The Buss family has owned the Los Angeles Lakers since the late, great Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the franchise in 1979 with it being passed down to his children following his death in 2013.
Unfortunately, it now seems as if things are beginning to fall apart. The Buss family sold their majority shares to Mark Walter in 2025, who would then sell those shares to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner barely a year later. Following that, five of the six Buss siblings agreed to sell their remaining shares to Iger and Kushner as well, but Jeanie Buss is contesting that, leading to some serious Buss family drama. And former Lakers player and coach Byron Scott believes Dr. Buss wouldn’t be happy with where things are at.
“I don’t think any of us know exactly what he would be thinking, but if I had to guess, I don’t think he would be very happy with the state of the Lakers right now,” Scott told Lakers Nation at the 26th annual Harold & Carole Pump Foundation celebrity dinner. “It’s a different time, there’s no doubt about that. Unfortunately, for guys like myself who played when Dr. Buss was here and this organization was considering and properly was the greatest organization in all of sports because of the way he ran it and because of his geniusness and his vision, because he was a visionary, yeah, I don’t think he would be very happy right now. And I never thought in my lifetime that I would see anybody or any other organization or company or corporation owning the Los Angeles Lakers either.”
Scott is like many others who never believed the Buss family wouldn’t own the Lakers. But if he has any advice for Iger and Kushner, it is to take from what Dr. Buss did for the franchise.
“I’m not that deep into it like that, you know what I’m saying? I would hope that they would take a page from Dr. Buss’ book and just remember how he treated his employees, how he treated his players,” Scott added. “He treated everybody equally. He didn’t treat anybody no different. He didn’t treat Magic (Johnson) any differently than he treated Wes Matthews. So I would hope that they would take a page out of that and just remember that even though you bought an unbelievable franchise, you still want to make it kind of like a family. That’s what the Buss family did. That’s what Dr. Buss really talked to us about was making it a family. And we all felt a part of that family. That’s why all of us to this day, we still bleed purple and gold. We’re still very proud of the fact that we played in an unbelievable era under an unbelievable owner.”
That family feeling is something that has always separated the Lakers from most other franchises. Once you’re with the team you’re a member of the family forever which is why so many former players remain around the team. While it is a different time now, and they have their own vision, Iger and Kushner doing some of those same things Dr. Buss did would go a long way towards restoring the franchise to what it has always been known to be.
Buss family ’embarrassed’ by Mark Walter selling Lakers so quickly
The news of Walter selling his majority shares came as a shock in large part due to how quickly he is moving on from the team. And that decision to sell so quickly reportedly embarrassed the Buss siblings.
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