For Jeanie Buss, the Lakers wouldn't have been champions without LA Spanish legend Pau Gasol

The Los Angeles Lakers owner and governor Jeanie Buss has spoken about the team's legend Pau Gasol who is about to see his jersey number retire from the franchise.

When asked why the Lakers decided to retire Pau's Jersey, Buss said, "Retiring Pau Gasol's jersey was an easy decision. When a player is inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as Pau will be, it is a Lakers tradition to retire his number and hang his jersey from the wall. We always knew that Pau would join past Lakers legends and enter the Hall of Fame, so it was never a question of 'if' we would retire his jersey, but 'when' it would be retired."

Between other aspects that Buss talked about Pau's greatness with the team, she also spoke about how she believes that the 2009 and 2010 championships wouldn't have been won without him:

"Without Pau, there would have been no NBA championships in 2009 and 2010. That's for sure. Lakers fans agree with that. Pau was the difference maker we needed to get the Lakers back to glory." Said Jeanie Buss.

Jeanie Buss believes other teams would have tried to 'hijack' Pau Gasol's trade to the Lakers if the word had leaked

"I truly believe, had it leaked out, that there would've been teams in the league that would've tried to hijack it," Buss said.