<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">HAWAII? Despite what you may have read (here), Phil Jackson turned out to be a real possibility instead of a mass delusion. Buss, whose interest had been casual ? maddeningly so to his daughter ? came around last week, signaling he would pay Jackson $10 million a year. Phil was actually considering it. (That gulp you heard was me swallowing three months' worth of columns. Metaphorically, of course.) This isn't just good news for the Lakers, it's a lightning bolt illuminating what's left of their world. It may also be Buss' last chance to keep them from falling into the abyss, so if it's doable, he'd better do it. Of course, it will have to be by phone. With serious negotiations finally set to start, Buss bopped off on an unannounced vacation in Hawaii ? ahead of his previously announced six-week trip to Europe, starting May 16. I have to give it to him, that man can still party. When I come back from vacation, I need a year to rest up for the next one. Personally, though, if I was trying to persuade one of the few men capable of restoring direction to my franchise to overlook the fact I terminated him a year ago, I'd put off one of my vacations to talk to him in person. We're talking major turning point in Laker history. It used to be OK if Buss was detached and optimistic to the point of clueless because he had Jerry West, whom he trusted implicitly, for the brutally honest perspective. But that was (sigh) then and this is (shudder) now. Now, when the going gets tough, Buss is on an airplane and West is in Memphis. Buss notes that people (OK, it was me) said the same thing last spring when he left for Europe with Shaquille O'Neal, still a Laker, demanding a trade and Kobe Bryant, a free agent, thinking of leaving. Actually, that turned out disastrously unless I missed something positive?. </div> Source
