Jeanie Buss Has Emphatic Message On Her Future With the Lakers

There are many Los Angeles Lakers fans who would love to see Jeanie Buss sell the team, and get an entirely new power structure in place to set the franchise back on the right track. Buss, though, has a message for those fans, and anyone else who asks: "I’m not going anywhere. This is exactly what my dad asked me to do... The team is not for sale."

Buss told Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, “This was something that was important to him, that he wanted me to keep the Lakers in the family,” she said. “I like to say, my dad had his children, but the Lakers were his baby, and he put me in charge of the baby, and I will make sure that the baby thrives.”

The Lakers certainly haven't been thriving in the past couple of years. After finishing 7th in the Western Conference in 2021, and bowing out in the first round of the playoffs, 2022 was a complete disaster, as the Russell Westbrook trade turned the team into a bottom-feeder in the West, missing the postseason completely. 

Even if Jeanie Buss did want to sell the team, her father Jerry made it an extremely difficult and complicated process due to the manner in which the elder Buss placed it in trust. 

So Laker fans are likely stuck with the Buss family. They can only hope that Jeanie & Co. can figure out a way to get that baby to "thrive" once again. 

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports