Lakers owner Jeanie Buss talks about basketball, love and leadership
Though she was just a teenager when she began her sports management career, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss hasn't slowed down four decades later.
Buss was just 19 years old when her father. Dr. Jerry Buss handed her the reigns of the now-defunct tennis team, The LA Strings.
"I think that it made me fearless," she said. "It made me get comfortable with maybe failing."
The stepping stone led her to become president of what used to be the Great Western Forum. By 1999, Buss was promoted to an executive vice president position, making her one of the highest-ranking women in the NBA.
"When you're one of the few women in a room, and maybe the only woman in the room, it's just the natural thing for everybody to turn to you to kind of act as the coordinator of tea parties," she said. "And if they can diminish you and you agree to take it, then they've won."
In a business that is defined by wins and losses, this trailblazer has proven she will get it done. She even made the tough decision to fire her brother from the Lakers.
"My dad had his children, but the Lakers were his baby. He expected me to protect the baby," she said. "I had to let my brother go when he was overseeing the basketball operations. Year after year, not making the playoffs — that was not the brand of Laker basketball that Dr. Buss had created."
Three years later, in 2020, Buss became the first female controlling owner to win the NBA Championship.
"You bring in the best people and you give them what they need to be successful," Buss said.
However, being successful at love turned out to be a bigger challenge. Buss had a short-lived marriage. After her divorce, she posed for Playboy, and while not sure she would do it again, she has no regrets.
"It's not for everybody but I own it," she said. "I'm proud of it. What it did was it made me realize that a lot of the hang-ups or judgments that I had were those I gave myself. They kind of melted away."
She said this led her down a path where she found a very important relationship.
"I found a relationship that was very important to me in falling in love with Phil Jackson, who was the coach of the Lakers and having a 15-year relationship with him," she said.
While the long-distance relationship didn't survive, the mutual respect did.
Buss recently married comedian Joy Mohr.
"I was surprised at the reaction to a woman over 60 getting married," she said. "I've inspired a lot of women to not give up on romance and finding the right person."
Besides being a newlywed, Buss is also a stepmom to a 12-year-old and is searching for a work-life balance.
"Just like other working women, or even mothers, you're constantly having to make choices about how you spend your time because there's only 24 hours a day and you can't create more time," she said.
But, you can create new opportunities. Buss' latest venture is about giving women a platform with the Women of Wrestling, also known as WOW.
"A pivotal moment in my life was when my dad sat me down in front of the TV," she said. "He turned it on and it was Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs [in] Battle of the Sexes. He said I want you to watch this because this is going to change the world."
That is the inspiration Buss hopes to convey to other generations with WOW.
"Women never had their own platform," she said. "Women were usually the undercard or the sideshow. This is the only all-female professional wrestling that there is. I couldn't be more proud."
