This was anything but the usual HuffPost Live Google+ hangout. Ahead of tonight’s retiring of Shaquille O’Neal‘s Lakers jersey at Staples Center, host Marc Lamont Hill welcomed Shaq, Phil Jackson, Jeanie Buss and (a little later into the conversation) Kurt Rambis. Before O’Neal, Rambis also famously earned the nickname “Superman” from Chick Hearn.

There’s no better way to get in the mood for tonight’s induction ceremony (or follow it up later) than by watching this half-hour conversation. You know it’s a good HuffPost Live segment when one of the network’s other hosts, Jacob Soboroff, chimes into the chat room with, “One of the great HPL interviews. Well done.”

A favorite part for us was when Buss reacted to Shaq’s first set of comments, explaining that she had never heard the story of what Jerry West told #34 when The Big Newcomer first joined the purple and gold. The story magically ties into what is scheduled to transpire at Staples tonight.

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Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner was on ESPN 710 this morning with Max and Marcellus to give his remembrance of Lakers owner and fellow man of leisure Jerry Buss. Asked if Buss was a playboy, Hef replied “Well I really can’t speak from personal experience.”

Zing!

He continued: “He, as I have tried to do over the years, defied the limitations in terms of age and it was more than simply – he was young for his years and he had as many female friends as males, but he had a great many male friends, too. What he brought to the game as I say was unique and he will be truly missed.”

More transcripts here if you don’t feel like listening.

[Photo of Buss at October 30, 2006 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony: s_bukley/Shutterstock.com]

H/T Deadspin

At the conclusion of Wednesday night’s ESPN 710 broadcast of the Lakers’ 113-99 drubbing of the Boston Celtics, play-by-play man John Ireland uttered these golden words: “I guess you could say that was just what the doctor ordered…”

It was such a perfect way to close out the first Lakers match since the death of team owner Dr. Jerry Buss that on today’s edition of Mason & Ireland, colleague Mark Willard wondered if Ireland had prepared the line beforehand or come up with it on the spot. “Neither,” the broadcaster honestly replied.

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Leading up to this morning’s edition of Jay Mohr Sports, the Fox Sports Radio host could be heard in a cheeky promo built around something LA Times columnist T.J. Simers told him earlier this week.

As Mohr points out in the tease, LA Lakers owner Jerry Buss had barely been dead a few hours when Simers led off his Monday morning on-air remarks with:

“He understood Hollywood better than maybe any other sports owner and in a time before anyone else. So when you’re a pioneer in anything, I think you deserve tremendous credit for having such foresight… Not to mention the young escorts that were with him a lot. He put himself out there as, really, kind of an LA creature.”

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Mass confusion this morning on Twitter and news wires with regards to the age of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who passed away after a tough battle with cancer. Among the (many) outlets reporting that he was 79: KTLA, CBS LA, The Huffington Post, TMZ and AP.

But LA Times reporter David Wharton, who authored both the paper’s breaking-news item and longer banked obituary, clarifies Buss was in fact 80 (as also listed at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame). From Wharton’s obit:

A Depression-era baby, Jerry Hatten Buss was born in Salt Lake City on January 27, 1933, although some sources cite 1934 as his birth year. His parents, Lydus and Jessie Buss, divorced when he was an infant.

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Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss was hospitalized late Monday night for dehydration.

“In response to media inquiries and to dispel rumors and inaccurate reports, we’d like to state that Dr. Buss is in a local hospital where he is being treated for dehydration. He is recovering and is expected to be released soon,” the Lakers said in a statement.

TMZ.com reports the 78-year-old fell ill at his home and was rushed to a local L.A. hospital.

Buss was hospitalized last December for blood clots in his leg from excessive traveling.