Michael Cullen
11 April 2017
Digital Story
Headline: Jeanie Buss takes over
the Los Angeles Lakers
Deck: How the Court settlement with
her brothers Jim and Johnny Buss played out.
Lead: After many years of the
Lakers Franchise having no success in the last five years, she made the
difficult decision to fire her brothers Jim and Johnny Buss. Jim Buss was the
head of basketball operations and Johnny was a part-owner and vice president of
strategic development for the Lakers. As hard as the decision was for her to
fire and sue her own brothers, she had to do what was best for the
organization. Mitch Kupchak who was the general manager and John Black who was
the public relationships director were also fired by her. After making the decision, she brought in
Magic Johnson who is an NBA Hall of Famer to take over the basketball
operations for the Lakers.
As March rolled around Jeanie Buss
and her lawyer Adam Streisand came out of court victorious to avoid being
thrown out of office by her two brothers who wanted her out due to the fact
that they felt like she was very controlling and that she wanted to have
superior power over them. Jerry Buss who was the former owner of the Lakers
passed down the legacy of the franchise to his children. The family drama between
Jeanie and her two brothers has been going on for years and has been no secret
to the public. Jerry Buss hoped that his children would all work together to
make the Lakers Franchise even more successful after his passing. This was not
the case at all. Once it came time for Jeanie to fire her brothers and other
members who worked for the Lakers she came out with a statement saying: “The
choice is the Lakers,” Jeanie says crisply. “Clearly my dad would not want it
to end like this at all,” she says. “He
wanted us all to meet together and build this team together. But when it comes
to the Lakers, I’m like a mama bear.” Two days later in court, Jeanie filed for
a restraining order against her brothers and also sued them due to the fact
that they were overstepping the boundaries of what their responsibilities were
for the Lakers. Even after the fact that the brothers were threatening to
remove her from the front office, they did not think that Jeanie was actually
going to take them to court to settle it. The brothers became very
untrustworthy and that was another reason why she felt like she needed to make
a major change. “They never communicated with my other siblings when they were
firing our accounting firm or why they were changing lawyers representing the
trust,” Jeanie says. Jeanie gave her brothers multiple chances to turn the team
around in a positive direction and that never happened. They needed to go.
Hiring Magic Johnson seemed like a
great idea for Jeanie Buss. She wanted to send a message to all staff members
of the Lakers organization. She handled her business very seriously and very
professionally. During the all star break, Jeanie wanted to get her team
together to start the rebuilding process of the team. Both brothers decided to
step away from the team because they noticed that Jeanie already had the upper
hand in court. Jeanie never felt supported by her brothers. A month later in
April, the court granted her to have full power of the Lakers. The two sons
were the first to take over for their Dad as he passed it down to them, but he
also wanted to have Jeanie involved to overlook everything. Jeanie knew that if
anything got out of hand that Jerry would want her to make all of the big
changes and had the lady power to do it and to be in charge to rebuild the
Franchise as well. Ironically, Jeanie’s lawyer was the one who helped current
owner of the Clippers buy the team from former owner Donald Sterling who was
fired and banned years ago for being racist against his own players. Adam
Streisand was now going to help Jeanie capture full power over the Lakers.
“This is no doubt the beginning and not the end of the game-playing,” said Adam
Streisand. It seems like the fight to get control of the Lakers comes with not
only family drama, but also has to do with the money that’s involved, and also
jealousy. This will be a very lengthy and uncomfortable way to settle things
once and for all.
Links:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19104767/lakers-owner-jeanie-buss-shares-details-decision-family-franchise
http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-buss-lakers-20170303-story.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/jeanie-buss-thwarts-family-coup-wins-control-lakers-report-article-1.3010630
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-buss-plaschke-20170303-story.html
http://nba.nbcsports.com/2017/03/03/report-jeanie-buss-heads-to-court-blocks-first-effort-by-jim-buss-to-push-her-out-as-lakers-president/
Links:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19104767/lakers-owner-jeanie-buss-shares-details-decision-family-franchise
http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-buss-lakers-20170303-story.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/jeanie-buss-thwarts-family-coup-wins-control-lakers-report-article-1.3010630
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-buss-plaschke-20170303-story.html
http://nba.nbcsports.com/2017/03/03/report-jeanie-buss-heads-to-court-blocks-first-effort-by-jim-buss-to-push-her-out-as-lakers-president/
