A daughter of Jerry Buss, who owned the Lakers and other sports businesses, she entered the family business as general manager of the Los Angeles Strings professional tennis team at 19. She later bought the Los Angeles Blades professional roller hockey team. She served as president of the Great Western Forum before becoming vice president of the Lakers. After her father died in 2013, his controlling ownership of the Lakers passed to his six children via a family trust, with each sibling receiving an equal vote. Buss took over as team president and as the Lakers representative on the NBA Board of Governors. In 2020, she became the first female controlling owner to guide her team to an NBA championship, giving her six NBA titles overall as an owner/executive.[4]
Early life
Born in Santa Monica, California,[1] Buss was the third of four children to Joann and Jerry Buss, and one of two daughters; she grew up with older brothers Johnny and Jim and younger sister Janie. Their parents divorced in 1972, leaving Buss feeling emotionally abandoned.[5] At age 14, Buss attended World Team Tennis meetings with her father, who owned the Los Angeles Strings. When she was 17, she moved in with her father at Pickfair. She became so familiar with the estate that she led guided tours. Buss attended college at the University of Southern California (USC), where she majored in business and graduated with honors.[5][6]
Professional career
Non-Lakers sports management
World TeamTennis folded in 1978, and was revived in 1981 as TeamTennis. Jerry once again owned the second incarnation of the Strings, and he appointed the 19-year-old Jeanie as the general manager while she was studying at USC.[5][7] "Basically, my dad bought me the team," said Buss.[5] After the Strings folded in 1993, Buss brought professional roller hockey to Los Angeles as owner of the Los Angeles Blades in Roller Hockey International. The league named her Executive of the Year.[5][6]
Buss is the owner of the WOW-Women Of Wrestling. On October 6, 2021, on top of the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, ViacomCBS Global Distribution President Dan Cohen announced alongside Buss and her long time business partner David McLane that ViacomCBS had entered into a multi-year distribution agreement for WOW. The distribution for WOW marks the largest media distribution platform for an organization that solely promotes women's wrestling in U.S. history.[8][9]
Los Angeles Lakers
Buss served four years as president of the Great Western Forum, then the home arena of the Lakers.[6] Throughout her stint with the Forum, her role with the Lakers increased, and she served as the Alternate Governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 1995.[6] In 1999, she was named executive vice president of business operations for the Lakers.[10] Her brother Jim was promoted to vice president of player personnel in 2005.[11] Their father's plan was to have Jeanie handle the business decisions of the team, while Jim handled the basketball side of the Lakers.[12]
Sporting News in 2005 named Buss as one of the Top 20 Most Influential Women in Sports.[13] In 2011, Forbes called Buss "one of few powerful women in sports management",[7] and ESPN said she is "one of the most powerful women in the NBA".[14]
Controlling owner
After her father died in 2013, his 66% controlling ownership of the Lakers passed to his six children via a trust, with each child receiving an equal vote.[15][16][17] Jerry's succession plan had Jeanie assume his previous title as the Lakers' governor as well as its team representative at NBA Board of Governors meetings.[16][18] She became president of the Lakers, leading the team's business operations, while her brother Jim continued as executive VP of basketball operations.[19][20] She had ultimate operational authority and could overrule Jim's decisions.[21] However, she commented in 2013 that "I would be more comfortable if I understood what the decision process [on the Lakers' basketball side] was, and I'm not always involved in it."[22]
Jeanie and Jim had already been clashing for some time, as Jeanie expected the team to rehire Phil Jackson as head coach in 2012, only for Jim to hire Mike D'Antoni.[23] Jeanie publicly criticized Jim's decision in her book Laker Girl, upsetting Jim.[24] During the 2013–14 NBA season, Jim pledged that if the Lakers were not contending for a conference title or the NBA championship in three or four years, he would resign.[24] Shortly before his timeline ran out, he signed two veterans to large, win-now contracts. NBC Sports' Dan Feldman opined that the deals "place[d] [Buss'] self-preservation over the Lakers' best long-term interests."[25]
2017 ownership dispute
In February 2017, Buss terminated general manager Mitch Kupchak and VP of Basketball Operations Jim Buss.[26] ESPN reported that in addition to the team's multi-year decline in performance, Jeanie was upset that Jim did not consult her before making key trades, which she had previously instructed him to do.[26] To replace Jim Buss and Kupchak, she hired Laker legend and former minority owner Magic Johnson as President of Basketball Operations and sports agent Rob Pelinka as general manager.[27] She later said that she did not go through a public interview process to hire a GM because she did not want to tip off her brother, who might have (and did) respond by attempting to seize control of the team.[27][28]
In response, Johnny Buss (who supported Jim) attempted to remove Jeanie from the team's board of directors; according to one interpretation of the Lakers' organizational bylaws, this would force Jeanie to step down as controlling owner.[29] Jeanie filed a lawsuit to confirm her control over the team, in which she argued that the Buss trusts' governing documents required her to be the controlling owner and a team director.[30][31] She said that she had given Jim Buss "ample time to prove himself."[30] The dispute was resolved in Jeanie Buss' favor when the Buss siblings gave her lifetime operational control over the team.[32]
Personal life
Buss in 2009
Buss married volleyball player Steve Timmons in 1990, but divorced after three years. According to Buss, "I never put my marriage first ... It was always business which attracted me."[33] She posed nude in the May 1995 issue of Playboy.[5]
Buss began dating then-Lakers head coach Phil Jackson in December 1999,[34] and they became engaged in 2013.[35][36] On December 27, 2016, they announced the termination of their engagement in a joint statement on Twitter.[37] After their breakup, Buss consulted with Jackson for input on the Lakers.[38]
In December 2018, Buss received correspondence from an individual who asserted to be her secret sibling named Lee. Lee was the first child of Jerry Buss and JoAnn Mueller, having been given up for adoption. Lee expressed a desire to connect with not only Buss but also her mother and the rest of the siblings, which was arranged.[39][40]
In September 2021, Buss announced on Twitter that she was in a relationship with comedian Jay Mohr.[41] They reportedly began dating in 2017.[42][43] On December 21, 2022, they publicly announced their engagement; and on September 3, 2023, they married in a private ceremony in Malibu.[44] The couple live apart: Buss lives on the third level of their apartment building while Mohr lives on the first level.
1 2 Amick, Sam (October 7, 2020). "'Woooooo!': On Rob Pelinka, LeBron James and a Lakers turnaround that's almost complete". The Athletic. Retrieved October 9, 2020. As Lakers owner Jeanie Buss told me recently on the 'Tampering' podcast, the covert nature of it all was necessary for her to keep her brother and former Lakers executive Jim Buss from wrestling away controlling interest of the franchise.
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