MEET THE NEW BUSS JERRY'S SON, JIM, IS CARVING HIS OWN NICHE AS HEIR TO LAKERS EMPIRE.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - He is a middle-aged man in a baseball cap, the second son of Lakers owner Jerry Buss and the great unknown when it comes to the future of one of the NBA's greatest franchises, most recently valued at more than $500 million by Forbes magazine.

Yet Jim Buss, who has spent the past seven years being groomed to make this entrance on the public stage, professes that little in his evolving role with the Lakers is actually new.

``It's not a big deal, because I'm working every day and nothing's really changed,'' Jim Buss said, ``but then now there's more recognition. I have to get used to that (people) don't know that I've been doing this. It's nothing new for me. But it's new for them.''

The only thing different is his title in the organization - now the vice president of player personnel - and the orchestrated effort the Lakers are making to introduce the one-time horse trainer as his father's successor in the Buss' family business.

He met Tuesday afternoon with reporters at the team's practice facility and addressed the Lakers' future free-agent plans, the return of Phil Jackson as coach and the infamous quote in Sports Illustrated that shaped so many perceptions of him.

In the aftermath of last summer's Shaquille O'Neal trade, Buss said the Lakers have made a concerted effort to maintain salary-cap flexibility with an eye on signing a big-name free agent as early as summer 2007.

``If you keep mending your team every year after you make a trade like Shaq, you're going to be an average team,'' said Buss, who turns 46 in November. ``Maybe make the playoffs, first, second round. That's not the goal. The goal is to make a big step.

``The only way you can do that is to get a free agent two years from now. You know who they are, who's available. So do we. Everybody knows. So we're positioning ourselves to be great in two years.''

The Lakers could have as much as $14 million in cap space and the ability to offer a maximum contract in 2007, with the list of potential free agents including Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki.

As an added step in the process, Buss said he would focus in the upcoming season on scouting possible free agents.

``I have a list of free agents coming up next year,'' Buss said. ``I can now focus in on those guys. Then I'll have a stronger opinion at the end of the year.''

If the Lakers are successful in signing a marquee player, Buss added that Jackson could stay on as coach past the three years in his current contract.

``Three years was just a number that's comfortable for both sides,'' Buss said. ``If things are developing like we want, and we get the free agent two years from now, I don't see why he would not want to coach longer, if he wants to.''

If there is a checklist of the qualifications needed to someday run the Lakers, Buss has been trying to fulfill them since he was appointed as an assistant general manager. He started by accompanying Jerry West on select scouting trips and has spent the past two seasons traveling with the team on the road.

``I was fairly successful as a trainer, but I told my dad the second he wants to ease out of the Lakers, I'll stop training and come in,'' Buss said. ``That was when he basically gave me a call one day and said, 'You know what, I think it's time you come in, start working with Jerry and start working your way up.' ''

He didn't do himself any favors with his comments in a November 1998 profile of the Buss children in Sports Illustrated.

``Evaluating basketball talent is not too difficult,'' Buss told the magazine. ``If you grabbed 10 fans out of a bar and asked them to rate prospects, their opinions would be pretty much identical to those of the pro scouts.''

He said Tuesday that he was ``complimenting our scouts, not cutting them up'' and was trying to point out the consensus that exists for lottery picks, compared with the challenge in drafting at the bottom of the first round, as the Lakers so often have done.

Those are the words that follow Buss around to this day. But for all the whispers about his qualifications to take over for his father - whose teams have won eight championships in his 26 years as owner - Buss said he has been well-schooled.

``I've had eight years of teaching, and I'm learning every day,'' Buss said. ``When you hear somebody say, 'Are you qualified?' and I'm like, 'If you had eight years of Jerry West, Mitch Kupchak and all those talented scouts working on a daily basis tutoring you, I don't know what other credentials you could have.' ''

Jerry Buss' ownership plan long has been for his daughter Jeanie, the Lakers' executive vice president of business operations and Jackson's significant other, to handle all business-side operations for the team. Jim Buss will be in charge of the basketball side.

Both children have filled in for Jerry Buss at NBA board of governors meetings. Jim said one of his challenges will be gaining the trust of commissioner David Stern to appoint him to some of the league committees on which his father has served.

As for what role his older brother, Johnny, the president of the Sparks, would play with the Lakers, Buss said: ``I don't talk to him about Laker business very often at all. He seems to be enjoying what he's doing with the Sparks and doing a pretty good job. I don't know if he's content. I think that would be a question he'd have to answer.''

In the past year, Jim Buss' role has become more prominent, especially in communicating between Kupchak and his father. He helped bring in Rudy Tomjanovich as coach last summer, although some criticized the five-year, $30 million contract he was offered.

Buss was a voice of agreement on the O'Neal trade and was involved with the negotiations that led to Jackson's return. That he also was the only family member to attend Jackson's welcome-back news conference was viewed as significant.

Even with his 72-year-old father taking a reduced role in Lakers operations, Buss said he did not think that all decisions soon would be made by him.

``I don't see why he has to retire on final decisions,'' he said.

Buss' only experience running a team was a four-year stint in the 1980s as president of the Lazers, a Major Indoor Soccer League team owned by his father. The team finished in last place three of those seasons and lost a reported $500,000 a year before folding.

Buss said he knew then that he wanted to be a part of the Lakers, but there was no job waiting for him. He didn't want to take a position at the Forum without true responsibility, so he decided to train his father's horses, which he did for nine years.

He was asked Tuesday about the fight for respect that comes with a famous last name and said, ``As long as I'm doing something I'm comfortable with and know I'm doing the best I can, it doesn't bother me what people think.''

Now Buss, who used to sneak into the courtside seats at a Lakers game as a kid, stands ready to inherit arguably the most glamorous team in sports. He is heir to a fortune, the son of an icon and apparently immune to the pressure.

``I don't know,'' he said. ``That's the God's honest truth. I don't know. I look forward to the challenge.''

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

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Photos by David Sprague/Staff Photographer