The Los Angeles Lakers no longer have a Buss family power struggle on their hands.
Jeanie Buss is the controlling owner, and her brothers, Jim and Johnny, are ditching their hopes of changing that.
From the Los Angeles Times‘ Tania Ganguli:
The monthlong fight between Jeanie Buss and her brothers, Jim and Johnny, to control the Lakers is over.
The three siblings have agreed for Jeanie to serve as controlling owner and on the team’s board of directors as long as the family owns the Lakers. They filed papers in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday asking a judge to issue an order approving the accord.
“The message is clear here: Do not underestimate Jeanie Buss,” her attorney, Adam Streisand, told the Los Angeles Times. “There is not going to be a palace coup. Not now. Not ever.”
Jim Buss’ attempt to strip Jeanie of power was half-baked and never going to work. It reeked of bitterness. There was no point trying to angle toward a coup. It was always going to end badly for him. At least the Lakers now know Jeanie made the right call in canning her brother (as if that wasn’t clear already). This brand of pettiness has no place inside the organization.
And now that this mess is a thing of the past, the Lakers can get back to basketball. They’ve been back there already, but the attention can solely be focused on the future (plus how blatantly they’re tanking). That’s where it always needed to be, but the unnecessary family drama lingered like a butter-thick smog, even though this outcome was inevitable from the start.
Jeanie, along with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, are officially on the hook for what happens next—exactly how she wants it.
