I had dinner last night with someone who works in close proximity to the Lakers front office, and we were chuckling about how the NBA franchise is known as a model organization in the pro sports industry.

What many don’t know is that because of Jerry Buss’ general lack of funds, the organization is run on a shoestring. There’s essentially five full-timers in the entire front office. Five. That said, many NBA teams are learning that perhaps that isn’t such a bad business model. Especially in the current economic climate.

Because Buss isn’t as financially fit as most pro sports owners, it’s safe to say that if the Lakers hadn’t had their remarkable run of championships during his tenure, he probably would’ve lost control of the franchise long ago. In other words, if he ran the team the way Donald Sterling has run the Clippers, the Lakers wouldn’t have been such a cash-generating machine, and Buss probably would’ve had to sell at some point.

What also makes the Lakers so wonderfully unique is the way septugenerian Buss galivants around in the company of females 50 years his junior. And of course his daughter Jeanie posing for Playboy and *dating* 61-year-old Phil Jackson. It really can’t get any better than that, can it?

Actually, it can.

How about the club hiring a nude model, Bonnie-Jill Laflin (above), as a scout? You might remember our previous reportage on her somewhere among those dusty SbB back issues in your basement - right next to the nudie mags you saw her splayed out in.

I’m happy to report that thanks to the kooks at PETA, Laflin she has freshened up her nude modeling resume. New pic after the jump.

Laflin is the latest nekkid, photo-posing animal rights idiot to contort her body into an impossibly uncomfortable position in order to completely obscure her genitalia. Yeah, that kinda sucks. But much like the Rolling Stones in concert, she can always fall back on her back catalog to keep us at attention:

Sadly, there’s no truth to the rumor that Mitch Kupchak emailed those photos to Memphis GM Chris Wallace during the trade negotiations that netted the club Pau Gasol last season.