The Lake Show

September twentieth, nineteen seventy three, twenty nine year old Billy gene Kinks steps onto the court at Houston's Astrodome. She has been one of the world's best tennis players for more than a decade. The year before, she became the fifth woman in history to win a career Grand Slam.

It's a fact, isn't it that if they were both males, Billy Jean ding, We're a male.

She actually excels over Rigs in such manners.

Per opponent in the Battle of the Sexist is fifty five year old Bobby Riggs, who in nineteen thirty nine, four years before Billy Jean was born, was the number one player in the world. Now he's working as a tennis promoter and making headlines for calling the women's game inferior. His latest claim is that he could be any woman in the world.

This is the scene in the Astrodome.

I'm down to the floor of the Astrodome with a couple of great champions who are here to to happening.

The lead up to the match is a spectacle. King enters the court Cleopatra style, carried by four shirtless men. She gives Riggs a piglet to symbolize as male chauvinism. Ninety million people are watching from home, including Los Angeles businessman Jerry Buss and his eleven year old daughter, Jeanie. As history has documented, Billy Jean dominated the match and

Zins God's Tide her Ring another golden momment from Wimbledy.

World Team Tennis was all about in arena entertainment, and doctor Jerry Bus, who was itching to buy a professional sports team, became one of the league's first owners, of the La Strings in nineteen seventy four. Bus was a chemist with a seriously lucrative real estate business, best known, of course, for later buying the Lakers.

The World Trophy to the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, the new World Champions of Basketball, and I'm proud to do it.

And here you go, Jerry Buss, it's yours.

That didn't happen for another five years. Meanwhile, doctor Buss was determined to bring his daughter into the male dominated world of sports business. He brought Genie to team meetings and when she was nineteen and a student at USC BUS made her general manager of the La Strings.

When he offered me the job, I was still in school. I said this great, I can quit school and just focus on my job, and he was, you know, very much, you could have the job as long as you go to school. So that made it difficult because I was balancing schoolwork and my social life and trying to run

Job and World Team Centis was so crazy. That was like a really fun, relegably great idea. Do you remember like an early accomplishment that you had, whether it was a player or promotion or anything like that where you just felt like I did a really good job that worked out really well.

You know, we were really fortunate that Martina Navrachulova was available to play, and so she was, you know, the first player I drafted the LA Strings, and you know she was it was as she was making her way up to being the number one player in the world.

We'll see Martinez looking for this forehand to come up the line.

Now, watch if she comes to the SA.

And she loved World Team Tennis and she loved the camaraderie of being with a team. So I think that was really something special, was having that opportunity to really get to know a superstar on their ascent. And we won a championship that year.

The Bus family was all about championships. That became the family business. In nineteen seventy nine, doctor Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers, the La Kings, the Great Western Forum, and a thirteen hundred acre ranch from Jack Ted Cook. The total sixty seven and a half million dollars. Jeannie was named president of the Great Western Forum.

You know, it was such a great experience for me because I had always been the promoter of events. So promoters the one that puts together the event, the activity, the show, and they put it into your venue. Now, as the head of the arena, I got a different view of what it was like for a promoter to come into a venue and what a venue needed in order to support the show or the event.

Doctor Buss transformed the Lakers into showtime entertainment worthy of Tinseltown THEA From nineteen eighty to eighty nine, the Lakers won five titles in eight trips to the NBA Finals, establishing expectations that still exist and which Genie inherited when she took over the team.

Well, you know, you just look at timing, you know, and some things are just luck. My dad drafting Magic Johnson, somebody that could, you know, light the show on fire with his smile.

This man has a smile that lights up a television screen from here, the bangor Maid.

He was just one of those great personalities and great basketball players. So, you know, winning the championship. But I also like to underline the fact that during the eighties, we you know, we had the Rams and the Raiders here in Los Angeles, and eventually both teams moved out. So there was a twenty year period where in a major league city, we had no NFL to compete with, and that further cemented the Lakers just being a team from Los Angeles representing Los Angeles the Magic Man.

What's more, the showtime Lakers, as you said, really put you guys on the map and made Los Angeles a championship city. What sort of pressure was there to maintain or get back to that standard when you took over the Lakers.

Well, you know, there's there's the standard, and then there's the Purple and Gold standard, and you know that's you know, it's hard to compete with your past success. Our fans expect nothing but the best, and that's what makes them the best fans in the NBA. So there's a lot of pressure to win in Los Angeles. You know, by design, the NBA has, you know, through a salarycap system, a revenue sharing system. You know, they're trying to even play

You know.

It's a different environment than you know, when my dad started in the eighties, when there was no salary cap. Every time Larry Bird got a new contract, my dad would call Magic and rip up the old one and give him a new one. You know, stuff like that.

I love it.

My dad always wanted Magic to be the highest paid player, and you could do that because there weren't the same rules that are in place now.

But a decade of dominance in the eighties was followed by a decade of disappointment in the nineties, the Lakers were in rebuild mode. They built a solid cast Eddie Jones, Robert Ory, Glenn, Rice, Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, and as for the stars LA had come to expect. Twenty four year old Chiquill O'Neal was acquired from the Orlando Magic in nineteen ninety six. Second and nineteen year old Kobe Bryant came into the NBA that same year, straight out of high school.

The Charlotte Hornets select Kobe Bryant from Lower Merion High School in.

Pennsylvan acquired by the Lakers in a draft day trade with the Charlotte Hornets. It is a step off from high school, and I understand that.

So therefore, every time I step on a basketball court, I'm going to put a strong effort out there on the floor.

I'm not going to leave anything on the floor.

But the Shack and Kobe show was not an immediate Hollywood hit.

I'm not going to say that.

These Spurns has a better individual talent than the Lakers, but I am going to say they have.

A better team.

A four game suite by the Utah Jazz in the nineteen ninety eight Western Conference Finals exposed the Lakers team that had a lot of growing to do.

Total domination by the experienced Utah Jazz against the youthful Talada.

Los Angeles Lakers, and so in nineteen ninety nine, Doctor Buss looked to the most successful coach of the era to bring it all together.

Without feather Ado, the new coach at the Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson.

From the NBA and iHeart podcast This is NBA DNA with Me Hannah Storm, Episode nine, The Lake Show, January thirteenth, nineteen ninety nine, Chicago, Illinois, Credentialed members of the media assemble on the floor of the United Center for a press conference with Michael Jordan.

For the second time in little more than five years.

Michael Jordan is choosing to walk away from the NBA. Now it looks like he's gonna be walking away for good.

Only six months earlier, Jordan led the Bulls to their six NBA championship under head coach Phil Jackson.

My Everybody, Hannah Store back here in Chicago. In the past decade, the Chicago Bulls have forged one of sports from great dynasties. Five NBA titles in the last seven years and now just one went away from a six championship.

Mj had won the league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, famously ending his Bulls career with the last second dagger to sink the Utah Jazz for a six rings and second three people.

In ship number six Michael against Russell twelve seconds eleven ten Jordan a dry.

Hain't fire y hey scars.

Football's late eighty seven eighty six work five at two tats lap oh.

Why it was the end of an era. That same month that Jordan retired, the Bulls traded Scottie Pippen. The preeminent dynasty of the nineties was over. Did Michael Jordan know that you had no intention of attorney?

Yeah, Yeah, he pretty much knew it. You know, we talked tremendous amount of time throughout the season, and we sort of had that vibe, the feeling after the season that you know, it was pretty much our last time together.

Phil Jackson had been the first Domino general manager. Jerry Krause made it clear that Jackson's contract would not be renewed, and after the finals, he left the franchise, literally riding off into the sunset on his motorcycle.

Hebe on the moat loud Girl now Hobby Bryant working in the light.

And meanwhile, the Lakers had one of the most promising tandems in the NBA, Shaquille O'Neill and Kobe Bryant, but they have been swept out of the playoffs for two years in a row. Doctor Buss bequeathed the running of the franchise to his daughter, Jeanie. Can you paint the picture of when you were promoted to executive vice president in nineteen ninety nine, what the state of the franchise was, you know, what you were stepping into and taking over.

You know, Shaq Shaquille O'Neill had joined the Lakers as a free agent in ninety six. Kobe Bryant was drafted by Jerry West in nineteen ninety six. You know, we had a couple of years with these two very well established shack and this young rookie who won the Slam Dunk contest his rookie year, and my dad, you know, was getting frustrated. He wanted to win, and he decided to make a change and bring in a new coach.

It was a high stakes time for the Lakers. New coach, new system, new season, new venue. That same year that Phil started with the Lakers, they moved from the Great Western Forum to the Staples Center in downtown La.

Our fans did not We're not excited about it at all. They'd been used to going to Inglewood for you know, forty years to see their team, and there was a lot of people stressed out. And you know, I remember getting phone calls from fans saying, I want the same seat that I have at the Forum, and I said, well, you can have your seat that's at the Forum, but the Lakers aren't going to be there down to see them. And you know, the best thing that happened was we

The jess Rose and Miller even whydn't look well, we don't run around on the defense too much.

BUS made Jackson one of the highest paid coaches in the league, thirty million over five years, and he brought his zim master holistic approach to LA from burning sage in the locker room to giving his players summer reading assignments.

I thought he was a hippie dude. I mean I didn't know, like you know, it was he married, Did he have a family. I had no idea. I really didn't pay that much attention except I remembered when he left the Bulls, which was, you know, now we've we've watched we've all watched the Last Dance documentary, which then kind of tells that whole story of the Bulls had decided Phil, this is your last year. You're not coming back.

Why do you think that, looking back, that Phil Jackson was the right person to bring, as you said, these really big personalities together and mold them into a unit. Why do you think that was so successful as you look back.

On it, You know, it was really about getting them on the same page. Shack wanted to win. He was tired of being labeled the superstar who couldn't push the team over the edge to win the championship. And then you had Kobe, who was a student of the game, and you know, here was this opportunity because he had studied Michael Jordan so much. Here now to have the same teachers as someone he idolized so much kind of unlocked,

In his first Lakers press conference, Phil promised to help Shack move into a leadership role, and he called Kobe Jordanes. Balancing the two personalities would become essential to the team's success, and Jeanie leaned on her experience from her earliest days as a sports executive.

Luckily, you know, in my earlier career, I you know, not only had promoted World Team tennis the LA Strings, but also promoted championship type matches in exhibitions. So you know, we would have Yvonne Lendall play Andre Agascy, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe. And the most difficult match that we ever had to make was Jimmy Connors versus John McEnroe because they never wanted to have to play each other. They did not vibe. Okay, it was like having to convince

On the court. It was critical for Jackson to get buy in for his triangle offense, but Kobe thought it was limiting for his game.

There were some personal goals that were standing in front of the group goals, and that all had to be kind of figured out. It was a situation which you know, I was asking them to kind of fit into roles and demanded the team to play more unselfish basketball.

Phil brought in someone familiar with the triangle, a guy who had played for him in Chicago, John Sally.

I thought, in order to work in California, you have to play for the Lakers. So one day was watching. It was nineteen ninety nine. I never forget it was the shortened season. I was watching the Lakers and they were losing. I think they lost in the first round

Here's Robert or on the change with Jackson at the helm. When he came to the Lakers. What did he bring to that equation? Like, how did he make it all work?

Stability? You know, here's the thing. Stability and direction. We had four All Stars the previous year, Eddie Jones, Kobe, Shaq Nick four All Stars getting swept by Utah. So you have to think about the stabilion. And also when you bring in someone like a Phil Jackson, who's coach the greatest, and Michael Jordan, you're gonna bring in that discipline. You know, Shaq was very disciplined that summer. I even put on like five pounds ten pounds a muscle going

Going to be.

We were going to run a lot, we were going to run the triangle each and every day until we got it. So everybody came in shape and and ready. And I think that was the biggest key, because Shaq started a season off just so dominant, you know, because first no.

Kobe got Hurt's right. We just rove Shack's coattails to the best record in the NBA that year.

Fox Waits'neil's a paint jumps, ry stars and pay beautiful deliberty by Shaquillo mew.

In nineteen ninety nine, Phil's first year with the Lakers, they went sixty seven and fifteen, and Shaq became the NBA MVP.

Number one in scoring, number two and rebounds number three, in block shots four as since the game almost and only three people played more minutes as you were leading your team to sixty seven victoriation.

It's a pleasure to watch you grow. Congratulations, nineteen ninety nine, two.

Thousand, NBA MVP, Shaquille.

It was fun.

And you've never played with a dominant big man. You don't understand how fun it is. Just look at the Denver Nuggets. They know how fun it is. And it's so fun to play with a dominant big man who demands a double team, who can pass, and who allows you to press up defensively on the perimeter and funnel guys him so he can block shot. But you think about what Shaq demanded when he was playing double teams.

Hack of Shock. It was so much fun playing with Shaq.

A perfect ash from Toby Bryant, great execution by Shock.

Young Kobe began to blossom under Jackson averaging twenty nine points and five assists of games, and he was named to the NBA's All Defensive Second Team. Here's Phil reflecting on that first year, courtesy of ESPN.

Tolb me a nice struggle a lot the first year. It was I will tell you, like looking at Michael Jordan and come fly with me or whatever that video was. He had everything all in markings. The way he posed, the way he held himself, it was almost amazing. And there were times I would pull him to the sideline and say, don't try to take over this game. It's not time. Don't try to take over this game. But he was dying to do so, and he was ready to do so.

In the air up the Lakers.

The Lakers moved quickly through the first few rounds of the playoffs, beating the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns in five games each.

Kneel against devots.

You love the playoffs because of star players come to the front.

That's what this is all about.

Kobe Spina left breasfe shine under patrol of them.

You had championship experience. Did you ever speak up about that or what was it that you brought to the table because you you already had two titles.

Yeah, I didn't have to say anything because we had a coach who had six titles. And so for me, sometimes there is a player when you're sitting on the bus and guys would talk.

You know, Kobe will always ask.

Me about dreams, footwork, and he would ask me about you know, Clyde's you know, his ability to get out on the break and certain little things like that. But he never asked about, you know, how it is to win a championship. I never really had to, you know, say anything, because Phil was the one like, hey, this is what we need to do, this is what we have to do, and think about it. Like I said, he coached Max Michael Jordan. When this guy talks, everybody's gonna be listening.

Jackson led the franchise back to the NBA Finals to face the Indiana Pacers led by future Hall of Famer Reggie Miller and old Lakers nemesis head coach Larry Bird. Hoosiers versus Hollywood.

Ladies and gentlemen are very pleasant.

Good evening to you from the beautiful Staples Center, Los Angeles, California.

Tonight, the real season begins.

The Lakers came out hot, dominating Game one, shooting fifteen for twenty. In the first quarter of the Finals, O'Neil.

Puts it down and it's eleven first quarter points.

He's on his way to a forty point night.

In Game two, Kobe sprained his ankle during a Lakers win. The Pacers took Game three and the Lakers game four in over time.

Your turn, mister Bryants, What if you got for us this time?

Kobe? Pull up tony two.

Yes, if you want to be a hero, you gotta take her shots.

Thanks to a heroic performance by a still recovering Kobe and a missed buzzer beater by Indiana's Reggie Miller.

Oh, and that's it, the Lakers take a three one series lead.

That says one for the Then the Pacers crushed the Lakers at home in Game five.

That's still handling on top, waits for putting. Reggie Millard steps.

Inside off of facing shot.

Yes, nails the three ball for the left corner.

I don't like to think of a team that has championship quality in it that loses by thirty three points. And you know, we have to prove something to ourselves when we go back home.

In this regard, there was always this calmness, you know, and it was very deliberate by Phil to never let the players see you sweat, right, So he always stayed calm so that the players could always have a place to check in and check into that calmness. And there was something about watching those teams you just never doubted that they were going to pull a rabbit out of their.

Hat, both teams battling for their collective lives.

Fox waits for Shaq. He doesn't come so far.

The Lakers gave Hollywood the ending they had wanted since nineteen eighty eight, a championship, beating the Pacers one sixteen to one eleven. Shaq had forty one points and twelve rebounds and was named Finals MVP.

Congratulations to the NBA two thousand.

Champions, Los Angeles Lakers, their fans in the city.

I'm not wanting to y'all.

We're gonna be.

One next year.

To y'all.

The Bus family envisioned the first dynasty of the New millennium, picking up where the Bulls and MJ had left off.

What a steal by Kobe going on the runway.

That is where you do the comparisons to the Jordan here's John Sally.

I told Michael he's tied soap detergent and Kobe is tied point two or ever grief when he did nothing when I got on the Lakers too, he watched tons of films.

He's so serious.

He watched tons of film.

Didn't you know.

He couldn't go out, so he couldn't hang out. So he was just imagined, not worrying about anything and just playing basketball. The blessing was he came in so early. He had a father who played in the Pros. His mother is a wonderful woman. His sisters were like he had an unbelievable support. Like I tell people, when Kobe came into the NBA.

He lived at home with his parents.

That's right.

But Jerry West saw the same thing I saw when I got to him. It was it's a fire that I have not seen anywhere else. Kobe was like that. We ran sprints. He ran him. He didn't jog him when he took his shots. Same feeling, the tenacious idea of this guy's in front of me. I had to move the ball here. That was all in his brain. I'm going to be I mean, I asked him too one time. I said, so, you're the next Michael Jordan. He said, no, I'm the first Kobe Bryant.

Here's Phil Jackson.

I arranged a meeting between Michael and Kobe two give him a little impression of how to handle the in a restricted basketball system that relied on passing the ball to available teammates and wanting to go one on one with this guy in front of you. So I arranged we had a little meeting in the cigar room off the bar downstairs, and Michael and I were sitting there and Kobe walked in after a shower and the press and went on, and he sat down and he said, Michael,

It was serious business and defending the title. Point Guard Derek Fisher missed the first sixty two games of the season due to a foot injury. And then there was Kobe and Shaq both speaking openly about each other in the media, and a loss to the Golden State Warriors in December of two thousand. Kobe scored fifty one points, but took too many ill advised shots down the.

Stretch, and it kind of exacerbated the situation we were in that, you know, he was trying to win it all by himself a lot of nights.

By January, after a twenty three point loss to the Clippers, the team's frustrations had reached new heights. Here's Shaq.

I've never been the one to get into whose team it is, who's this, and who's that. But when it was, when everything went through me, the outcome was good. It was sixty seven and fifteen playing with enthusiasm.

Shaq was a showman just as he is today, a pitch man extraordinary, a star on screen and a rapper.

For all my friends in the media who like quotes, mark this quote down. From this day on, I would like to be known as the Big Aristotle.

But one could argue Kobe may have been a bit more like Aristotle with a cerebral approach to basketball as he developed his own philosophy.

Phil had the way of breaking through, and he didn't treat everybody the same. He knew how to talk to each person. And you know, remember him telling me that, you know, Jeanie, at some point Kobe will rebel against me. And I said, no, he loves you. Are you kidding? But you guys are winning? But and he goes, no, it's just it's just that's just the way it's human nature. I'm an authority figure. You know, as somebody comes of age, then they challenge, you know, what was there before so

Here's Derek Fisher.

The things going on, I guess with Kobe and Shack were well documented, but it was too much focus put on that, and I think, you know, for a lot of us as members of the team, you know, we kind of stepped back and also started attention to that a lot instead of really being held accountable for what we could do to help the team.

In March, Kobe suffered an injury that kept him out of the lineup for nine games. It turned out to be the reset everyone needed during the.

Period of time that Kobe set out. We had to change our style back to where Shaq had the dominant space on the floor, and once we got to that, we executed very well. And I think that when Kobe came back, it was really his impression that I'm going to come back and I'm going to make this transition into this team.

I was underneath of the baseline with Kobe n figuring far and I'm selfish played by Kobe.

The Lakers turned a corner and won their final eight regular season games, beating the Sacramento Kings to take the division titles.

It again, O'Neil once again to Quidy two points, and then a.

Better guard Kobe.

The cacular Shocky Corby, and then they took off.

I mean they only lost one game in the entire playoffs.

I mean that's regarded as one of the best all time. Do you remember about that finals run? Why was that team just so dominant?

You know it was it was about everybody finding their space in the triangle, trusting in each other, and then that just familiarity of having a core group of guys return, you know, they don't have to go through a learning process again, you know, and it was only going to get better now. Nobody could predict that the kind of run that they went on. It was a lot of.

The posterized so long.

The Lakers sweat the Western Conference playoffs, first the Trailblazers, who had taken them to a game seven the year before. Then the Sacramento.

Man slam Dollar, who one of a friend you absolutely have to love what your cheek.

And finally the top seeded San Antonio.

Spurs comes outside to Bryant.

He's hoping he shoots for three good over Bryant, connecting they have dealt a severe and perhaps fatal balls of a Spurs championship hulks man.

Kobe dropped seventy three points in games one and two on the road, earning high praise from Shack.

I told Kobe today he was my idols play. No, I'm sure he's playing phenomenal. I mean, I don't know what else to say. I think he's the best player.

In the league.

The Lakers wrapped it up in Game four at Staples. Shaq finished with twenty six points and ten rebounds. Kobe had twenty four points and eleven assists. I didn't even imagine how you look back on that time, like what what did you think and feel that your most important contribution was during that time, because that's just that was just iconic.

That run.

Whatever my dad needed, He'd tell me what he wanted and I'd go execute. Like that's just that's just how we worked. And as you know, the significant other of the coach, I felt a little bit like I was like Mama bear, you know, like this was I'm the like team mom in a way, and so however I could be however I could funnel information to Phil through the wives, you know, if one family was struggling, because you know, the kid's not sleeping at night. You know,

The lakers perfect playoff run would come to a screeching halt in Game one of the NBA Finals. The Philadelphia seventy six Ers, led by league MVP Allen Iverson, had come to play, backed up by.

Iverson down the floor.

He goes against O'Neil Allen by the big man Scoop lap As Good and.

The Lakers are being humiliated here at this point of the ballgame, this.

Is not going the way Los Angeles and its fans.

Iverson was unstoppable, scoring forty eight points. The Lakers lost in overtime at home, one oh seven to one oh one.

Shot blocked down to three.

Snow with the ball.

He's gonna have to do it himself.

Back go to Allen.

He comes out the right side baseline paint open. Good.

What an incredible shot by Iverson, spinning like a top through the paint.

The Lakers responded with two straight wins, taking control of the series with an end of game dagger in Game three by big shot Rocks Robert or Oi'll.

Take a.

Running away in the face of Philadelphia nails the three ball for the left corner of Los Angeles Lakers.

I mean Magic's called you, which rightfully so one of the greatest clutch players in history. In Game three in the finals against Philly, I mean, this series is tied. You know, you hit this three pointer with forty seven seconds left and then you hit a free throw and you guys win the game. What do you remember about that?

In particular, I remember me running to the corner. I was feeling and I think what people don't understand about when you are who you are. What I mean by that not not the upper echelon players who get plays right for them. You might be shooting the ball pretty good, but you might not get it again because the ball is going through Shaq, going through Kobe.

And that's one thing I love about b Shaw.

B Shaw is I'm gonna go to the hot guy, and he knew I had been shooting the ball pretty good, so he came to me in the corner, and instead of me looking for anybody, I took the shot from the corner to put us well, to put us up and I remember fans yelling behind you know what, Philly fans are saying outrageous stuff, and I never respond to anybody. But after I made that shot, I look at the guy and I say some things I know I shouldn't have said, like shut the f up.

I couldn't help because the Philly fans, they just get under you. Sometimes when you do something spectacular, you got to say it. And plus I'm the type of person I'm not gonna say nothing doing the game, but I will say something at the end of the game when I know he got in at hand, because I ain't trying.

To give anybody no spark or no bulletin board material.

You know, that's a momentum changer because then once that happens, you know you've struck your your enemy, you know, the person that you're fighting. You've drawn blood, and like, how are they going to deal with that that wound? Are they going to be able to pull it back and get back on track? Are they gonna drop down a

Right, Oh my gosh, do you get really nervous because you always you you always look pretty calm on the outside.

Do you get nervous? Yes? Absolutely right, It never ends.

The Lakers took the title in Game five at Staples, finishing with the best record ever in the history of the NBA Playoffs.

Back to back titles for the Los Angeles Lakers.

I remember my dad after the first one saying to me, why does why does he have to make it look so easy?

You know?

But it really is about everybody committing to what the goal is, and everybody kind of sacrificing what they're about their ego and about their game and how they can fit in and create something bigger than just the sum of its part.

You know. Kobe comes first with the Jeff and then you follow with me the knockout.

Kobe and Shaq began the next season as co captains, Perfect Cash.

And Kobe Bryan Great execution by Shock.

So many people talk about the riff, the beef, whatever you want to call it, between Shack and Kobe. If you ever just hung out with us as a team, locker room practices bus. They never once said anything to us about what was going on between them. It must have been some much that was handled with Field because we're going to practice, laugh and joke and this is what you can tell, well, you don't like someone after practices, everybody sits in the locker room their icing and doing

Right? And then next championship Shack and Kobe And for me, I'm like, where is this beef?

I remember going into a third championship it started coming out that you know, it was, you know, a hierarchy going on. It's beef going on. And I remember telling press, you know what, we don't need them anymore. Let's just trade Shack and Kobe. I said that's a joke, right, and they both come to like, oh, you're gonna trade me. I'm like, there was a joke, dude, it was a joke.

And so yeah, you were trying to point out just how like kind of ridiculous it was. You guys were winning winning championships, but I never.

I personally, I never saw it. And because I you know me, I'm just a fun loving guy. I've never played with anybody I didn't like. I'm always trying to have a conversation with people and trying to get know people off the court, because you know, basketball is basketball, but we are at the basketball we are human beings with fathers, and I just tried to get to know everybody on that on that playing field, and it was

The Lakers quest for a three peete began with the sweep of the Blazers in Round.

One brows there comes frying where a shot.

They dispatched the Spurs in five. In the semis Kobe dropped forty five in Game one and average thirty three for the series.

Coming off the strip shot homing.

The real drama began in the Western Conference Finals against a familiar foe in the Sacramento Kings.

These two teams backla both dings. There is some there's not a lot of loss between theaster.

Clot So Game four Western Conference Finals in two thousand and two and you hit this three porter with a second left on the clock over Chris Weber, uh huh, and you guys win one hundred and ninety nine. The Kings were leading that series, by the way. The Staples Center was going like berserk.

Yes, we're a lot of shoven. Second, what an more about question?

What do you recall about that?

If you if I could take off my jack you see I'm getting, I would be getting goosebumps.

I've made a lot of big shots.

That shot is the only shot when you just mentioned it, I get goosebumps because to me, making that shot was like the birth of one of my kids.

That's how special it is to me. Because give me a little history. I grew up a big Laker fan.

I grew up a big Magic Johnson fan, and then able to knock down that shot in Staples and have the fans chant my name is. It is the greatest feeling I started having your kids and being drafted into the NBA.

For me, I remember walking off and in the locker room.

The fans I think stayed there maybe five to ten minutes after the game, still chanting my name. As a player, your ego always gets some gets in the way of gets the best of you sometime, but this is the one time the ego.

Was just like, yeah, you deserve this dog. And for me, man, it was it's like when I go to meet my maker, I want that video played at my funeral.

It's the best moment, like, you know, in my basketball career, you know that shot, doing it in the Laker uniform for one of the greatest franchises ever.

Man, it's extra special.

It's hard to explain the faith that you have, like because it's just it's always seemed something would change the tide. And whether that was you know, Phil changing you know, like his substitutions, or Kobe's determination and will Shacks physical dominance, something would break open and then there'd be this like okay, we're making a run. Okay, you know, and oh we're

Christy inbounds to Weber underneath tiped away by the Lakers, Fisher has.

It and the King came close, game seven overtime.

To the world champion Los Angeles.

But the Lake Show wasn't over. An anti climactic sweep of the nets.

Swing again, the open shot up again.

And the Lakers had their three people, three p.

And a sweep for the world champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Phil Jackson has won for his night NBA Championship.

The Purple and Gold standard upheld. As you look back on it, what do you think was the hardest part of achieving a three peat? Because it hasn't been done since. You might have made it look easy the Lakers, but it wasn't.

Well, you can see it like we didn't win four in a row, and then what happens isn't you know? I would I would think the Warriors, you know, and the Bowls of the nineties, they could talk about what happens just internally that you know, Phil even has a saying there there isn't enough success to go around the success of the team that all of a sudden, any ego gets involved, Well, they wouldn't have won without that, you know, Robert or hitting that shot. You know my contracts, Uh,

You know, there's a lot of ways to look back on the past, right and you can look back on that era and say, wow, had Shack and Kobe say together, there would be even more rings. Or you can look back and say that's the way it was meant to be. How do you look back on that in retrospect? What's your perspective?

I think, you know, with the experience that I have, what I'd like to share with the younger people, the younger players in our organization is enjoy the moment. You know, it's so hard to get there, and it's really special when you do like, savor it, savor it as long as you can. And what I really loved about Phil was every year he would start a season, no matter you know, who was coming back, who leaving, he would start a season like, Okay, here's how we win a championship.

Is there a part of you that wishes, maybe a large part of you, that people would stop focusing on the Kobe and Shack relationship and appreciate what they accomplished together rather than the differences that they had when they were both young men. I mean, Kobe is a teenager coming into the league. Certainly the two of them put that to rest, but I'm wondering their perspective on it.

Yeah, you know, it just it's as time goes on, it will it won't be the story that people will want to talk about. Then want to talk about what they did accomplish together, you know. And I know that they had appreciation and the love for each other. I saw it, you know, not in front of the cameras. They really really did appreciate each other and support each other. And you know, I even you know, when Shaquille said,

That Lakers team was the last in the NBA to three peat. The Shaq Kobe era ended in two thousand and four, Shaq traded to the Miami Heat, where he would win another title. As Kobe led the Lakers to two more championships. Genie gave him a forty eight and a half million dollar contract late in his career, coming off an Achilles injury. He retired wearing the Bull and Gold, dropping a magical sixty points in his final game.

From one last gamer, Ryan are the moves with the jump berd He fine fifty eight points and the Lakers leave.

I can't believe it's come to an end.

You guys will always be in my heart and I sincerely, sincerely appreciate it. No words can describe how I phil about you guys, and uh, thank you, Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

God, I love you guys, and uh, I love you guys. What can I say, mambou?

How gratifying is it for you? Because of the family aspect of the Lakers, that Kobe was able to be a Laker for his entire career, That's just an incredible accomplishment and also rare.

He loved the Lakers so much and I am so grateful that, you know, he spent his entire career as a Laker, because he could have easily failed or asked to be traded. He didn't. He stuck it out for twenty years, and that we were able to retire his jerseys and celebrate him so that he would you know, there was no doubt how much we loved him as fans and as an organization, and we got that opportunity to celebrate him and retire both his members, and you know, I'm grateful that we had that.

The Lakers remain essentially a family business, from doctor Buss to Jeanie to the stars treated Lake family and manifested in a tangible way in this year's NBA Draft.

With a fifty fifth pick in the twenty twenty four NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Ronnie James from the University of Southern California.

It does always kind of go back to a family. You know, you would go into the press conferences afterwards, and maybe it's because it was really run by a family. You know, you and your dad, your brother there did feel like that extended to the players.

You know, I saw it on the other side when when you know, I dated Phil for fifteen years, and so when I was his significant other, I learned how to look at the team through the lens of a coach. And I remember getting in a fight with him because he was bringing the team in on Thanksgiving to practice, and I'm like, why are you doing that? Give them

The genesis of this podcast was because I wanted to tell my father's story as a former commissioner of the a BA. And that's something that you and I have always gone in common, how inspired we were by our dads and how our dads change our lives. When you think about your dad today as we sit here, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

You know how passionate he was about the Lakers team, and you know, winning and building something that was his dream and accomplishing the goal of making the Lakers want of the most dominant teams in the NBA, because he felt that there was such a bias with the East Coast media that teams on the West Coast really didn't get their due. And you know, he really had something to prove, and he did it. He proved it. So he's just really remarkable.

Next time on NBA DNA, The Doves Dynasty NBA DNA with Hannah Storm is a production of iHeart Podcasts, The NBA and Brainstorm and Productions. The show is written and executive produced by me Hannah Storm, along with Julia Weaver and Alex French. Our lead producer and showrunner is Julia Weaver. Our senior are Peter Kowder, Alex French, and Brandon Reese. Editing and sound design by Kurt Garren and Julia Weaver.