Behind the Lakers’ $10 Billion Sale: A Family Feud and a LeBron James Rift
The $10 billion sale of the Los Angeles Lakers in late 2025 didn’t just set a record for the largest transaction in sports history.
It publicly concluded a decades long drama of deep seated family discord, corporate power struggles, and, at the center of the storm, a deteriorating relationship between owner Jeanie Buss and the franchise’s superstar, LeBron James.
A major ESPN report reveals that Buss privately felt James was not “grateful” enough after the Lakers drafted his son, Bronny, and even considered trading him to the crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers.
From Showtime to Sibling Sabotage
The Buss family’s tenure began in 1979 when patriarch Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers for $67.5 million, immediately creating the iconic “Showtime” era.
He repeatedly turned down massive offers for the team, stating, “I own the Lakers. What’s more fun than that?” His dream was to pass the franchise down as a family legacy “for generation after generation”.
That dream began to unravel almost immediately after his death in 2013. Jerry Buss was described as “the glue that was holding a broken family together,” and without him, deep-seated jealousies and rivalries surfaced.
The Fracturing Relationship with LeBron James
Parallel to the family drama, Jeanie Buss’s partnership with LeBron James which delivered a championship in 2020 also began to fray. According to multiple reports citing sources close to the team, the friction had several key sources:
- Perceived Lack of Accountability: Buss reportedly grew frustrated after the 2021 trade for Russell Westbrook, a move made to appease James, backfired spectacularly. She resented that James and his camp were able to “escape responsibility” for the failed deal.
- The “Gratitude” Dispute: The relationship soured further in 2024. After using the 55th overall pick to select Bronny James a move widely seen as a gesture to keep LeBron happy Buss “privately remarked that James should be grateful for such a gesture, but she felt that he wasn’t”.
- Power and Ego: Buss also privately complained about the “outsized ego” and influence of James and his agency, Klutch Sports, over the organization.
These tensions reportedly led Buss, in 2022, to privately consider not extending James’s contract and even explore trading him, with the Clippers mentioned as a possible destination.
The $10 Billion Sale and Family Purge
These mounting pressures internal family strife and external roster challenges culminated in the monumental $10 billion sale to billionaire Mark Walter in October 2025.
The final act of the family drama came just weeks after the sale closed. In November 2025, Jeanie Buss, remaining as the team’s governor, orchestrated the firing of her siblings from their roles within the organization.
They were dismissed via abrupt text messages and phone calls. Her sister Janie, pleading to resign instead, said she felt “disappointed and disrespected, like a crumpled-up piece of paper thrown into the trash”.
Aftermath and Official Denials
In the wake of the explosive ESPN report, Jeanie Buss issued a firm public denial regarding her feelings toward LeBron James. She stated to The Athletic:
“It’s really not right, given all the great things LeBron has done for the Lakers, that he has to be pulled into my family drama. To say that it wasn’t appreciated is just not true and completely unfair to him”.
