Lakers cut ties with scouting director Jesse Buss after five-month silence with Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka
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The Los Angeles Lakers dismissed longtime scouting director Jesse Buss, his brother Joey Buss and most of the franchise’s scouting staff on Thursday, ending months of internal tension within the team’s ownership family.
According to The Athletic, Jesse Buss said he has not spoken with team governor Jeanie Buss or general manager Rob Pelinka for the past five months. “Jeanie informed me that there would be a vote on the sale of the team,” he told the outlet. “And with Rob, he just informed me of who we would be drafting, which is pretty consistent with how it’s gone in the last couple years.”
Team sources indicated the decision to overhaul the scouting department was initiated by Jeanie Buss and approved by new majority owner Mark Walter, who completed his purchase of a controlling stake earlier this year. Jeanie Buss is now the only member of the Buss family still employed by the organization, although the other siblings retain minority ownership.
The shake-up ends a tenure of more than a decade in which Jesse and Joey Buss led the Lakers’ scouting operations. Their late father, Dr. Jerry Buss, had reportedly envisioned the pair eventually overseeing basketball operations.
The dismissal adds another chapter to a family saga that has unfolded since Jerry Buss’s death in 2012. In 2017, Jeanie Buss removed her brother Jim Buss as executive vice president of basketball operations, installing Pelinka and Magic Johnson in top decision-making roles.
The Lakers last played on Tuesday and are not scheduled to take the court again until Sunday.
Source: Lakers Nation
