That Jeanie Buss, she’s a big shot now, running the Lakers and all. Heard she was all tangled up with Phil Jackson, that basketball coach fella. They was together a long time, I reckon. Must be since, like, 1999 or something. Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson, a real pair they were, you know. Like two peas in a pod, except one’s a pea and the other’s a whole darn watermelon!
Heard they was even gonna get hitched, engaged for four years, they say! Imagine that, Jeanie Buss married to Phil Jackson. He was the coach of the Lakers, made ’em win lots of games. Good coach, that Phil. He knew his basketball, that’s for sure. Phil Jackson, a big name, always in the papers. But Jeanie, she’s a Buss, that’s big too. Her daddy owned the team. Big Jerry Buss. A big loss when he died. Then that Jeanie she took over.
They say things got messy when that Jeanie took over. Heard she pushed out some folks, even that Jerry West fella. Big falling out, I guess. Some folks say it all goes back to her and Phil. That Jerry West, he wasn’t too happy about them two being together. Jeanie Buss, she’s got a mind of her own, though. Don’t let nobody tell her what to do, that’s what I hear. It is all about Lakers, all the time.
- Phil Jackson, he’s a winner.
- Jeanie Buss, she’s a boss lady now.
- They were together for a long, long time.
- Didn’t work out in the end, though.
Then in 2004, that Phil, he left the Lakers. Wanted more money, I heard. Double what he was making! That’s a lot of dough. Six million to twelve million. Sheesh. Even though Lakers offered him a new contract, he just did not accept. He went to New York after that, to run the Knicks. Phil Jackson and the Knicks, that was a thing for a while. Left Jeanie and the Lakers behind. Guess things just fizzled out between them, like a soda gone flat. She then did some big change in the team, I think in 2017, she kicked out those people, Mitch and Jim.
They said they had to sign some papers, somethin’ about “conflicts of interest.” Big words for an old gal like me. Just means they had to make sure things were fair, I reckon. Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson, they were on different teams, you see. She was with the Lakers, he was with the Knicks. Big rivals, those two teams. Like cats and dogs, always fightin’. It was a big mess.
And then, bam! They called it quits. Said it was all over on that Twitter thing. “Mutual love and respect,” they said. Sounds like a load of hogwash to me. Probably more to it than that. You know how these things are, always more than meets the eye. Phil Jackson and Jeanie Buss breakup, it was all over the news. Everyone was talking about it, a big gossip.
Heard some folks were askin’ why they were even allowed to be together in the first place. She’s the boss, he’s the coach. Mixing business and pleasure, that’s what they call it. Never a good idea, I say. Just leads to trouble, like mixing your moonshine with your milk. No good can come out of it, I tell you that.
She knows what it’s like to lose someone, that Jeanie. Heard she’s been through it before. Mixing her personal life with her work life. Tough lesson to learn, but she’s a tough cookie, that one. She’ll bounce back. Jeanie Buss, she’s a survivor. She’s strong.
So, that’s the story of Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson, as far as I know. A real tangled-up tale, ain’t it? Love, basketball, money, power… it’s got it all. Just like one of them soap operas on the TV. But this one’s real life, I reckon. Or as real as it gets in that fancy world of theirs. They are all rich people, and we don’t know much about their life. Just some gossip.
