The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title after exactly 10 years. The main parts around their success were obviously the players and, of course, the coaching staff.
However, the Lakers’ owner Jeanie Buss shared her thoughts on the people behind the scenes and their contribution to creating a winning product in LA.
Buss referred to the executive director of special projects Linda Rubis and general manager Rob Pelinka and the trust they showed each other, as Tania Ganguli reported for the L.A. Times.
(via SB Nation):
“She leaned on Linda Rambis, someone she’d worked with for decades and someone her father also had trusted. People began calling Rambis the team’s “shadow owner” and wondering why and to what extent she had power in the organization.
I do think that there’s people that might be uncomfortable with women in power positions,” Buss said. “Whatever that triggered in other people that started the hatred or slinging the mud whatever, calling her a shadow owner, things like that, was very demeaning and disheartening.”
However, Buss had also high praise on Pelinka, who was instrumental in building the championship roster this season. Buss claimed he never had any doubts over the GM capability to lead the franchise to winning.
“I know Rob, I know he is a man of integrity,” she said. “Professional. Extremely bright. Approaches things in analytical way. Is a problem solver. All the things that were going on in the media I don’t pay attention to because you can’t get validation from the media. … That never made me doubt him for a second.”
