Jeanie Buss and her family are selling a majority share in the Los Angeles Lakers, but she will reportedly remain as the team’s governor. Of course, that’s also what Mark Cuban thought when he sold the Dallas Mavericks.
Buss and Cuban may be linked by more than their mutual affection for superstar Luka Doncic. They both sold their longtime franchises to larger investors — Buss to Mark Walter, Cuban to the Adelson family — and both were reported to retain positions after the sale.
When Cuban sold a majority interest in the Mavs in November 2023, he was supposed to retain control of basketball operations, while Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of matriarch Miriam Adelson, became the team governor. But Cuban never had that assurance in writing.
By the time of the Mavericks’ run to the NBA Finals, Cuban no longer had control of basketball operations, with general manager Nico Harrison reporting directly to Dumont.
The one benefit is that Cuban couldn’t be blamed for the wildly unpopular Doncic trade, since he could neither advocate for roster moves nor stop them.
For the Lakers sale, Buss is retaining her position as the Lakers representative on the NBA’s Board of Governors. Does that mean she’ll be the ultimate boss when it comes to basketball decisions? That remains to be seen. However, generally when businessmen pay billions of dollars for a sports team, they want to be able to run it themselves.
Perhaps Buss has protected her interests better than Cuban did. In 2017, she fought off an attempt by her brothers Jim and Johnny Buss to oust her from her role as controlling owner — and from the Lakers’ board of directors entirely. The end result was that Jeanie Buss retained control and Jim Buss was replaced as team president by Magic Johnson.
Buss may retain her position as team governor for now, but the new group should have the majority of the board seats and thus the option to replace her at any time. Cuban could tell her there’s no guarantee how long she’ll stay in charge.
