“My dad, he just said, ‘OK, well we can’t go shoot pool because your hands hurt,’” Jeanie Buss remembers. And as Johnson grew close with Jerry, he also grew close with Jeanie. Once, Jerry, Jeanie and Johnson all watched the premiere of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” together – a sure-fire way to cheer up Johnson, a Michael Jackson superfan. There were tears again, years later, when Johnson visited Jerry Buss in the hospital as he lay dying in 2013. Johnson remembers Buss telling him it was always his dream that Johnson and Jeanie run the Lakers together.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 18, 2017 16:30 UTC