



View photos Kobe Bryant and Jerry Buss won five NBA championships together. (NBAE/Getty Images) More





After all the anger and angst and fury of the immediate post-Shaq era had inspired Kobe Bryant to make a trade demand, Jerry Buss finally called his superstar guard to the owner's home in the Los Angeles hills on an autumn evening in 2007.

The Los Angeles Lakers had found a trade for Bryant, but Buss warned him that it wasn't to one of his selected destinations.

"Detroit," Buss said.

The Lakers had agreed to a deal to send Bryant to the Pistons and needed Bryant's approval to waive his no-trade clause. The package included a combination of Detroit's core players and draft picks, sources say. Buss and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak needed an answer soon, because they refused to let the issue linger into training camp.

Looking back, Bryant isn't sure it would've mattered whether it was Detroit or Chicago, Dallas or New York. In that moment, in Buss' house in the hills, it washed over Bryant how much staying a Laker for life meant to him, how no matter how dire the state of the franchise seemed, that Buss had a history of restoring the Lakers to championship contention.

"It hit me that I didn't really want to walk out on Dr. Buss," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports on Monday.

[Related: Lakers owner Jerry Buss dead at 80]

Months later, Kupchak honored Buss' faith and made the trade for Pau Gasol. Soon, the Lakers were back in the NBA Finals three straight years and winning two more titles. Soon, Bryant was back to understanding the inevitable essence of Jerry Buss' prowess: In the end, the old man was a force of nature.

Buss built and continued to rebuild the Lakers into title contenders since buying the team in 1979. (AP) More

The Lakers change forever now with Buss' death. For all the historic talent and genius and ego melded into champions under his watch, Buss was the connection from title to title, the star of stars. From Magic to Kareem, from Riley to West, from Shaq to Kobe, Buss was the self-made icon who commanded the biggest respect in the room.

He didn't come blustering loudly, the way George Steinbrenner did with the New York Yankees. He was the ultimate California cool, a playboy with an understanding that Hollywood commanded celebrity with its stars, glitz with its winning.

Nevertheless, the substance of the man – a most American rags-to-riches tale – was forever the underlying, undeniable ethic of the Lakers. In so many ways, they never went corporate. They were a mom-and-pop store, a family business.

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