Jim Buss ‘Very Disappointed’ in the Lakers’ Season

Jim Buss, the man who has increasingly more power and sway within the Los Angeles Lakers’ front-office (largely due to his father Jerry’s deteriorating health), addressed his team’s postseason flameout with ESPN: “The NBA playoffs band continues to play on without the Los Angeles Lakers joining in on the music and more than a week after their ouster from the Western Conference semifinals, the loss still feels inharmonious to Lakers vice president of player personnel Jim Buss. ‘Me personally, I’m never happy unless we win our last game in the playoffs,’ Buss said. ‘I’m very disappointed in the season. I thought we were a better team than this, but you can look at it as this was the first year these guys have played together with this coach. There’s a lot of things you can look at and build for the future and say they haven’t had the time to gel like other teams. You watch San Antonio, they can play with their eyes closed because they know exactly where everybody is and what they’re doing and what their quirks are. You see a team that sticks together like that and we didn’t have that.’ […] On Mike Brown: \I think he did a fantastic job. … I want to sit down for a couple hours and go through (if) his influence showed up on the floor, which I think it did. I think it was just unfortunate we lost that series, otherwise we’d still be in it and we’d all think that everything is fantastic.’ […] On Andrew Bynum: ‘I think it’s pretty obvious how I feel about Andrew Bynum. He’s an incredible All-Star center and you can build the future around him … I keep referring to Phil [Jackson]. Phil said, ‘Let the kid grow up.’ He’s still young at heart. I don’t know what else to say about him.'”