[distant sirens wailing]
PERSON: So let's go to Brian live now at the courthouse
in Simi Valley.
PERSON: The trial of four policemen
continues today in Los Angeles for the charge
of beating motorist Rodney King.
PERSON: Well, now everybody is in a state of nervousness,
just waiting for the decision to come down.
BYRON: As clear as can be,
it's on tape,
but they ain't going to jail.
That's how I felt.
And I'm sure a lot of other people in L. A.
felt the same way.
PERSON: Not guilty of the crime of assault
by force likely to produce great bodily injury
and with a deadly weapon.
JAMES: We were really taken aback
by what we saw in the courtroom.
PERSON: Technical political nonsense.
This is not [indistinct].
It's crap.
It's terrible.
- The jury gave the okay to continue
to abuse and oppress and suppress
Black people in this country.
BYRON: You know, you're looking at a team
that has, you know, 80%,
85% African American on it.
So all of us probably have gone through some incident
with LAPD.
ALL: [chanting] No justice, no peace!
- We could still keep going here.
A.C.: There was a lot going on
off the court that day,
but we had our work cut out for us.
- The team was in the first round of the playoffs.
PERSON: The Lakers trail in this five-game series
two to none.
PERSON: There is no tomorrow if they lose tonight.
- I remember like it was yesterday
this sort of hubbub building through the Forum
that shit was going down outside.
PERSON: Departing the Forum tonight,
go westbound on Manchester or north on Prairie.
A.C.: You know, I'm in the game thinking,
"Did I hear what I think I just heard about
going a certain direction, don't go east?"
PERSON: [indistinct]
No, the buzzer. The Lakers win!
BYRON: We win the game.
And they told us that there were rioting going on outside,
you know, so you might wanna take a different route home.
It was crazy.
PERSON: Give us as wide a shot as we can.
PERSON: I don't see how we could play a game here.
With the situation the way it is,
it's just too dangerous for people.
[tense music]
VLADE: We had to move to Vegas
and play in Vegas against Portland.
PERSON: The best of a bad situation,
moving the game from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
STEVE: Now, the Lakers are totally displaced.
And they lose.
BYRON: That was a tough one to take.
Back home in Inglewood, you see,
in the aftermath, I still was upset.
PERSON: The fires continue to burn in various pockets
of the community.
PERSON: A fella told us a little while ago,
"If we have to burn it down,
"we'll burn it down to make our point.
And we'll start all over."
- There wasn't no rich people lootin'.
I promise you that.
- We already at the bottom.
You know, what else can we do?
Nothin' but violence.
- It came to that point
where people were just tired of it.
You know, I'm not condoning any violence whatsoever,
but I understood.
You know, I feel like I feel.
I'm not gonna, you know, sugarcoat it.
- I can hear Byron saying, "I know how they feel."
BYRON: Yeah, I said it. I meant it.
End of the story.
And I got some backlash for that.
TODD: People have a hard time
dealing with racial injustice in America.
They don't wanna hear an NBA player,
they don't wanna hear anybody say anything that
might be sympathetic to people
they are identifying as the rioters.
BYRON: I think we pretty much accepted
that's the way it was.
You know, you play basketball, stick to basketball.
SNOOP DOGG: Byron Scott was a product of this environment.
He had watched police violence happen
for years and years and years.
And because he made it successfully,
he's supposed to turn a blind eye to it?
He understood how we felt because he's one of us.
We one of him.
- Sometimes you get lambasted for telling the truth.
But if it's the truth,
then you have nothin' to be ashamed of.
SINGER: ♪ California love ♪
[Remix of Tupac Shakur's "California Love"]
♪ California ♪
♪ Knows how to party ♪
♪ California knows how... ♪
ANNOUNCER: There he is, his first shot as an owner.
Do you think he likes it?
SINGER: ♪ California ♪
♪ ♪
- At this moment, I can't believe it.
SINGER: ♪ California ♪ PERSON: What's the future?
Want to replace your father at the top?
- Yeah. [laughs]
SINGER: ♪ In the city ♪
BUSS: Between my daughters and my sons,
there's certainly enough sports teams to go around.
♪ ♪
SINGER: ♪ In the city ♪
PERSON: Are you and the rest of the family,
are you guys all on the same page?
ANNOUNCER: The Lakers, caught in the middle
of a family power struggle.
♪ ♪
BUSS: I think I've really left them with something.
[Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride"]
PERSON: ♪ You look good inna ya car, eeh ♪
♪ Longtime mi watch ya and mi wah chat to ya ♪
♪ And ya a gwaan like ya nuh wah chat to me ♪
♪ So wha'ppen Dre, tell 'em weh di fuck a gwaan nuh ♪
DR. DRE: ♪ Creepin' down the back street on D's ♪
[gun clicks]
♪ 'Cause niggas want these ♪
♪ No soon as I said it, seems I got sweated ♪
♪ By some nigga with a TEC-9 tryin' to take mine ♪
KRS-ONE: Nothing that has happened to Rodney King
is new.
America has always been about this.
Cops out there feel that they got a license to kill anyway.
And a beatdown just goes with the program.
BYRON: In 1992, you get the Rodney King rise.
But if you look at the history of hip-hop,
this was a time when music changed.
SNOOP DOGG: Like, we stayed on the "Chronic" album
the day that niggas took over, 04-29-92.
It took that incident for America
to finally see that, "Wow, I guess all these songs
like "Fuck the Police" and, you know,
these records that they been making
really make sense because the police do act a fool
when it ain't no cameras on 'em.
Actually, when there are cameras on 'em.
We not the problem.
We tryin' to solve the problem by bringin'
these problems to your face.
- We were showing the ugly underside of
being young and Black in America.
BYRON: And people far beyond the Black community
are actually listening to this music.
PERSON: Their rhyming lyrics to a thundering beat
are angry, violent, and profane.
- We were a mirror to what was going on.
And instead of solving the problem,
people wanted to break the mirror.
BYRON: Honestly, looking back
on it as part of hip-hop's appeal
is that it was notorious.
BOB MCADOO: Society was changing at that time.
And you were seein' it on the basketball court.
♪ ♪
- The league was definitely changing, and I loved it.
The players looked like people that I knew.
They dressed like the hip-hop community in Los Angeles.
ICE CUBE: It was cool to see hip-hop and the NBA
merge and grow together.
[cheers and applause]
PERSON: Welcome to the 1993 NBA Draft.
STEVE: The Lakers needed a point guard,
but you're spoiled.
You're looking for the next Magic.
I think Jerry West was just gonna take
the best player he could get.
- Now, the Los Angeles Lakers
selected while we were away Nick Van Exel,
the excellent point guard out of Cincinnati,
although his stock, as you can tell by where he was selected,
has slipped.
GARY: Nick had a chip on his shoulder.
You want a guy with a chip.
It's just the question is, is can you channel it?
[funky music]
♪ ♪
- I definitely wanted to prove people wrong, you know.
And it was just to go out there and crack heads.
You know, at the end of the day, just make people pay.
PERSON: Passes over Hardaway.
And it [indistinct].
SNOOP DOGG: That's my guy.
I remember when the Lakers got him,
we used to go over his house and hang out--
you know what I'm saying-- and do what grown folks do.
You understand me?
Before the season, during the season, and after the season.
ICE CUBE: Nick was just a baller.
You know, some guys come in
and they're not scared of anything.
FLEA: I loved Nick the Quick.
I loved the shave thing in his eyebrow.
NICK: That was just what we did in my hometown.
That was our thing.
You know, Big Daddy Kane, Kwamé,
those guys putting two parts in the eyebrows.
So that's what we did.
TODD: These players are younger
and they have their own style.
And that style was very much rooted in hip-hop culture.
You know, they're wearing everything
baggy and then super baggy.
PERSON: Eddie Jones from Templar University.
EDDIE: When I got drafted,
the whole dress code, baggy shorts, long jerseys out.
You know, we were trying our best to get, you know,
an inch here or a inch there.
- The shorts that you guys wore
are not the shorts you see guys wearing today.
- Change and evolution
clearly was happening.
Players getting more power.
- The game prior to Michael Jordan
didn't have this flair of individuality.
♪ ♪
- More of a league based on superstars
rather than on super teams.
- Guys that dunk, showboating.
After they'd make a long shot,
they'd look at the bench and point at you.
And I was like, "I never saw that."
NICK: The music probably
had something to do with it as far as being a little bit
more, like, as a show.
We're gonna talk a little trash to you.
EDDIE: 20-year-old kids, hip-hop is running the world.
That's how we got hyped up to go out and play.
You know, Mary J. Blige is there.
You know, Snoop Dogg's there.
You know, Dre is there.
You wake up in the morning and you start listening
to their music getting ready for the game,
you wanna put a show on for them.
SNOOP DOGG: Our music got them going,
just like the way they play got us going.
So I'm, like, bonding with these guys.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm like, "Oh, we got a nice squad.
"We gonna be all right.
"They young, they get down, they killers,
they move, they shoot, they talk shit, they back it up."
You know, they was giving us some great games.
PERSON: Now one of the youngest teams in the NBA,
the new Lakers must establish an identity of their own
and find a way to continue the legacy
of the great teams of the past.
EDDIE: We were like,
"We wanna make a name for ourselves,"
We're saying, "We're not Showtime anymore.
We the Lake Show."
And that was all Nick.
- You know, we had to try to create
our own image, our own identity.
I don't know what the hell made me think of it,
but I just started sayin,
"We'll be the Lake Show."
And it just stuck.
[indistinct PA]
PERSON: It is the way they were matched up tonight.
NICK: You know, we were the team that,
you know, after Showtime, they was like,
"It's about to be a downtime."
STEVE: When Erving announces he's HIV positive,
that clearly was the end of Showtime.
And then Byron Scott left and then A. C. Green left,
and there wasn't much left.
No matter what they do now,
it's gonna be compared to the '80s, compared to Showtime.
And it's always gonna come up short.
- We had went to the championship
almost every single year in the '80s.
So I just thought,
"End of the day, Lakers gonna be there."
- We Lakers.
We won a championship every year, no matter who we got.
- Everyone expected it to be like those guys.
And it wasn't gonna be like that.
This was gonna take a while.
I think we have to be realistic
about what this team really is right now.
We're not a great team at this point in time.
KURT: Sometimes you got booed.
You could hear it in the crowd.
That just leaves, like, a nasty taste.
You just walk away like, "What's the point?"
STEVE: Jerry Buss won a championship his first year,
won most times in a decade.
And now, he's going through what
many owners do at the beginning,
which is take a team and build upward.
JEANIE: And it's hard to rebuild.
It's hard to pull yourself back from being so great.
- You know, we got down to a very low point.
And I don't think he enjoyed that at all.
- I mean, you don't have the superstars.
You don't have a lot of the other guys.
And there's no definite coach who's gonna be here forever.
- So basically, we're on a coaching carousel.
- I start with Pat Riley, obviously,
and Mike Dunleavy,
Randy Pfund,
legendary Bill Barker,
Magic.
PERSON: Nearly three years after retiring
from the Los Angeles Lakers,
Magic Johnson returns to coach the team.
JEANIE: Having Magic back was really
something my dad wanted 'cause he never
wanted the tie cut with Magic.
And maybe coaching was the right answer.
MAGIC: I never wanted to coach.
Dr. Buss said, "Can you do this for me?"
And when he hit me with that one,
then I said, "Yeah, okay."
I am happy to be back with the Laker family.
PERSON: Is there any way to predict what your
coaching style will be like?
- Aggressive. [laughter]
NICK: When Magic came back to coach,
I thought it was great.
His motivational speeches--I mean,
you were gonna run through a wall playing for Magic.
JAMES: He was hard, man.
He practiced the shit out of us.
And he'd run us like Pat Riley used to run
'cause that's all he knew.
To see him come in and try to deal with some
of these young players, it was hard for Magic
to see players not hustle all the time.
- They say now, we don't practice hard.
We play hard in the game.
They say, "We don't wanna hear about the '80s."
I understand that.
We're the '90s team.
- You're old. You're old.
- You know, I was a baby.
You know, I didn't have a clue about, you know,
the things that they had to go through
to get to a championship level.
That used to drive Magic crazy because he saw
something that maybe was in us,
but we wasn't ready for that yet.
MICHAEL: When I was assistant coach,
Magic used to always say, "Can these guys run a three on two?
"We're going down on offense, three players on two.
You gotta score."
Well, we would throw the ball away.
That was perplexing to him.
- You're coming to understand that what we had was special.
And you see that now.
JAMES: Well, he was trying to figure out why,
you know, we couldn't get it done because
he thought it was just fuckin' easy, you know?
NICK: We on a losing streak.
Before practice, and he said, "Come on, everybody,
let's go outside."
When I go outside, it was fine.
Weather's great.
So he was like, "Everybody take a deep breath.
"Like, enjoy the air,
'cause some of you motherfuckers ain't gonna be here
next year to enjoy this good air."
- "You like this weather out here?
"It's nice and sunny.
"Shit, you wait.
You think I'm fucking with you?"
- We was like, "Oh, shit." [laughs]
- I just had to put my head in the towel and laugh.
"You fuckin' guys wanna be in Cleveland?"
PERSON: Magic out on the floor again flirtin' with ejection.
PERSON: Here comes Magic. He's gone.
Magic's gone. Magic's gone.
- Now, he used to say, "Coop, you know what?"
[laughs] "I'm not gonna be here a long--"
MAGIC: So I did it all the way
to the end of the season.
Dr. Buss said, "What you think?"
I said, "I never wanna do that ever again."
[laughs]
PERSON: How would you assess your performance as a coach?
- It really doesn't matter how good I can be.
It really doesn't.
The players are gonna make you great
or they gonna make you lousy, one way or another.
VLADE: I don't think we made the playoffs that year.
That was a big blow.
NICK: The Lakers playoff stretch
for so many years had been broken.
And, you know, I was a part of that.
[laughs]
- Jerry Buss was not thrilled
because it was the first time he'd ever missed the playoffs.
And that hit him hard.
- It was that feeling of,
are we ever gonna get to the top again?
Did we have so much success
that we're now gonna pay for it at the bottom?
GARY: The Lakers sold a lot of winning.
If you're a Laker fan, you're gonna win.
And when a team can't sell winning,
what they sell is, is hope.
And we couldn't sell hope because we were that bad.
There was no hope for us to win.
[bell rings]
[mellow music]
♪ ♪
JIM: I like the mornings. I like the afternoons.
I like the people.
And I love the animals.
And that's what you're surrounded with all the time.
When you're dealing with horses,
you are just really focused.
All of a sudden, it's years later and you don't even know.
So it was hard for me to sit there and go,
"I wonder what's happening over at the Forum."
You know, Hollywood Park was right next door to the Forum.
So then I could train horses there,
and then go over and eat dinner with my dad
at the Forum Club.
He'd get the racing form and look at my horses and say,
you know, "You might wanna do this with this one."
So we were just probably best friends more than
father, son, maybe.
It's close.
- I mean, my brother was a wild man, you know?
I mean, he was the partier.
You know, my father didn't help that.
Dad's going out to this club.
Let's go.
He taught him how to gamble.
My dad wanted that partner,
and Jimmy was his partner for that.
You know, the horse-racing business,
it was coming off of its peak.
You could see it was declining.
JEANIE: If it was something that
was raking in a lot of dough,
I think we'd still have a stable.
But I think my dad wanted Jimmy to find something
that fit more what he wanted the family
to focus on as opposed to the horses.
- He said it was time for me
to understand the basketball business and,
"Can you come back?" And I said, "In a heartbeat."
He said, "I want you to work with Jerry West
so you can learn."
And I said, "Well, what am I learning?"
"Well, one of the most important things is scouting."
JEANIE: If you were gonna learn how to scout,
you would learn from Jerry West because he is one of the best,
if not the best ever.
- Do you know how many people want that job?
You know, Jim was chosen to learn
that part of the business.
Salary caps and contracts,
it was kind of a whole mathematical thing.
And Jimmy is really good with numbers.
- I like to apply math to,
you know, sports, obviously, or anything else like that.
- Now, was he gonna be successful?
Well, that kinda comes down to individuality.
JEANIE: The Lakers are losing.
Magic's retired.
So my dad wanted to bring us back together as a family
because that's where he drew his strength.
But at that point, my siblings and I really didn't spend
all that much time together.
We came together for family events,
which weren't very often.
We just didn't really have similar lifestyles.
After my divorce, I felt such a sense of relief.
I was free to pursue the things that I was interested
in doing for myself.
I was over 30, comfortable in who I was, in my sexuality,
being a woman.
And I'd always admired the women who posed in Playboy.
I admired the magazine.
I knew Hugh Hefner through my dad.
And I thought I would like to see
if I would be considered for the magazine.
And I didn't tell my dad
because I didn't want him to call in a favor.
I went through the test photoshoot,
and I was accepted.
SINGER: ♪ 'Cause all I wanna do is have some fun ♪
♪ I got a feeling I'm not the only one ♪
♪ All I wanna do... ♪
- I took my pictures at the Forum, which was unusual.
As a woman in this business for all these years,
I've always felt left out in terms of not being able to go
into the locker room and not knowing
that feeling of camaraderie.
And so to me, that was mysterious and sexy,
to go into the locker room and, you know, make believe.
Finally, when I told my dad, he had no idea.
He said the funniest thing.
He said, "It's the first issue of Playboy magazine
I haven't read in 26 years." [laughs]
PERSON: He wouldn't look at it?
- No, he would not look at it.
It was something that I was very proud of.
It was empowering for me to express my sexuality
in a way that I wanted to.
- When she posed for Playboy,
I was aghast.
I was concerned, would the promoters,
would the agents and the managers
look at her differently?
LINDA: I was just worried people
would objectify her more and not look at her
as a serious business woman.
But I understand the liberation that she felt from doing that.
JEANIE: My dad's attorney was like,
"You're gonna hurt your chances.
You know, people are not gonna accept this from you."
But it wasn't a business decision I made.
That was a personal decision that I wanted to do for me.
- Dr. Buss did exactly what he wanted to do
and didn't care what you thought about it.
Jeanie Buss is the same way, and she should be.
- That was a time in my life.
And then I was on to the next thing.
And by then, my dad wanted me to move into
the basketball side of things.
And in 1995, I was named
an alternate governor of the Lakers.
Joining the board was a huge step
to really understanding how this business works.
MARK CUBAN: Jeanie and I and the guys from Sacramento
were the only ones that, you know,
felt like we were under 80 years old.
That generation didn't take kindly
to women in the boardroom.
- In a room of 100 people,
there might have been 2 other women besides me.
I was in line at the buffet,
you know, loading up my plate.
And all of a sudden, someone grabs my butt.
You know, at first, I was, like, so shocked.
And then I was embarrassed.
[somber music]
- You feel violated,
like...a piece of dirt.
I remember when it happened to me like it was yesterday,
and it's gotta be 35 years ago.
- I didn't take it so much as a sexual advance,
but more like a, putting me in my place.
You don't get a seat at the table.
You're just a piece of ass.
- I didn't know about that.
- Holy crap. Really?
- That's horrible.
- Did my dad know?
JEANIE: I think it would've hurt him
too much for me to tell him.
I didn't really wanna tell anybody.
- That's what happens to you.
You're ashamed that it happened.
JEANIE: But as time went on,
I realized that... [sighs]
You know, it's not my shame to carry.
It made me more determined than ever
to be successful in the business.
- I saw this woman
emerge in confidence,
so I started to think about leaving.
JEANIE: And so now, her position
as the general manager of the Forum was available.
My dad said, "As your boss,
"I would like to offer you the job.
"As your father,
"I'm recommending you don't take it.
You will have no social life."
LINDA: Running the building was a huge responsibility.
It's 200+ nights a year,
long days, and...
that was challenging.
JEANIE: It was a lot of work.
But the thing that I gravitated to the most was
creating success for myself in the family business.
♪ ♪
- And my father was taking a little bit
more time off at that time,
so he just wanted everything in place.
He called me in and said, "Hey, John,
do you know anything about women's basketball?"
And I go, "Uh, not a thing." [chuckles]
And he says, "Well, me neither."
DAVID STERN: I am pleased to announce
that the Board of Governors approves
the concept of the NBA establishing
a Women's National Basketball Association.
JOHNNY: And he said, "David Stern called
"and they're starting a women's league.
"And it would be great if I knew that
you would be okay heading up a WNBA team."
I mean, I just felt like should I even do this?
Everything that had happened.
The fallout of the Lasers.
I was racing.
I was doing music.
I had gotten married.
I was, you know, trying to find my way.
I just liked the enjoyment of a nice quiet life.
I didn't like being in the limelight.
But, you know, I missed being involved in something big.
I was ready.
I was ready to commit myself to women's basketball.
JEANIE: David Stern said to my dad,
"I assume Jeanie is gonna run the WNBA team."
But my dad said,
"I'm gonna have my son Johnny run the team."
So that kinda surprised David.
- You know, you'd hear,
"Why wasn't Jeanie the one to--
you know, she's the woman in the business."
- To have a woman run a women's team
really would have been special.
- I didn't sit there and say,
"Oh, well, why don't you give it to Jeanie?
You know, why are you picking me to do it?"
And I just jumped at the chance,
not even thinking about who else
might have been chosen for the WNBA.
JANIE: You could tell when there was,
you know, a little tension.
But the end goal was to create sports
and, you know, make the most money,
bring championships to Los Angeles.
Are you gonna sit there and hold a grudge forever?
I hope not.
PERSON: Hey, Tupac.
A little disappointed in the Lakers today?
- No, not at all. They played they best.
-It was a good game. PERSON: Yeah?
-Happy Magic's back? -Yeah.
STEVE: When they lost in '94,
I think people kinda sat down and thought,
"This could be a long haul.
"The Lakers could just be another team,
"although it's hard to envision after living
through Showtime."
- I mean, for me, it was an exercise
in how the other half lives,
- It wasn't exciting.
It wasn't the same.
Ticket sales dropped.
STEVE: The '94 in terms of attendance,
it was the lowest since Jerry Buss bought the team.
MITCH: The building did not sell out.
I would say it was, you know, 70% capacity
and a lot of empty seats.
- I wasn't struck by its emptiness
so much as its lack of energy
and way reduced star power.
FLEA: And I remember a lot of people fell off, you know?
People didn't care as much.
You know, it wasn't like when the Lakers--
when they repeated in '88, or whatever.
You know what I mean?
- Who wants to come and watch,
you know, guys lose ballgames?
- In the minds of the public, they're spoiled.
They had seen so much success.
And if they didn't win a championship,
it was a bad year.
JIM: Every other owner had businesses,
you know, cruise lines, you know, that kinda thing.
My dad didn't. This was it.
This was the only one.
When you have everything leveraged,
every game was so important because we needed to win
and we needed to keep this up.
- We weren't selling tickets.
We couldn't raise ticket prices.
That was not the model that my dad wanted to operate under.
We were gonna have to figure it out.
GARY: Jerry West sees this really young team,
and so he brings in a brilliant coach
to teach these young guys how to actually play the game.
- Coaching is the most exciting thing you can do legally.
I was really glad to be able to take a young team.
I was a teacher first, coach second.
- Him being my friend and someone
I've known a long time really had nothing to do with it.
He's one of the smartest basketball minds
I have ever been involved with in my life,
incredibly smart.
- He's probably known as the most
intellectual of the coaches.
So I find that easy to relate to.
And I enjoy talking to him.
- You know, he was just a old school kinda guy.
- And I was like, "Who is this guy?"
- I'm Lieutenant Frank Drebin, police squad.
- Leslie Nielsen, that was my first impression.
- He's a little weird dude.
- You're talking about coaching during the cultural change.
PERSON: Del Harris, underneath his left shoulder,
he showed it to us today.
Thank you very much.
EDDIE: He even got a tattoo,
trying to be cool with the guys.
- I just like to think I'm an adjustable person.
You know, you roll with it.
KURT: As my career was ending at that point in time,
Del created this position to kinda keep me around
a special assistant coach.
He was a great teacher and a tremendous basketball mind,
but he wanted control.
- Del was up all the time, you know, conducting.
NICK: Del was old school,
so he was all about the Xs and Os
and doing things the right way.
KURT: He wanted real structured
organization out there.
And that's not how Nick wanted to play.
He wanted his freedom.
EDDIE: They bumped heads.
Like, you can see it was a disconnect there.
- There were times where I may do something on the court...
PERSON: Van Exel winds it up and in a masterful feat.
PERSON: Up and under his arm.
NICK: Do a little dance or somethin',
and he's, "Oh, no, get back on defense.
Get back on defense."
GARY: We have a really talented, competitive,
gritty point guard that doesn't like to be told what to do.
Well, that's what the head coach does.
NICK: When you're young and you go into sports,
you don't know shit.
You're just playing.
I was just out there hoopin'.
He probably felt we was playin' more,
you know, bad basketball than good basketball.
And he's just tryin' to hone it in.
Just calm down. Calm down.
PERSON: He got labelled as having a bad attitude.
EDDIE: Yeah?
I think it's a bunch of bullshit.
NICK: You know, stereotype people give you.
People just see, you know, through the camera lens,
through the TV, you just goin' crazy,
always jabbin' at the referee.
PERSON: Be careful. PERSON: There's the team.
PERSON: Boy, this guy's got a short temper.
- Baby-ass temper tantrums, that's what they see.
PERSON: You ever clash on the court with Del?
NICK: He said he was trying to get my attention.
But he said I ignored him, and he pulled me out of the game,
like, in the first quarter.
And we got into this argument.
And of course, the media blew it up.
- It was blown up being bigger than it was.
- You know, my stubbornness would always
be, like, say something first and then shut up, you know,
as opposed to just don't say anything.
I didn't like authority.
I didn't like authority because I never had that.
I never had nobody say, "Sit yo' ass down."
[laughs] I didn't have that.
I grew up in a single-parent home.
My mom worked second shift.
Didn't have a father figure and pretty much raised myself.
[upbeat music playing]
[mellow music]
PERSON: We see Van Exel building up.
NICK: I've always been a shy person.
So I don't know if me playing on the basketball court
was a way for me to let my hair down.
Maybe I was hiding something when I got on the court.
You know, where I grew up,
we played against the older guys
all the time.
In Kenosha, you know, those guys, they'd kick your butt.
And they weren't playin', and so you had to get tough quick
or you was gonna get dominated.
And basketball, I'm just emotional.
I'm like, "Rrr," like, "let's go."
EDDIE: I'm telling you, he was so intense.
He would bring everyone in all the time like,
"You with me? We going hard."
And it was all about just tryin'
to come together and win.
DEL HARRIS: Nick, Eddie, and Cedric,
that was the nucleus of the team.
It was a great roster, I'm telling ya.
- The second year in L. A., we were a tight bunch.
Guys, you know, looked out for each other
on and out of the court.
We played a lot better that second year.
- In '94, '95, the Lakers came back
with the best record they'd had since the Showtime days.
- Our team was trending upward at the time.
We were trying to build something.
PERSON: A capacity crowd.
The Lakers in the playoffs for the first time in two years.
They're making the most of it.
STEVE: They made it to the second round
of the playoffs.
But the Lakers went on to lose.
But that was definitely progress,
coming back after not even being in the playoffs.
PERSON: He led the Lakers to their fourth largest
improvement from one season to the next.
The Coach of the Year award goes to--
PERSON: Why do you think he got Coach of the Year?
EDDIE: Pretty simple.
We played our asses off that year.
I mean, we all felt like we had something to prove.
- And we were winning, but not winning
like we thought we should.
Jerry said, "It's been a long time,
"and I really need a championship.
You know, I just gotta have it."
Well, so did we.
NICK: A buddy of mine would say,
"Man, y'all nice. Y'all athletic.
But y'all ain't gonna win shit." [laughs]
Because he was like, "Y'all gotta have some veterans.
Y'all gotta have some veterans."
PERSON: Good.
Go back. Go back.
EDDIE: We played with Magic all summer long at UCLA.
And it was like, "Man, Magic still can play."
- You know, he came out in '79.
There's no way that this dude can do this at that age.
- He was still running the pros outta there.
- I had been working out.
And I worked out every day at UCLA.
And I played pickup games.
And I'm playing like Magic.
[laughs]
- Even though Earvin has retired from the NBA,
he's still dazzling fans.
The fans gave a big welcome home
to Magic as he hosted an All-Star game
in Santa Barbara.
ALL: Magic!
Magic!
[cheers and applause]
STEVE: None of us from the beginning
understood that there was a difference
between HIV and AIDS.
We thought it was the same thing.
We thought this was a death sentence.
And he admitted to me later that he thought the same thing.
MAGIC: It was a lot going on back then.
HIV and AIDS, people were not educated enough.
But finally, they got educated.
STEVE: All the medications came along.
And so he began to think, "Well, you know,
I can do this. I can come back."
PERSON: Magic [indistinct].
PERSON: Johnson pulls up from 40 feet.
And that's the way you're supposed to end it!
- It was like, "Yeah, he can teach us some shit.
He definitely can teach us some shit."
- Why is he playing with us?
We went to him and were like, "Hey, dude.
Jump on. Let's go."
PERSON: What about that phone call you and Nick made?
What was that all about?
- Hey, it worked.
We got him back, and everybody's happy.
But I mean, we wanna make a run at it.
MAGIC: I love Eddie and Nick.
Those were my young guys.
- For Magic's first practice at LMU,
there were cameras all over the place.
PERSON: Is this gonna be like a Showtime 2 out there?
- Well, this is the Lake Show,
so we better stick with that. [laughs]
Lake Show Part 2.
- We all wanted him-- you know what I mean--
'cause we knew he was gonna take us to another level.
- I've been there five times.
I know what it tastes like.
I'd like to go one more time.
- Even though he hadn't played for five years,
here was a guy that we thought
would add to the maturity of the team.
- Now, I come in at 36.
I'm a leader.
I'm making sure that the locker room is straight.
I'm making sure that our heads are straight.
I'm making sure that we're prepared and ready
for the game, and then add what I can on the court.
- He's just gonna help us out a lot.
And I think the most important thing is his experience
and his knowledge of teaching to help other players be,
you know, what they should be.
EDDIE: As a shooting guard,
who wouldn't want Magic on his team?
From top to bottom, I think every guy was so excited.
DEL HARRIS: I'm sure a guy like Earvin
would be able to fit in just about any position.
I talked to the kids and I said, "Now look,
"I'm bringing him in as a big man.
"He's not gonna be the point guard, Nick.
"He won't be the off guard, Eddie.
"And he's not gonna be the small forward, Ced.
But he'll be a great teammate."
- Put me in. [laughter]
PERSON: Here comes Magic. Magic's coming in right now.
Listen to this crowd.
[cheers and applause]
The Magic is back.
PERSON: Van Exel makes a good pass to Magic.
[indistinct] Underneath Floyd!
- Whatever the '80s Showtime felt like,
that's what the Lake Show was feeling like.
PERSON: Rebound Divac, to Magic.
Four points!
PERSON: This is what the fans have come to see.
- It was pandemonium. [laughs]
We felt like we were stars-- you know what I mean--
seeing everybody there yelling
and screaming and so excited.
PERSON: Magic running.
Finding Eddie Jones!
- That was the first time I ever seen
the Forum packed before the game.
PERSON: Los Angeles, over the past four years,
hasn't had a whole lot to smile about.
This city is absolutely rejuvenated.
- I welcome back Magic.
Whoo, it's Showtime, baby.
- It was sold out.
And it was because of Magic.
- Immediately, ticket sales are through the roof.
- Magic is great.
I don't give a damn how old he is, what he got,
what he been through.
That's motherfuckin' Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
- They've won 11 of their last 13,
and Magic's been largely responsible.
- And talking to Magic,
it was, "Instead of sitting on the bench talking about it,
I can be in the game and show you how to do it."
- I'll say this about his teammates.
Boy, even though Magic's gettin'
all the headlines right now,
the others aren't saying a word.
They're just applauding, going along,
and still playing even better than before.
- We started out pretty hot.
Like, we was really rollin'.
And then, you know, things just kinda went south pretty quick.
MICHAEL: You know, the young kids,
the young guns are coming up.
And here, you have the old veteran marshal
that's like, "Okay, no.
Now, we gonna do it this way."
It was a rift.
EDDIE: You're talkin' 'bout the greatest
point guard in the history of the game.
Whatever Magic says is gonna go.
- Of course, Del had to be the one to mesh it.
He had to be the guy to try to figure it out.
So I'm sure it was really tough on him.
And then, you know, Magic, you know,
started sayin' he wanted the ball more.
And I'm like, "Well, shit, if he got the ball more,
then it won't be in my hands no more."
But I'm not gonna lie, it was tough.
EDDIE: You know, I was being
a little selfish about it, of course.
I think we all were.
- [laughs] I'm not gonna tell Magic,
"No, you can't have the rock."
I'm not gonna do that.
PERSON: They were 29 and 11 after his return
and, for a while, looked every bit the team to beat out West.
- We just fightin' each other so much.
Little things like who got the points,
whose name was in the paper.
- You know, I'm arguin' with the referees more.
I'm arguin' with Del more.
And there was a lot of frustration.
- Nick was very hard to watch
and very hard to be around at times.
- Nick Van Exel won't play
for the rest of the regular season.
That's his punishment for shoving
referee Ron Garretson in last night's game with Denver.
PERSON: What's up? MAGIC: Man, yeah.
Yeah.
I should have stayed retired, I guess.
It just sends a bad message.
You know, it's bad.
And I want him to know that you just don't do it.
PERSON: Even more disheartening
was the way Magic himself lost his cool.
PERSON: Technical foul. PERSON: Technical foul.
And now, he just bumped the official.
And he's gone.
MAGIC: I want to be the best example
for these young guys.
You know, I'm harpin' on them and I'm stayin' on 'em.
And then I come up and do something like this.
PERSON: No place in basketball for that,
as Magic clearly told us before the game.
PERSON: The storybook season
Magic had hoped for closed dismally
with a first-round playoff defeat.
PERSON: Houston takes on Los Angeles
three games to one.
[foreboding music]
[announcer shouts indistinctly]
♪ ♪
EDDIE: We got on the plane after we lost.
He was in tears.
MAGIC: I was in tears 'cause I knew it was over.
That was it.
- When Magic's comeback didn't work,
I think that's when we finally accepted
that Showtime was over.
MAGIC: I didn't bring the championship
back here in Los Angeles.
I think you know that
it's time to go when it's time to go.
PERSON: It's over.
NICK: It wasn't Magic's fault.
Magic was just like, you know,
"I don't think I can do this anymore, you know?
It's a new era."
[somber music]
[mellow music]
♪ ♪
KOBE: [indistinct]
I'm 'bout to give a oral presentation
for 2 1/2 minutes, 3 minutes.
I haven't prepared anything, so I'm 'bout to wing it.
Da-da-da-da.
My name is Kobe Bryant.
I'm 17 years old.
Here I am today giving a oral presentation in English class
not only in front of Mr. Rigby's camera,
but camera of Prism and ESPN.
My father played professional basketball for eight years.
PERSON: Bryant hangs the building shaker.
Look at this.
KOBE: He decided that it would be best for him
to take his talent elsewhere.
So we moved to Italy for eight years.
[speaking Italian]
My father told us that he was retiring
from the game of basketball and that it was time for us
to come back to America.
It was very hard gettin' adjusted.
So on Fridays and Saturdays, I would go into my rec room
with my basketball and basically
dribble myself to sleep.
And I think that that was the best thing that could've ever
happened to me 'cause during those lonely hours
in the rec room, I discovered the hunger,
the motivation, and the desire to be the best possible
basketball player that I could be.
- Kobe is the best player by far.
But if we can't continue with it,
the team can't really do much, I think.
- The question is if.
Two of them said, "Well, you know,
we think we can contain him."
And I'd like to know what you think.
BUSTA RHYMES: ♪ When I step up in the place ♪
♪ A-yo I step correct ♪
♪ Woo-hah, got you all in check ♪
♪ I got that head nod shit that make you break your neck ♪
♪ Woo-hah, got you all in check ♪
♪ And you know we come through to wreck the discotheque ♪
♪ Woo-hah, got you all in check ♪
♪ Throw your hands up in the air ♪
PERSON: Kobe Bryant from Philadelphia
hasn't even been drafted yet,
and has already lined up an endorsement deal with Adidas.
STEVE: I'd never seen a 17-year-old
with that much hype.
I mean, the fact that Kobe got a shoe deal before he even
was drafted was very impressive.
He was in Sports Illustrated.
The hype machine was going.
But there was always kind of that,
"Are we building this guy up too much?"
Although Jerry West was highly impressed,
which counts for a lot.
MITCH: He came into the office glowing
and said, "Mitch, I wanna have a workout.
And I want you to be there and watch."
MICHAEL: I'd never heard of Kobe,
but Jerry called me and said, "Coop, I want you
"to come over, but bring your gear.
We want you to work him out a little bit."
MITCH: Michael Cooper, he had just retired,
so he was still in pretty good shape and athletic.
MICHAEL: We always taped our workouts.
But for some reason, that tape came up missing.
BILL BERTKA: Testing 1, 2, 3.
Testing, testing.
MICHAEL: Now I'm 40 years old,
and I hadn't done basketball in a while.
And it was probably one of the most intense workouts.
MITCH: Kobe was just a ball of energy.
17 playing against an All-NBA defensive player,
that takes some courage.
It was impressive.
- The workout didn't last very long
because I didn't want Michael to get any more embarrassed.
- Some people say Kobe kicked my ass.
I'm gonna disagree with that.
But I'll tell you what. [laughs]
The young kid, he got the best of me.
I don't know what happened to the tape of the workout.
I don't ever want anybody to see that.
[laughs]
JERRY: I sat there and said, "Oh, my God.
You know, I would like to see him in a Laker uniform."
- Getting Kobe sounded great,
but nobody knew that Kobe was gonna be
who Kobe was at that time.
And we might not be able to draft him anyway.
- It is so tightly kept what you see
and what you know on a player.
They were very secretive, you know?
They don't need that to get out in any way
because the guy that's one jump ahead again
in the Draft could take him.
JEANIE: We had players like Nick Van Exel
and Eddie Jones.
But now, it's about who's our leader gonna be on the court?
[funky music]
PERSON: For Shaquille O'Neal!
SINGERS: ♪ Can we rock, what's up doc ♪
♪ Can we rock, what's up doc ♪
[announcers talking excitedly]
[Fu-Schnickens' "What's Up Doc? Can We Rock?"]
- Our next guest is a four-time NBA All-Star
and the starting center for the Orlando Magic,
Shaquille O'Neal.
Are you gonna be a member of the Orlando Magic next season?
- I'll be a free agent come July 1st.
- He was the biggest, most dominant player in the league.
PERSON: Shaquille back pass Hardaway.
Got it back.
JERRY: Even though there were other really good
free agents out there, he was the one
that would supply everything that the Lakers needed.
PERSON: You know, he's 7' 1", 300 pounds,
strength, finesse, a $42 million contract,
and a license to print mo' money.
SINGERS: ♪ You out ♪ SINGER: ♪ Let me see you ♪
SINGERS: ♪ Can we rock, what's up doc ♪
♪ Can we rock ♪
EDDIE: There was no one able to stop him.
I don't care who you were, there was not one individual
that could stop him alone, not even Vlade.
Even though I love Vlade, but Vlade had no chance.
PERSON: Shaq thwarts around Divac.
[indistinct]. Back to his baseline.
Playoff!
VLADE: I realized how strong he is.
You're pushing, but he's not moving.
♪ ♪
EDDIE: Even if you send a double team on Shaq--
I'll never forget running down to double him--
he would just move you out of the way, lay it in.
PERSON: Here comes Teddy. To Shaq!
[cheers and applause]
- ♪ Forget Tony Danza, I'm the boss ♪
♪ When it comes to money, I'm like Dick DeVos ♪
MITCH: Huge personality,
big smile.
He had Los Angeles written all over him.
- L. A. is the land of superheroes.
And that's the Superman.
MITCH: If you have a player
who wins and is charismatic,
you know, in L. A. that really sells.
JEANIE: I think my dad was always looking,
you know, "How am I gonna reinvent Showtime?"
Landing Shaq, that was the answer.
But first, we had to figure out how to afford him.
- What kinda money are we talking about here?
- Your salary. - No.
Nobody's worth that kind of money.
- You know, Lakers are Lakers.
They're gonna figure out, you know.
And I knew they're gonna find a way.
I didn't know that I'm gonna be part of it.
- To win in the NBA almost always
takes a big 7-foot center.
And we have one, of course, with Vlade Divac.
JEANIE: We had Vlade Divac, who the fans loved.
But in order to make the cap space work and afford Shaq,
you know, he had to go.
- To get Kobe Bryant, a very bright prospect,
and to get Shaquille O'Neal,
we have to trade Vlade before we are sure
that we can get the other two.
That defines the gamble.
- The risk that my dad took
was similar to a high-stakes poker game.
You know, you put your chips in the pot
and you hope that you have the cards to win the whole thing.
- Jerry Buss was a massive gambler.
- Stay very humble.
Be very cautious.
And only play when you have the best hand.
STEVE: Among his peers, other owners,
he was the risk taker.
- And unless you're a risk taker,
you can't get it done.
- So Jerry West makes
a deal to trade Vlade to the Hornets for their 13th pick.
- Bob Bass was the GM in Charlotte at the time.
Jerry told Bob Bass when it comes time to pick,
to draft Kobe.
JERRY: I said, "There's no way
"that this guy's not gonna be drafted
"in top four or five picks in the Draft.
That's the problem."
MITCH: And we had to get past a certain date
to pursue Shaquille, so we couldn't
consummate the deal right away.
There were several problems, actually.
PERSON: The best young players in the world
stand at the doorstep to the big time.
It is the 1996 NBA Draft.
- That was intense,
you know, 'cause we didn't know if Kobe would fall
to where we were gonna pick at.
DAVID STERN: With the first pick,
the Philadelphia 76ers select Allen Iverson.
With the second pick, Marcus Camby.
JERRY: The gamble was,
"Here, I'm gonna give you $100.
"You go to Las Vegas.
"You go and play one-handed Blackjack.
You lose it, you gamble."
DAVID STERN: Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Stephon Marbury.
- I don't believe in gamble.
I believe in risk.
DAVID STERN: Ray Allen. Antoine Walker.
Lorenzen Wright.
JERRY: People passed him.
It wasn't in vogue to draft a high school kid.
It was not.
And I think that was probably the saving grace.
DAVID STERN: With the 8th pick, the 9th pick, the 10th pick--
- Some teams wanted instant gratification.
They thought they'd be a more finished product.
- With the 11th pick... With the 12th pick...
The Cleveland Cavaliers select Vitaly Potapenko.
PERSON: Up next, the Charlotte Hornets.
Back at you in a minute.
JERRY: I was so happy.
And I called Jerry and, well, I said, "Jerry," I said,
"You just got the number one pick in the Draft."
DAVID STERN: With the 13th pick,
the Charlotte Hornets select Kobe Bryant
from Lower Merion High School.
EDDIE: It was a shock.
What were they trading Vlade for?
PERSON: Last question for Kobe, please.
VLADE: My agent called me to tell me.
And I felt that somebody took the baseball bat
and just hit me, you know, straight in the head.
That was the ping.
I didn't care about the business and the contracts
and all that stuff.
I cared about, you know, a family.
Literally, I decide, "Okay, I'm done.
I'm not gonna play anymore."
MITCH: He did not wanna leave Los Angeles.
You know, he loved the city. He loved the team.
JEANIE: If Vlade doesn't go to Charlotte
and we don't get the 13th pick back,
we can't afford Shaquille and we wouldn't get Kobe.
MITCH: It was a problem.
Maybe this whole deal is gonna go south.
It was pretty intense.
And Jerry, he was a mess.
- So my dad tells Vlade,
"You'll always be family,
but this is what's best for the Lakers."
- Vlade said, "Well, if it's gonna
make the Lakers better, then it's all right."
VLADE: So I went there and tried.
And I found something that could work.
- And Kobe, this is for you.
- Thank you very much.
JEANIE: Kobe, hopefully, would pan out for us.
But Shaq really was the most important piece.
And now with Vlade traded, we could afford Shaq.
- If there is demand for a product,
the price of the product goes up.
If a bidding war ensues, the price of the product
goes way, way up.
JERRY: There was a lot of twists
and turns along the way.
Money demands change.
And every time money demand changed,
that mean you had to do something else
to remove a player from your roster.
- Dr. Buss would talk to Jerry,
and Jerry would talk to Dr. Buss.
JERRY: He'd asked me questions
about where we're going.
And I said, "Well, we have to trade these players."
And he's, "Oh, my God, these are pretty good players."
And I said, "Yes, but look, you can trade your whole team
and this guy's worth it."
JEANIE: Now, free agents started
signing with other teams.
And there was really no other backup plan.
My dad was trying to teach me that in poker,
if you rush a hand when it's not ready,
you'll probably fail.
- The Tampa Tribune reports the Lakers are now
prepared to offer O'Neal a seven-year deal
worth just over $117 million.
And they could go as high as 140 mil.
- I'm just waitin'.
And I just want a fair, good deal.
JEANIE: You have to be patient,
and you have to wait for the right cards.
- The Tampa Tribune reports
Shaq turned down a seven-year
$119 million deal from the Magic.
JEANIE: But once you get the right cards,
then you have to go all in and play the hand.
JERRY: We finally got to a point
where we can do the deal.
I went to Atlanta in a hotel room,
the 90th floor or something.
And I was looking out the window
and I said, "Hmm, if he doesn't get here, that's a long fall."
JEANIE: If we do all this, and he goes to another team
or resigns with his existing team,
then we've really done a lot of damage,
and it may take years to get it back.
- We're breaking into programming right now
to bring you a live news conference at which
Shaquille O'Neal is expected to announce that he has
signed a seven-year $120 million contract
to join the L. A. Lakers.
JERRY: The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired
a 24-year-old superstar, who we feel
is going to bring us to that incredible level
that this franchise has enjoyed in Los Angeles.
- Jerry West always got it done.
And that's the one miraculous, remarkable,
fantastic thing about him.
- I was excited.
That whole summer, I was telling my boys,
"Man, we gettin' Shaq.
We gonna win the championship."
- At that moment, I thought
for sure I was winning the championship
that following year.
PERSON: Right here, Shaq.
- That summer, I had to go to hospital
for, like, four days.
I was exhausted.
JIM: GM job, it's incredibly stressful,
so is an ownership.
My dad probably was pretty stressed out too, you know,
'cause he had to figure out how to pay him.
PERSON: Not coincidentally, the Lakers
have also announced today that
they're raising their ticket prices.
MITCH: Our ticket department went nuts,
and everything sold out.
I think that gives you an indication
of how Dr. Buss felt.
There was a juggernaut now.
Not only are we gonna win games,
but now you've got charismatic personalities
that people will pay to see.
♪ ♪
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: Oh, shit.
[clears throat] Get that camera out my face.
PERSON: Sorry.