranch in the Sierra Nevada from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million (equivalent to $290 million in 2024). Buss later sold his controlling interest in the Kings to Bruce McNall in 1988. He then reached a major advertising agreement with Great Western Bank for the naming rights to The Forum, resulting in the official name of the building being changed to the Great Western Forum.
Later, when the WNBA was formed in 1996, Buss took charge of operating that league's Los Angeles franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks. Eventually, all three teams moved into a more modern arena in downtown Los Angeles, the Staples Center, which opened in 1999. As part of the deal to move the Lakers into Staples Center, Buss sold the Great Western Forum (which was later reverted to its original name).
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Jerry Buss
Gerald Hatten Buss (January 27, 1933 – February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist. He was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning 10 league championships that were highlighted by the team's Showtime era during the 1980s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. Buss owned other professional sports franchises in Southern California.
Born in Salt Lake City, Buss and his three younger siblings were raised by their divorced mother, Jessie, who worked as a waitress. His father, Lydus, was an accountant who went on to teach statistics at Berkeley, who abandoned Buss after his first birthday and never returned. When he was nine years old, Buss moved with his mother to Los Angeles; three years later when she remarried, they then moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming and lived in a six-room home with his half-brother Mickey, his half-sister Susan, and stepbrother Jim. One of Buss' boyhood jobs was working for his stepfather, Cecil Brown, who owned a plumbing business. Other jobs in Buss' high school days included carrying bags at the Kemmerer Hotel (paid $2 per day (~$24.08 as of 2025), setting pins at the bowling alley, working on the Union Pacific Railroad, selling stamps, and shining shoes.
Buss earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, graduating with a BS degree in two and a half years in 1953. He then returned to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he earned an MS and PhD in physical chemistry in 1957 at the age of 24. Upon completion of his PhD, Buss moved to Boston and worked for Arthur D. Little. Buss started as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines (now the Mine Safety and Health Administration); he then briefly worked in the aerospace industry for McDonnell Douglas and was on the faculty of USC's chemistry department.
Buss originally invested in real estate to provide supplementary income so he could continue teaching. His first investment was $1,000 in a 14-unit West Los Angeles apartment building in 1959. Finding great success in the real estate business, he, along with longtime business partner, Frank Mariani, formed real estate investment company Mariani-Buss Associates. In 1979, Buss purchased Pickfair, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; he sold it in 1987. Buss claimed his company owned—across Arizona, California and Nevada—roughly 700 properties by 1979.
In 1974, Buss produced a movie named Black Eye starring former gridiron star Fred "the Hammer" Williamson.
Buss was an owner of the Phoenix location of the Playboy Club.
Buss became an owner of the Los Angeles Strings in World Team Tennis.[when?] On May 29, 1979, he purchased the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, The Forum, and a 13,000-acre ranch in the Sierra Nevada from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million (equivalent to $290 million in 2024). Buss later sold his controlling interest in the Kings to Bruce McNall in 1988. He then reached a major advertising agreement with Great Western Bank for the naming rights to The Forum, resulting in the official name of the building being changed to the Great Western Forum.
Later, when the WNBA was formed in 1996, Buss took charge of operating that league's Los Angeles franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks. Eventually, all three teams moved into a more modern arena in downtown Los Angeles, the Staples Center, which opened in 1999. As part of the deal to move the Lakers into Staples Center, Buss sold the Great Western Forum (which was later reverted to its original name).