Once upon a time, the Los Angeles Lakers were considered the NBA’s model franchise back in the 1980s. Dr. Jerry Buss owned the team and oversaw operations, Jerry West and Bill Sharman made personnel decisions in the front office, Pat Riley coached the team and legends such as Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar consistently delivered greatness on the court. The result was five NBA championships and eight trips to the NBA Finals during that decade.
But the way the Lakers franchise functioned started to deteriorate in the 1990s as Dr. Buss got older and started to plan his succession plan. Once he passed away in 2013, his son Jim took over basketball operations while his daughter Jeanie was the team’s governor and in charge of marketing. Since then, the Lakers haven’t exactly been as successful as they once were.
On Thursday, in the first major move under the new ownership regime of Mark Walter, Joey and Jesse Buss, two more of the late Dr. Jerry Buss’ offspring, were fired. Both held prominent front office roles, and Jesse Buss told The Athletic that the plan was for both sons to eventually run the organization’s basketball operations.
“It was to run the basketball operations department one day, and that was something that was discussed over 15 years ago,” Jesse Buss said. “And what he had told me at the time was that he wanted Jimmy to retire at some point within the next five to seven years, so this was about 2010, and he started to slowly incorporate Joey and I into the day-to-day operations. And eventually, I think the plan was (that) Jeanie was gonna run the business side and Joey and I were gonna help run the basketball operations department.”
While Jesse Buss played a key role in personnel, especially when it came to scouting draft prospects, he never felt that he was truly on his way to assuming the role he said his father had envisioned.
“Obviously, I think we were able to specialize in the later parts of the draft, and that was kind of like my niche within the organization, being able to give a large amount of input on who we selected with those picks. And I think at times, I was consulted on various free agent moves or potential trades that we were considering.
“But oftentimes within the organization, it kind of felt like I was being treated like I was working against them. And, I guess you could say, like an enemy. But the only thing I ever wanted was the most success for this team. The credit, or whoever was involved with those decisions, it didn’t really matter as long as it was the best possible thing for the Lakers.”
Walter agreed to buy a majority stake in the Lakers in June, and the sale became official a few weeks ago. He had previously owned a minority stake in the team since 2021.
Plenty have been expecting significant changes within the organization ever since Walter agreed to purchase that stake in the Lakers. It looks like those changes have started to arrive.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Jerry Buss wanted Jesse and Joey Buss to have huge role with Lakers
