Lakers' Owner Jerry Buss Goes Paris Hilton, Gets Arrested for DUI

Jerry Buss and Paris Hilton: Peas in a pod.

I guess all that talk about Kobe wanting to be traded really got to Jerry Buss. The 74-year-old owner of the Lakers was arrested Tuesday for driving under the influence, and was booked for "investigation of drunken driving and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or above." The Highway Patrol reported that Buss was relatively cooperative during the arrest, and Buss said in a statement released by the Lakers that he made a "bad decision:"

The 74-year-old Buss was taken into custody shortly before 1 a.m. after he drove his gold Mercedes-Benz station wagon the wrong way on a street in an unincorporated section of Carlsbad that has double yellow lines, California Highway Patrol officer Tom Kerns said.

"Although I was driving only a short distance, it was a bad decision and I was wrong to do it," Buss said in a statement issued by the Lakers. "It was a mistake I will not make again."

A 23-year-old woman in the vehicle with Buss wasn't arrested, Kerns said.

A couple of things strike me as odd about this incident. What the hell is a 74-year-old multi-millionnaire doing driving himself around at all, much less while intoxicated at one in the morning? And what kind of shape must his "23-year-old" female companion have been in to get in the car with Buss while he was in that condition? Hey, props to the old man for being able to secure some much younger companionship, but let's hope that in the future he lets someone else take the wheel when he's had a few cocktails.