Los Angeles Lakers co-owner Jim Buss rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
Unlike his sister Jeanie, Jim is known for being a bit more brash and controlling. He’s also the more opinionated of the two, which can be seen in his most recent comments directed at former Laker, Dwight Howard.
When asked about Howard in a recent interview, Buss suggested that the big man was ‘really never a Laker‘, saying that he was simply ‘passing through’:
"Jim insists he’s just following his father’s blueprint, but the Howard situation suggests he missed a page. Instead of Jim spending time with Howard, the team launched a widely derided media campaign that implored “Stay” on billboards. After Howard bolted, Jim turned on his former star, saying he wasn’t surprised or dismayed. “He was never really a Laker,” says Jim. “He was just passing through.”Those close to Howard say the Lakers could have persuaded him to stay. Even Jeanie believes that if her father had not been sick, he would have sealed the deal like so many before it. “It’s disappointing that Dwight isn’t here,” she says. “I feel like we failed him.”"
Buss is just one of many in the Lakers organization (Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Phil Jackson) who’ve taken a backhanded slap at Howard, so it shouldn’t come as much of a shock that one of the more opinionated parties from the Lakers ownership group decided to express his opinion as well.