In 1979, Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the Los Angeles Kings and The Forum, from previous owner Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million, thus beginning arguably the greatest era of ownership of any team in the history of American sports.
Before the Buss family, the Lakers had won six championships, five of which came in Minneapolis before the team moved to Los Angeles. In their first 19 years in L.A. before Dr. Buss took over, the Lakers won just one title in 1972.
Since then though, the Lakers have won 11 Championships, made the NBA Finals 17 times and the postseason 37 times.
Showtime Lakers era
The same summer that Dr. Buss bought the team, the Lakers would select Magic Johnson with the first overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft and pair him with the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to form the foundation of what would come to be known as the ‘Showtime’ era. Those Lakers would win five NBA Championships in the 1980s and play a massive part in building the popularity of the NBA as a whole.
During the Showtime era, Dr. Buss helped revolutionize the sport, turning attending games into a spectacle where fans can be entertained by the “Laker Girls” and “Forum Club,” which were concepts that hadn’t previously been executed in the NBA.
Johnson would become one of the most iconic players in the history of the Lakers franchise while also becoming extremely close with Dr. Buss and his daughter Jeanie, whom he often refers to as a sister.
Three-peat Lakers era
In 1996, the Lakers would sign superstar center Shaquille O’Neal to a massive free agency contract while also trading for the draft rights of talented high schooler Kobe Bryant. They would go on to form arguably the greatest duo in NBA history with head coach Phil Jackson coming on in 1999 as the Lakers would win three consecutive NBA Championships from 2000-to-2002.
While O’Neal would eventually move on, Bryant would spend his entire 20-year career with the Lakers, winning two more championships in 2009 and 2010 to bring the total number of rings to 10 under Buss ownership.
Dr. Buss death & family taking over Lakers
Dr. Buss unfortunately passed away on Feb. 18, 2013, with ownership of the Lakers being passed to his six children in equal shares via trusts that would ensure the family retains ownership as none could sell their individual stake. Day-to-day control of the team was split between Jeanie, who ran the business side, and Jim Buss, who was in charge of basketball operations.
However, in Feb. 2017, Jeanie would fire Jim and a dispute over control was ultimately resolved a month later when the Buss siblings gave Jeanie lifetime operational control over the team as long as the family owned the team.
The Lakers would sign massive superstar LeBron James in the summer of 2018 and just two seasons later, and after another massive trade for big man Anthony Davis, the team would win the 2020 NBA Championship, their 11th since Dr. Buss’ purchase of the franchise.
In the span that the Lakers won 11 rings, the next highest was the Chicago Bulls with six, followed by the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs with five and then the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat with four. No one can touch the Lakers went it comes to success both on and off the court, building a global brand that few other sports franchises can replicate.
Details on Buss family selling Lakers
On June 18, 2025, the Buss family agreed via a majority vote to sell their controlling stake in the Lakers to TWG Global CEO and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mark Walter for a record $10 billion valuation, thus bringing an end to perhaps the greatest and most successful run of ownership of any sports team ever.
Jeanie Buss will remain on as team Governor under Walter for the foreseeable future with that agreement being in writing, but other than that, the Buss family will own just a 15% stake in the team.
While the Buss’ won’t be the Lakers’ majority owners moving forward, they will forever be known for transforming the organization from a team to *the* team in the NBA. Dr. Jerry Buss had a vision when he bought the team and executed it to perfection, and now it will be up to Walter and his group to continue that into the future.
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