Last week the Los Angeles claimed what seems like their millionth championship in the history of the franchise after dispatching the Orlando Magic like they were some jayvee team 4 games to 1. And, as is always tradition in the NBA, the LA Lakers had a parade thrown for them in downtown Los Angeles.
What’s cool about NBA championship parades is that they are usually a great chance for the owner of the team to stick their nose in the action and pretend like they’re best friends with the players. But the Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss wasn’t found sticking his nose in the action at all; in fact, Buss wasn’t even at the parade which is very rare for an NBA owner.
Instead, Buss was in a California dive called the Bicycle Casino playing poker at a table by himself 10 miles away from the parade route. Luckily, the parade was shown on the TV right above Buss, but the weird thing was that he wasn’t even watching the television and was focusing on his cards instead.
Those who are heavy into the live poker scene know that this behavior isn’t uncommon for Buss though since he has been an avid player for years now. Buss’ best showing was without a doubt a 3rd place finish in the 1991 World Series of Poker Seven Card Stud tournament. And he has been trying to improve on that finish for years now since he often plays in WSOP events.
Buss is pretty fascinating to me since he seems to have a true love of poker. Most NBA owners would never skip a parade, and the attention that would come with it, to play poker. Buss, on the other hand, continues to play the game despite the fact that he obviously doesn’t need to make any money and has the whole fame thing in check. I’ll definitely be rooting for Buss to do well if he decides to enter any WSOP events this year!