When jerry buss, a chemist turned property developer, bought a package of assets headlined by the Los Angeles Lakers for $67.5m in 1979, it required financial acrobatics just as impressive as those of the basketball team’s stars. Short on cash, he swapped local apartment buildings to an insurance company for leasing rights to the Chrysler Building in New York, which he then exchanged for the club and its arena—and still needed a loan from the seller, who was embroiled in a costly divorce, to close the deal.