Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said it all at yesterday’s press conference to introduce newly-acquired superstar center Dwight Howard.  A reporter asked him how the Lakers would deal with the enormous payroll they will be facing.

Without hesitation, Kupchak replied that the Buss Family are competitors.  When it comes to saving a few dollars or even ten million dollars or putting up another banner on the wall, Dr. Jerry Buss will always choose the banner.

And that goes for his son, Jim Buss, executive vice president in charge of basketball operations, as well.

While players are paid huge sums to compete on the court, not all NBA executives consider competition as important as the bottom line.  With the Buss family,however, creating the No. 1 franchise in the NBA and arguably all of sports is their one and only goal and championships the only acceptable result.

There is good reason why Dwight Howard chose Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Dallas as the only places where he would consider signing a long-term extension.  Houston made a trade offer and so did Cleveland.  Even Orlando made a last ditch sales pitch to keep their All-Star center.

But Howard knew that Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Dallas were the only franchises with owners willing to give him a maximum contract and, more importantly, with the wherewithal to surround him with a championship roster no matter the cost.

When he came to Los Angeles for back surgery and remained here to recuperate, Howard got a day-to-day view of how the Buss family and Mitch Kupchak competed.

Instead of reacting to the second straight second-round playoff loss by dismantling the team, Lakers management instead took a step back to see where they could strengthen the roster.

They did not amnesty Metta World Peace as many suspected they would.  They did not put Pau Gasol on the trade block as they had done prior to last season in a botched trade for Chris Paul, who would wind up with the Clippers.

Instead, they let Ramon Sessions, acquired at the trade deadline, test the free agency market.  A gutsy move indeed.  Left without a starting point-guard, could they find another one with the freed up cap space?

Dwight Howard must have been astonished like the rest of us to see how Kupchak and Jim Buss put together a trade exception and a couple of low draft picks to acquire Steve Nash, who two weeks before vowed that he would never put on a Lakers’ uniform.

Howard could see how the Lakers systematically had the pieces fall together.  They used some of Ramon Sessions’ cap space to sign their other free agent, 25 year-old reserve center Jordan Hill.

Then they got Antawn Jamison, who had won the Sixth Man of the Year Award playing with Nash in 2003-04 for Dallas, to sign for the veteran’s minimum, with the league paying half of that minimum for a veteran of ten or more years.

Lakers management was not only competing against the other franchises but against the very CBA that was designed to prevent the Lakers from doing exactly what they were doing.

Where there is a truly competitive will, there is always a way.

While the Nets and Mavericks have ownerships that are willing to spend money to put together a championship roster, the Lakers and the Buss family have proven they could do it not once or twice but ten times since they took over ownership in 1979.

No wonder Howard felt so ecstatic and relieved when he got the news that the Lakers had acquired him in a four-team trade.

To be part of a team with a championship pedigree that is competitive in the front office as well as on the court has to be satisfying, indeed, even for Superman.