Bass s Lakers Past: Basketball Becomes a Show

In 1977, Canadian wealthy businessman Jack Kent Cook was in trouble with divorce.

Why is it said to be troublesome? Because he wants to compensate his wife for a sky-high fee of $41 million.

Cook, who urgently needs money, began to sell his assets, including the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jerry Bass, who wanted to acquire a professional team in Los Angeles since he was a child, smelled the opportunity to realize his dream. He contacted Cook. Whenever he had time, he would go to Cook's home in Las Vegas to discuss the Lakers' change of ownership.

At first they didn't talk much about trading. They first watched games and talked about basketball like a sports fan, and they would chat for several hours each time. After more than a year of in-depth exchanges, in the early spring of 1979, Cook made a decision - Bass could not only get the Lakers he was thinking about, but he could also buy ownership of the forum stadium and the Kings of the Los Angeles, an ice hockey team affiliated to the NHL. Although leveraging Cook's heart, there was still a difficulty between Bass and the Lakers' property rights certificates - he was not among the wealthy buyers who wanted to buy the Lakers, and Bass did not have enough funds to meet Cook's asking price.

Although the relationship between the two gave Cook some room for reversal, of course, in order to avoid taxes, Cook agreed to exchange assets with Bass to offset some of the cash. But a tricky problem is that Cook doesn't look down on Bass's real estate in Southern California, and he is not willing to directly exchange assets under Bass' name. He only wants the Chrysler Building, a landmark in New York.

In that spring, Bass was busy. He wanted to continue negotiating and negotiating quotations with Cook, and on the other hand, he wanted to convince Wantong Insurance, who owned the Chrysler Building at the time, to reach a deal with him, just like familiarizing himself with the NBA's three-party transactions in advance.

In addition, he is missing $3 million to fill the gap between the two transactions.

Although Bass had started from scratch as a poor boy and became a real estate tycoon worth 50 million yuan at that time, the $3 million almost stumped Bass. Fortunately, a few hours before the transaction deadline, several friends extended a helping hand to him: Donald Sterling, the former Clippers boss who was later forced to sell his team due to a scandal, borrowed Bass $1 million;

Sam Nassey also borrowed a sum of money to Bass, and this man would buy the Indiana Pacers for $8 million in the summer of the same year, who was Bass' close partner;

In addition, Lawrence Taylor, who was in a real estate business in California, bought several of his buildings with cash, allowing him to raise a balance of $3 million. Interestingly, Lawrence Taylor once had the opportunity to acquire the Pacers for $5 million, but he adhered to the principle of not knowing or not touching and missed this opportunity.

Back to the point, Bass met Cook's offer at the last moment and finally realized the three-party transaction in the mall.

Cook got his dream Chrysler Building and $67.5 million in assets and cash, while Wantong Insurance got the cash return from Bass' sale of real estate.

And Bass became the owner of the Forum Arena, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Although 75% of the Lakers' equity can be sold at a sky-high price of $10 billion in 46 years. But at that time, NBA teams were not a hot commodity.

Donald Sterling once laughed at Lawrence Taylor who missed the Pacers, saying that "he lost a chance to become a billionaire", but Sam Nassi and Frank Mariane, who bought the Pacers in 1983, did not insist on holding the Pacers to the day when they reached a $3 billion market capitalization. Because they could not withstand the gold-swallowing beast that had suffered losses for years, they sold the team to the real long-termist Herb Simmons in 1983, who has held the team to this day.

Bass is also a real long-termist. He bought the Lakers' part of the sentiment, but more importantly - he decided that this was a very good business.

"It is indeed very tempting for fans to control a team, but it would be stupid if you think I bought the Lakers just for fun."

Although he lost $40,000-5 million in the 1974 experience of investing in the Los Angeles string team in the World Tennis League, he lost $40,000,000-5 million, but this does not mean that Bass had a wrong judgment on the Lakers. After all, in the United States, it goes without saying which is more important, tennis or basketball.

Moreover, Los Angeles is booming as a world entertainment center. A professional basketball team carrying Los Angeles' mark is bound to be the jewel in the crown.

However, at that time, everyone had not realized its value. What Bass needs is to make everyone realize this.

and he did it too.

Bass pioneered the integration of professional sports and entertainment. He allowed young and beautiful cheerleaders and professional bands to perform for the audience during the game, and introduced various cheering voices to play during the game, causing the entire stadium to fall into an excited and dreamy environment, which is what Hollywood is best at.

sports writer Vincent Bonsinor said watching the Lakers' game at that time was like being at the "Oscars and Grammys Awards, and there was a little playboy flavor."

In that era of rapid economic development in the United States, under the influence of the consumerist atmosphere, no one would refuse glamorous services and packaging. Bass transformed all the front seats that were originally convenient for media reporters to be seated for local celebrities, making "sitting in the front row of the sidelines to watch the Lakers' game" a noble and desirable thing.

People are willing to spend a lot of money to buy a sideline position, expose themselves to the spotlight of the Vanity Fair, and meet young models with hot bodies and celebrities with rich social resources. They hope that one day they can enter the class and get a ticket to date beautiful women and chat with big guys.

Moreover, in addition to having accurate vision, Bass also has good luck.

In the first offseason when he bought the Lakers, he got Elvin Johnson in the draft. The Showtime basketball frenzy caused by the "Magician" who made all men and women in Los Angeles crazy, turned the Lakers into the center of the basketball world.

Bass turned the Lakers game into a show and a symbolic symbol of pop culture.

Whenever people mention the Lakers, they think of Jack Nicholson who always appears on the sidelines; they are the charming magicians Johnson and Kobe Bryant... They are the basketball hall where purple and gold complement each other, and the golden age that Americans yearn for and long for.

Bass said his dream was to "bring the Lakers and Los Angeles into one", and he did it. Even to a certain extent, it was Buss and the Lakers who built him, who built a smooth road for the entire league as a pioneer.

David Stern said that without the Lakers, there would not be an NBA that combines basketball and entertainment today.

This is why, the Lakers, which Bus bought for only 67.5 million, was worth $10 billion.