"What has Jerry Buss done in poker?"Uh, he did kind of place second at a WPT event...no shame in losing to Layne Flack when he's the chip leader by a ridiculous amount...That said, he's an idiot for keeping Kobe. Mike G-Sixers, I'd hardly say the Lakers have "ruled" the West - maybe in the playoffs, but their regular season record was nothing special, and big surprise that the Lakers' record without Shaq was much worse than their record without Kobe.