Jesse Buss Discussion: Fired

He's the one Buss I would have been happy to have stayed on with the org

 

yeah, this was my comment elsewhere--we start with the one part of the family that was actually helping the organization?

 

Yeah, he's gone. Bye bye. Miss you, Jesse, but it what it is.

It's just business...

 

yeah, as i said in the other thread...it's convenient to say this now. it's a bad look, imo. and i'm on his side in the early going.

 

Well said, Weezy.

 

if he the one that wear the ball cap OVER his ears?

This had to happen lol

 

The ESPN, and Baseball America. This is due to a combination of strategic investment, efficient development, and a strong international and domestic draft pipeline. While other teams may spend heavily on payroll, the Dodgers are recognized as a gold standard for their ability to develop talent from within.

• Consistent Top Rankings: The Dodgers' farm system has been a fixture in the top-10 for years, with MLB.com ranking it #1 in August 2025.
• Efficient Development: The franchise is praised for its efficient development, efficiently using its resources to develop talent from lower rounds of the draft and international signees.
• Strategic Investment: While their payroll is large, the Dodgers are also noted for consistently investing in their farm system through various developmental avenues, which allows them to remain competitive long-term.
• Strong Track Record: The farm system's success is reflected in the major league team's consistent playoff appearances and World Series wins over the last decade.

They have back to back world series championships and the best farm system in baseball, which is probably a large part attributed to the scouting department they revamped in 2014 (see previous post).

They like to win on the margins and leave no stones unturned, IMO. They swing big in FA, but also re-invest in the right areas to sustain the winning for years at a time. The NBA is different, yes, but I think we're in good hands.

 

After reading the full interview in The Athletic, I have to say it all sounds like sour grapes and I came away feeling less sympathy for the brothers. There are definitely elements that the other parties (Jeannie & Rob) could have done differently and I'm not giving them a free pass, but a lot of entitlement wrapped into this interview.

• The whole, "[my dad wanted me to] run the basketball operations one day." I'm sure it's true, but came across as whining to me.
• He talks about not caring about who gets credit for what, but brings up his role in bringing in Austin and Rui (which was a trade so while he may been a factor, the deal was made by Rob). Point being, you say you don't care about credit but make sure to give yourself some in the same breath.
• His comment about how the vision he's seen the last 10 years isn't necessarily going to lead to success? Uhhh...we got a title 5 years ago, went to the WCF, and now traded for Luka -- all while navigating the twilight of Lebron's career.

Spare the woe is me from rich kids. I'll have the same level of sympathy if Jeannie get ousted.

 

It's sour grapes, but rightfully so, from a family/ownership standpoint. They're all nepo babies who don't deserve the wild fortunes and positions they have, so whatever, but if you're looking at it from a family and ownership group perspective, they got screwed. Dr. Buss was the successful one, and he would have most likely transitioned the team's basketball operations to Joey and Jesse, who showed the most competence out of all the Buss siblings. They didn't want to sell the team, but the other 4 wanted $$$ and didn't care about getting out of the business, while the ones who did care and want to stay and run the team (and probably would have done a better job than Jeanie) got axed - and it doesn't even seem to be a Walter move, it seems to be a Jeanie and Rob move, which makes it even worse. Jeanie has been a bad owner, and screwed her other 2 co-owners who showed more promise than her, and never got the chance to run the team like Dr. Buss probably would have wanted. So yes, they should feel sour grapes and like they got screwed, because they did.

That said, none of them deserve to be in those positions, and overall the team has been run poorly ever since Dr. Buss's passing. We all griped about the penny pinching mom and pop dumb approach that Jeanie and family have taken. The team, organization, and fanbase overall are all better off with the Buss siblings gone and with Walter hopefully doing with the Lakers what he did with the Dodgers. This move doesn't appear to be a part of that though, it appears to be a Jeanie and Rob screw-job.

It was going to happen eventually anyway, so on one hand, whatever. On the other hand, Jeanie and Rob are still in power right now, and Walter doesn't appear to have built out any management structure beyond them yet. So who is going to replace the scouting department? Most likely Rob. It's not going to be Walter personally, and he hasn't installed any executives next to Rob yet. So this is actually a terrible move for us, because it terminates the good scouting and talent evaluation that the Lakers had, and is probably going to replace it with worse.

The correct order, in a Walter rehaul, would be to replace Jeanie and Rob, and then install the correct management team that correctly revamps the other departments. If Rob has earned a longer leash, then fine, give him some time the way Walter did Coletti, but then why fire Joey and Jesse, the competent ones now? So this doesn't seem to be a Walter move. Hopefully the Walter moves do come sooner rather than later, but his approach seems to be to let the existing management continue to run things for 1-3 years, then overhaul. And I have no faith in Rob to replace good scouting. I'm not overall down on Rob or think he's terrible - he has some good GM qualities. But scouting does not appear to be one of them.

 

too many unknowns to come up with such an elaborate theory, imo. another possibility is that the buss brothers had shown signs of divesting from their posts since the sale process started, and rob was concerned we were letting that stuff slip. i know that's impossible because rob's the devil around here, but as much evidence aligns with that as the above--including both factual things (they developed a new company) and their own statements (a reference to a health problem leading to time away from the job). as i said above, taking shots on the way out the door doesn't help me believe that you're the ones i wanted to keep.

this stuff kinda drives me nuts to be honest. we've been one of the more successful nba franchises in the past 10 years, and we had to come out of the kobe retirement--something no other team with our level of success really had to do, imo. this idea that rob's an idiot who can't do the job just doesn't hold water for me. it feels like a lot of it still stems from the "scrambling" claims and general personal animus about telling fake stories or wearing leather jackets or something. i'd say most evidence suggests we're actually pretty well-run, from a results standpoint.

all that said, i agree that the rambii/tim dynamic is totally weird and has no place in an nba front office. and that's all jeanie. rob puts up with it to keep his job, imo.

 

Point taken but I think his thoughts on the last 10 years is more about internal stuff than the team's successes on the court.

 

Also, as a management guy, its very common for employees to unload everything they have been holding back on the way out of the door. It's part of the logic behind exit interviews. He's definitely not the first or last person to sound off about things they kept their mouth closed on when leaving.

I'm sure there is a lot more he could have said.

 

I hear you, but the full quote refers to success in relation to Lakers fans expectations, and we have high expectations for on court success.

"Because I think if the vision, more or less, is the same from what I’ve seen over the last 10 years, then it necessarily isn’t always going to lead to the success that Laker fans have become accustomed to when my dad ran the operations and owned the team."

 

I don't buy this. There's no major decision made today not approved by Walter. It's a massive sale and everything is accounted for. Operations, reputation or long-term strategy are all things impacted by this decision and I'm 100% sure Walter is consulted and if it's not actually him giving the final approval, he certainly has a lot of weight in that decision

Yeah this was my first thought when I read the tweet.
But only today I'm catching up.

From what I read here, I think if they were against the sale that probably made the relationship with Jeannie unbearable and it likely affected their ability to continue to do their job to the level they were doing. It likely triggered Jeannie to start thinking in axing them because I imagine on a daily basis there must have been a lot of tension, lost of trust and bad communication.
I think it's for the better to start fresh, but it's a pity they couldn't be brought a long this new era because they looked really good in their job. Curious to see if they go to another team, maybe in the same city as they love to do it.

 

Question for the supporters of this move. Who do you think is going to hire the new scouting department?

Presumably Rob, right? Even if Walter has him consult with Friedman and Zaidi, that's not a good look imo. They're career baseball guys who were already exceptional MLB execs when Walter picked them to run the Dodgers. They're brilliant, but that doesn't mean they have exceptional NBA knowledge. I don't want them or Rob picking the NBA scouts, I want Walter picking exceptional NBA execs to lead the Lakers and then hire the scouts. But that's not the way the timeline is looking.

 

The timing of the axing our very competent Scouting Department is just strange.
This is the part that doesn’t really make sense.
Why not do it over the summer so it doesn’t cast a dark cloud over Lakerland?
It would have been nice to get some kind of explanation from the FO as to why this was happening that included the plan moving forward. When stuff likes this happens within an organization, it just furthers the idea that they all need to go. This isn’t the first time that Jeanie has bungled a big change within the organization and just a minor public statement to appease the fans would go a long way. That being said, I would actually be fine with Rob staying on because he’s done a much better job than most have given him credit for. I would just like more smart basketball minds at the table, instead of the Rambii and Jeanie.
It makes me believe that something happened recently between the Buss Boys and Jeanie that was the proverbial “last straw.”

 

Kurt and Linda Rambis are.