Former NBA player Rashad McCants hinted that if Jerry Buss gets accused of nepotism for the fact that his daughter Jeanie became the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers after he passed away, then LeBron James should be criticized for nepotism after his son Bronny got drafted to the Lakers a few months back.
“If we gon’ criticize her daddy, guess who gon’ get criticized?” McCants said when the elder Buss and younger Buss were mentioned. “Guess who gon’ get criticized too?”
The elder Buss owned the Lakers for over three decades. His iconic stint with the team spanned from 1979 all the way up until his death in 2013 at the age of 80, and it’s hard to argue that Los Angeles wasn’t the most dominant team in the NBA during his reign.
With the elder Buss as the team’s majority owner, the Lakers reached the NBA Finals a whopping 16 times, which means Los Angeles played for a title in nearly half of his seasons with the team. The Lakers also won 10 titles under the elder Buss. To put Los Angeles’ sustained excellence into perspective, the Lakers won their first title under Buss in 1980 — when the team was led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — and final championship in 2010, when the likes of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom spearheaded the team.
When the elder Buss passed away, the younger Buss then became the controlling owner of the Lakers. She was a member of the team’s front office prior to her father’s death.
Just like the elder Buss did, the elder James is working alongside one of his children on the Lakers in the younger James. In fact, they both saw the court in Los Angeles’ most recent preseason contest, which came against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 10.
The Lakers have another preseason bout on the horizon as well. Los Angeles will take on the Golden State Warriors — who have yet to lose a preseason game with a 4-0 record — at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night. The Lakers have won just one of their three preseason games to this point.
