Lakers make Jerry Buss’ dream real

Former Lakers owner Jerry Buss wanted LeBron James to become a Los Angeles Laker in 2010.

Entering the 2010 offseason, the Lakers had just won their 16th championship after defeating the Boston Celtics.

According to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times, Buss thought about calling James anyway.

“Over lunch with his kids, he mentioned the idea, offhandedly” Ganguli wrote.

“It’d be good to know that guy,” his son, Joey, recalled him saying.

Jeanie Buss, Buss’ daughter and now Lakers co-owner, told the

Times that James was a player her father was always interested in.

It took eight years after Buss’ dream scenario, but James is a Laker. Jerry Buss died in 2013 at age 80 from an undisclosed form of cancer.

Having James in Los Angeles is exciting for the Buss family.

“It just feels right,” said Jesse Buss, Jerry’s youngest son, who is the Lakers’ assistant general manager and director of scouting. “It feels like, finally. It means a lot since it’s really the first chance since he passed away that it kind of seemed similar to something he would have done.”

Wrote Ganguli: “Jerry Buss brought Magic Johnson to the Lakers, and Magic Johnson brought them LeBron. In doing so, he fulfilled a dream Jerry Buss never got to see realized, eight years after he dared say it out loud.”

Helping hands

The Iowa State football team showed up in stormravaged Marshalltown to help residents clean up two days after a destructive tornado swept through the city.

The entire Cyclones roster traveled from Ames to Marshalltown, making quick work out of a number of tasks Saturday before catching a breather at a local schoolyard, The Marshalltown Times-Republican reported.

Players cleared tree limbs and debris, raked yards, removed furniture from damaged homes and businesses, and moved remnants of houses, rooftops and garages.

“I don’t have words for it, you know what I mean?” redshirt freshman offensive lineman Colin Newell told the Times-Republican. “You just put yourself in that position for a second and you’re like, ‘Wow.’

“We had some guys come up here [Friday] and help out, and they said we’ve got to get more guys up here and do what we can to help out. We’ve got a lot of people with us, so we can bring a lot of manpower with us and get out here and help these people out.”

One of the group’s first undertakings Saturday was to help a family move its car out of the driveway and a truck out from under a garage that had fallen on it. A tearful owner offered hugs to any Cyclone football player who crossed her path. Some affected by the storm pledged their fandom to Iowa State, even if only for a day.

Both Newell and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Alex Kleinow have dealt indirectly with flood damage to their own hometowns, but that was nothing compared with what Marshalltown experienced during the tornado.

“This is really eye-opening,” Kleinow said.

He said it

From Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times:

■ “Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley finished dead last at the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament, but at least his wild tee shots were memorable. The words ‘get down’ hadn’t been uttered this much since the disco era.”

■ “So, there’s talk that Bryce Harper cheated to win the Home Run Derby because his pitcherfather didn’t wait for balls to land before throwing his next pitch? That’s a first — someone saying baseball could use some slowdown rules.”

James