Pablo Torre

What's crazy about the story we're here to do today is that as incredible as the Tark dynasty would become, it was so close to not happening at all.

Because it's 1979, and his agent is his childhood friend,

a guy by the name of Vic Weiss,

And there is a job offer that Tark gets.

It is to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

And that would have been the highest paid coaching gig in NBA history at that point.

Over a million dollars, over four years.

I've read that it was 350 grand a year, 700 grand guaranteed, you know, over five years, you know, included some luxury cars, one for Jerry, for Lois and their oldest daughter, Pam.

And it got so close, it sounds like, that the Tarkanians had actually picked out the house they wanted to live in.

It was too good to pass up.

You know, they knew Magic Johnson was going to be the number one draft pick.

It was the LA Lakers.

It was too good of a financial offer.

So, yeah, I mean, it was too good of a situation.

And the first place that I should say that I saw this codified in popular culture was on HBO.

In this series they did called Winning Time that was about the Lakers of this era, came out in 2022.

And in this scene, you have the new Lakers owner, Jerry Buss, played by John C. Reilly, at this restaurant, secretly closing the deal with Jerry Tarkanian and Vic Weiss.

Did we just make a deal?

That's what it sounded like to me.

And yet, Jerry Tarkanian, Tark the Shark, does not leave Las Vegas, as history will tell you, because something insane happens.