Jeanie Buss' brothers getting fired from Lakers is cutthroat, but entirely predictable

When the new owner of the Los Angeles Lakers fired two members of the Buss family Thursday, it wasn't much of a surprise. After all, Joey and Jesse were the only Buss siblings who voted against the $10B sale to Mark Walter back in June.

Walter purchased a controlling interest in the Lakers from the Buss family trusts, who previously owned 66 percent of the team. That portion was held by all six children of Dr. Jerry Buss, the Lakers' longtime owner who died in 2013. Now, Joey and Jesse will reap the proceeds of the sale, perhaps more than $800M each, but they won't keep their jobs.

Jeanie Buss has been cold-blooded with her siblings before

Since 2013, Jeanie Buss has been the Lakers team governor as her father's designated successor. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing when it came to her family.

In 2017, there was a power struggle between Jeanie, the team's president of basketball operations, and brother Jim, who was the team's head of basketball operations. Trouble had been brewing as the Lakers suffered through losing seasons at the tail end of Kobe Bryant's career, as well as ill-fated trades for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. Jim promised in January 2014 that the Lakers would be competitive in three or four years, which did not turn out to be the case.

Jim Buss also hired Mike D'Antoni to coach the team in 2012 — instead of longtime coach Phil Jackson, who was Jeanie's longtime boyfriend and future fiance.

Jeanie replaced Jim with Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations. In response, Jim and his brother Johnny, who made a short-lived run for president in 2024, tried to replace their sister on the board of directors and as team governor. Their attempted coup failed, and both brothers resigned as trustees.

Joey and Jesse Buss lost their jobs because the team sold

Joey and Jesse were allied with their sister in the dispute with their older brothers, but they were on the wrong side of Jeanie Buss when it came to selling the team. Reportedly, the vote was 4-2 in favor of a sale to Walter's group, with Jim, Johnny and sister Janie joining Jeanie in voting yes. At that point, the writing was on the wall for the two who opposed the sale.

But it's also to be expected. When a new owner spends billions of dollars on a team, they're going to want to put their stamp on the team and their own people in place. The Lakers replaced many employees in their scouting department Thursday, a group that included the Buss brothers. Jeanie Buss got a clause in the sale agreement that keeps her on as team governor for years. Her brothers got no such protection.

That's why Mark Cuban lost control of basketball operations when he sold the Dallas Mavericks. He'll likely lose more power if the Adelson family exercises their option to buy most of his remaining 27 percent of the team.

Joey and Jesse released a statement that expressed disappointment and claimed that Dr. Buss had wanted them to run the Lakers someday.