He Dreams of Jeanie

Send suitcases full of Victoria's Secret! Gallons of Chanel No. 5! Crates of Cosmo advice!

If you're a Los Angeles Lakers fan and want to keep the dynasty rolling, anything you can do to keep Jeanie Buss hooked up with Phil Jackson is absolutely crucial.

See, Jeanie is the former Playboy pinup who happens to be the daughter of Lakers owner Jerry. She's also likely to be the next owner of the team. And she also happens to be in a serious two-year relationship with Jackson, the Los Angeles coach.

But heartache lurks. The endlessly evolving Jackson is nearing the end of his coaching career. He's 56 and says he would probably retire when his contract with the Lakers expires after the 2003-04 season. Zen what? Ride his Harley to Chile? Meditate with yaks? Levitate? The problem is, Shaquille O'Neal, who turns 30 this week, says he'll leave the team the day Jackson does -- and Shaq has at least five good seasons left in him. Which means L.A. could be leaving more titles on the table than a DMV clerk.

Think a coach can't crumble a dynasty? Consider what happened to the Chicago Bulls. Throughout the 1997-98 season Michael Jordan warned the organization that he'd quit the day that Jackson quit. After winning his sixth title with Jordan, Jackson was burned out on coaching and trying to reconcile with his then wife June. Jackson quit and moved with June to Montana. So Jordan quit. So Scottie Pippen, seeing a team with all Pips and no Gladys, bolted to the Houston Rockets. So Dennis Rodman left to become RuPaul. The Bulls became Bulls---.

In Montana the Jackson Two decided they'd had too much time together and divorced within the year. That's when the Lakers hired Jackson -- over Jeanie's dead body. "When my dad said he wanted to hire him, I thought he'd be a difficult personality," says Jeanie, the team's vice president of business operations. "It's a good thing he didn't listen to me."

At the first staff get-together Jackson fell for Jeanie, who dated John McEnroe, was married to volleyballer Steve Timmons and was general manager of the L.A. Strings when they won two Team Tennis championships. It was love-love. There was only one person in the Lakers' organization that Jackson was trying to please, he said, famously: "Jeanie Buss -- I really want to please her."

Since then he's been as happy as a Buddha, living at the beach, taking Jeanie on long morning rides on his Harley and leading the Lakers to two titles in a row. "I don't want him to leave," she says. "I don't want it to be like Chicago, where they all left at the same time. That's why I try to make his life easy as a coach."

Back rub, Babe?

Could Jackson be in a better situation? He's fireproof! What boss would pink-slip the love of his daughter's life? "I never thought about it like that before," Jackson says with a laugh. "That is a luxury."

And has he thought about the fact that if he's still on the bench when and if Jerry Buss turns over the team to Jeanie, he'd be the first coach in NBA history to sleep with his owner? "That would be unique, wouldn't it?" says Jackson.

Word around the Lakers was that it was this unique management situation that caused former Lakers executive vice president Jerry West to quit two years ago. "No, no, no," West says between putts at Bel Air Country Club. "It was my health.... But I do remember, when Phil told me about it, I said, 'Six million women in L.A., and you have to date this one?'"

Jerry Buss, escorted by his usual matched set of debutantes (combined, the two women's ages couldn't have been much more than Jeanie's 40), says he wouldn't want to fire Jackson or break his daughter's heart. "Besides, how many championships would that cost me?" he says.

The truth is Jeanie doesn't want to leave -- "I love Phil unconditionally," she says -- and, for now, neither does Jackson, even if Jeanie expects him to. "Because her father moved out on her," Jackson says of her parents' divorce, "I think Jeanie's worked a lot on abandonment issues.... But I'm happy. Jeanie's a sweetie. She's thoughtful, gracious and shy. But she can't cook."

What if things on the court suddenly turned to crap and Jackson had to step down? Jeanie thinks for a second. "I'd probably say, 'Bummer at the office, Babe. What do you want to do for dinner?'"

Pssst. Send the cookbooks, just in case.

Gonna be? She already is.

Issue date: March 11, 2002

Don't miss The Life of Reilly (Total/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, $22.95) -- a best-of compilation of Rick Reilly's columns and features, with a foreword written by Charles Barkley, available now at bookstores everywhere.

 

Related information
Stories
Rick Reilly's Insider Archive SI Online: Current Issue and Archives
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.