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National Women’s History Month: Celebrating Boss Lady Jeanie Buss

Shereen Rayan|

It’s National Women’s History Month, so it’s a very good time to celebrate Lakers’ owner  Jeanie Buss and the boss lady that she is.

The Buss family ties are being put to the test this month. It’s also National Women’s History Month, and I am the only female contributor out of 18 for the Lake Show Life, so it seems fitting that I contribute and write about the No. 1 Boss Lady of Los Angeles and the Nation, Jeanie Buss. It also seems like a good time to celebrate her latest decisions to do what most Lakers fans have been praying for.

Ever since about the time the Dwight Howard experiment failed, Jim Buss has been on the hot seat. Yes, the fans keep coming, yes, he has tried, with Mitch Kupcheck, to bring the franchise back to prominence. And to be fair, he has had some bad luck, like Kobe tearing his ACL, like no one wanting to play with Kobe so he couldn’t attract talent to come to LA.

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It was Jim that gave himself the ultimatum. Lakers fans were not happy that he gave himself so much time (3 years). Let’s face it, Jeanie Buss was correct when she apologized for taking too long, but Jim is her brother, and she had to give him every chance to get it right. We can all agree the Luke Walton hire was spot on, but putting the rest of the veterans around the teenagers did not work by the NBA All-Star break. Time for a change.

Jeanie fired her brother Jim, and the Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak as well as a few others in the front office and put Magic Johnson in charge. Magic just hired Kobe’s agent, Rob Pelinka, as the Lakers new GM. Remember he said he would call Kobe first if he got the job to head of the team’s operations.

When the stockholders, or in this case the fans, lose faith in the ownership, the ownership must have the gonads to do something about it, and Jeanie did what a lot of us would have wanted her to do, she hired the Magic Man to get ready for next season and make sure the team playing in Staples Center knew everything was on the table as far as changes.

This is what you call a major shake-up. Honestly, I don’t know how many Lakers fans could have pulled the trigger and made those huge changes pissing off their family members. Maybe if Jim weren’t so worried about being overshadowed, he would have given Jeanie’s former fiance’ a role, and things may have turned out more zen for everyone. On the other hand looking back on how it went down with Phil in New York, maybe things worked out for the best.

All the while, Jeanie remains the Buss sibling who has earned the most respect in the Lakers camp for her problem-solving skills, her demeanor, her humbleness, her vision, her analytical skills, and her love for the Lakers, just like the love she has for her late father who brought his dream to life with the Lakers Franchise.

Note: If something were to happen with Jeanie, it is her brother not named Jim and John, but Joey is the Lakers alternate governor. Joey Buss is currently in charge of running the very successful Los Angeles D-Fenders.

If you have been out of the loop, let’s recap what just went down last week as simply as we can with help from Ramona Shelbourne.

The Lakers are in a family trust with three trustees, Jeanie (controlling owner), Jimmy, and Johnny. There are five people on the Lakers Board of Directors (voted in each year), and each year, the board gets together to affirm the controlling owner. It is written in the trust that Jeanie would be the controlling owner according to her father’s wishes. Her brothers, Jimmy and Johnny, are supposed to do whatever they can to make sure she remains the controlling owner.

The male siblings decided to try an end run on Jeanie, as the meeting of the board has not happened, by calling a meeting of the board to oust her. She filed a restraining order saying the brothers were they are in breach of their role as a trustee. In court, the brothers withdrew their motion, but Jeanie wants to put this to bed, so there is a trial on March 15th to cement once and for all, that the trust moves forward the way it was intended.

Maybe Ramona can explain it better.

In the world of business, how many owners of companies have to go through these types of family politics when trying to run a company which needs rebuilding? Probably quite a few, which is why there is a trust with rules, so as to avoid such conflict. This fight is being fought on a  public a stage and for one of the most storied franchises in sports, let alone the NBA who is behind her 100 percent.

After hanging out after the D-Fenders game against the Raptors 905 last Friday night, the buzz I gathered was that folks in and around the organization were appalled by the takeover attempt. It shook them and put a damper on all the positive sentiment and support that Jeanie and Magic had given to all the coaches and players for both the Lakers and the D-Fenders. It left everyone shaking their collective heads. Things were looking up for the first time in a long time, why did this have to happen?

I will never forget meeting Jeanie Buss a couple of years ago. She was warm, she was happy to share her time with me, and she followed me on Twitter, which to this day is hugely special and incredibly motivating. Our five minutes was one of the experiences that propelled me to follow my dream to be a sports broadcaster. Jeanie does that to you. You feel like you can do anything after her pep talk.

Another special moment in my young career was being able to interview Ramona, getting her thoughts on the young team this season. I am still waiting for a Twitter follow from the Lakers No. 1 source for any truth in any story regarding the Purple and Gold. But when that happens it will be huge because I look up to both of these women as mentors in a way, just by heading their words, watching how they carry themselves, and how they go about doing their respective jobs.

I am not the only fan who thinks the world of Jeanie Buss, just look on social media, support for her is everywhere. There is even a petition some male Lakers fans put together to make a statement, they have over 350 signees in less than 24 hours. It won’t matter in court, but it felt right to sign it if only to publically make a stand and support ‘Boss Lady Buss.’

https://twitter.com/LakersDynasty33/status/838244561168150528

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So, I will say it right here, and right now, I am with team Jeanie (#TeamJeanie). I applaud her for having the balls her brothers seemed to have lost. Or in other words, she had the courage to do the right thing for her Los Angeles Lakers. The best team in the NBA, when run correctly.

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