Jerry Buss Silent on the Phil Jackson Situation

The man in charge of paying Phil’s enormous salary won’t give away any hints as to what the plans for the future are, despite a CBS reporter’s best efforts to coerce an answer out of him: “None other than Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss was on my flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles Wednesday, and as we walked through the concourse at LAX, I explained that I’d be derelict in my duties if I didn’t ask him for his reaction to the latest developments in the Phil Jackson saga. ‘We’d both be derelict if I answered that question,’ Buss said. ‘I’m not going to talk about it because I don’t want any distractions for the team’ … I asked Buss if he could say definitively that he would not be outbid for Jackson’s services, and he refused to answer that question, too. He wouldn’t commit to a timetable for addressing the Jackson matter publicly, nor would he say when he expects to resolve the matter with Phil himself. As for the conference finals, which resume at Staples Center Thursday night with the series tied at 2, Buss said, ‘I’m confident,’ noting that the Lakers have been in this situation ‘many times.”‘