Lakers legends give unfiltered takes on Buss family drama

The Los Angeles Lakers have always been a family.

For the nearly 50 years that they have been owned or controlled by the Buss family, whether you are a current or former player, you are forever a Laker and will always bleed purple and gold.

But with Mark Walter’s majority stake set to be sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation, the Buss family siblings have used a tag-along provision and voted 5-0 to sell their remaining 17.8% stake. Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is fighting to prevent that sale, setting the stage for a potentially bitter legal battle over the family business that Dr. Jerry Buss purchased in 1979 and transformed into a global brand.

And now the men who helped build the franchise’s mystique over the past five decades are speaking out publicly for the first time about the Buss family drama, and they sound far more mournful than nostalgic.

Several Lakers legends weighed in on the stunning ownership upheaval surrounding one of sports’ most recognizable franchises, speaking exclusively with the California Post at the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation’s 26th Anniversary Celebrity Dinner on Thursday night at the Beverly Hilton.

“I don’t think he [Dr. Jerry Buss] would be very happy with the state of the Lakers right now,” three-time Lakers champion Byron Scott said when asked about the family dispute.

Scott played during an era when the Lakers were not merely an NBA franchise but a traveling circus, with Buss presiding over it all like basketball’s master showman. To Scott, the organization’s identity and the family behind it became inseparable.

“I never thought in my lifetime that I would see anybody, any other organization, company or corporation owning the Los Angeles Lakers,” Scott said.

But now, not only will there be new owners in Iger and Kushner, but there is a very strong possibility that the Lakers future will not include the Buss family at all. For seven-time NBA champion and current Spectrum SportsNet analyst Robert Horry, the thought of that is tragic.

“That would be sad,” Horry told the California Post. “It would be strange and very, very sad.”

Horry pointed beyond championships and banners to Jerry Buss’ lasting fingerprints on the NBA — the marriage of basketball and Hollywood, the Showtime Era, the Laker Girls and the Forum Club.

“There are so many things like that that he brought to basketball that all these other organizations kind of piggybacked off of,” Horry said. “So for the Buss family not to be involved in some way would be such a sad thing.”

That’s what makes the current fracture so jarring for those who lived through the Showtime Era. Dr. Buss spent decades convincing players there were not simply employees, but they were family.

“That’s what Dr. Buss really talked to us about, was making it a family,” Scott said. “And we all felt a part of that family.”

Now the family itself is divided.

Michael Cooper, another pillar of the Showtime Lakers, declined to referee the Buss siblings’ dispute while the ownership situation remains fluid. But his reverence for the patriarch was unmistakable.

“Dr. Buss was a one-of-a-kind owner,” Cooper said. “The greatest owner in sports that I’ve ever played for. … Greatness starts from the top, and it goes down.”

Asked if he thinks Jeanie Buss will fight to the bitter end to remain in control of the Lakers or if she will concede to her siblings’ wishes, Cooper expressed confidence she will do the right thing.

“I really always believe that Jeanie Buss will do what’s best for the Lakers,” Cooper said. “But the Lakers, no matter who owns them, will always be the Lakers.”

Former Lakers and Clippers forward Matt Barnes was less diplomatic about where his loyalty resides.

“I love Jeanie. Absolutely love Jeanie and what she’s about,” Barnes told the California Post. “It’s unfortunate that family drama — and I’ve had it — has to play out publicly. But I support Jeanie 100 percent.”

Barnes believes Buss has tried to preserve her father’s vision and hopes she remains in charge of the Lakers under the Iger-Kushner ownership.

“I think she’s done a great job of trying to continue to make the Lakers stand for what her dad wanted them to stand for,” Barnes said. “So I hope she continues to stay on the management side and things go her way.”

For nearly half a century, the Lakers have changed arenas, coaches, superstars and eras. Through it all they have survived.

But this feels different.

The Buss family name has been as much a part of the Lakers’ fabric as purple and gold. Now, as billions of dollars change hands and a family dispute threatens to spill into court, the players who helped create the franchise’s golden era all seem to be confronting something they never considered possible:

A Los Angeles Lakers organization without the Buss family.

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