{"id":46709,"date":"2025-11-20T23:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46709\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T23:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:35:11","slug":"lakers-fire-joey-jesse-buss-from-front-office-positions-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46709\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers fire Joey, Jesse Buss from front-office positions: Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers fired front office executives Joey and Jesse Buss, along with several members of the team\u2019s scouting staff, league sources confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n

The reasons behind the firing were not immediately clear, as the organization did not announce the changes. However, in an interview with The Athletic, Jesse Buss expressed no real surprise at the decision and detailed a disconnect with the team\u2019s primary stakeholders \u2014 his sister, longtime owner Jeanie Buss, as well as president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka \u2014 that he said had been growing for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s fired everyone,\u201d Jesse Buss said of Jeanie Buss\u2019 dealings with other family members who have worked for the organization.<\/p>\n

Jesse Buss, the Lakers\u2019 draft guru, said he\u2019s felt a growing gap with the team\u2019s leaders since long before the 2025 sale of the organization to Mark Walter<\/a> for a $10 billion valuation, which the NBA\u2019s Board of Governors approved last month. As part of the deal, Jeanie Buss negotiated to remain on as the team\u2019s operating governor for at least five years, according to sources familiar with the deal.<\/p>\n

Jesse Buss, meanwhile, has been dealing with an unspecified illness over the past few years and is currently receiving immunotherapy treatments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of felt siloed quite a bit, dating back to before, I guess, the 2023 draft,\u201d Buss said by phone. \u201cAnd I kind of didn\u2019t think much of it, but you know, as time went on and there was a lack of communication between not only my sister and I, but you know, the organization as a whole \u2014 while I was combating various health issues,\u201d he said. \u201cI kind of felt like the writing was on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were public signs that the Buss brothers were already planning for life after the Lakers, as they announced the joint-launching of a sports investment<\/a> and strategic partnership company in September. Still, it was the timing of this choice that came as the real surprise \u2014 to them and rival executives around the league.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are off to an 11-4 start this season, tied for third place in the Western Conference, and their best start since the 2020-21 season. Some of the players whom the Buss brothers helped land, chief among them Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, have played pivotal parts in the strong start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sale of the team happening kind of more or less just solidified it in my mind,\u201d Buss continued. \u201dAnd I just, more or less expected it. Obviously this is, you know, a job I\u2019ve loved for a very long time. And I love this organization. I love the fans. I love the city of Los Angeles. It\u2019s pretty much all I\u2019ve known my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Joey and Jesse Buss were central figures in the franchise\u2019s scouting and player-development operation, helping identify and cultivate key role players such as Reaves, Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Max Christie. Joey most recently served as the Lakers\u2019 alternate governor and vice president of research and development, while Jesse worked as the Lakers\u2019 director of scouting, playing a leading role in the team\u2019s draft strategy.<\/p>\n

In this season\u2019s media guide, Joey is identified as the team\u2019s Vice President of Research and Development, and Jesse is listed as the assistant general manager and director of scouting. Joey and Jesse have spent their careers within the Lakers ecosystem, with Joey previously serving as president and CEO of the South Bay Lakers, the team\u2019s G League affiliate, and Jesse long regarded as one of the organization\u2019s key evaluators as director of scouting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s bittersweet because first and foremost I\u2019m a Lakers fan,\u201d Jesse Buss said. \u201cEven if I\u2019m not part of the organization in any capacity, I\u2019m always gonna root for this team. And obviously I root for, you know, players that Joey and I had a part of bringing in on the team, you know, such as Austin and Rui.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers fired front office executives Joey and Jesse Buss, along with several members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9141,21,9,11,10,23],"class_list":["post-46709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}