NBA writer says Lakers threatened to sue him over new book

NBA writer Yaron Weitzman recently released a new book on the Los Angeles Lakers called A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers.

The book was in the works for some time, with Weitzman sharing that he started the project around January of 2023. Any writer can expect to hit some roadblocks while working on a book, but in Weitzman’s case, he encountered a unique obstacle: the Lakers themselves.

Weitzman revealed on social media that the Lakers “threatened to sue me to prevent you from reading this book.” It’s of note that while Weitzman was working on the book, he met multiple times with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, who seemed to take exception to being told that she had a reputation of running a “bare-bones” organization.

“The way it works when you work on a project like this is when you’re done, you send the principals some fact-checking,” he explained. “Not positive stuff, just the stuff they might wanna respond to.

“I did that for the Lakers, and instead of getting on the phone with me, they decided to hire a famous defamation lawyer named Marty Singer to handle their dealings with me, and he eventually sent me a very strongly written letter.

“For example, they said that my reporting was ‘full of thinly-veiled misogynistic smears, revealing a chauvinism and negative bias that undermines the reliability of my sources.’

“Singer then punctuated the letter by adding that, ‘I want to be incredibly clear with you. There are many times when individuals threaten to sue with neither the reputation to stand up to scrutiny nor the resources to pursue a strong libel claim. Please have no doubt neither of these issues apply here.’”

Weitzman added that he “absolutely” did not defame Buss or the Lakers.

Earlier this year, the Buss family entered an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Lakers to businessman Mark Walter.

The Lakers organization is often at the center of attention, but that attention has arguably become magnified in recent years amid the LeBron James era and now the Luka Doncic era.

It’s a safe bet that the franchise is going to remain relevant for a long time, and there are some storylines that still need to be settled in the immediate future that are sure to keep eyeballs on the team. Those storylines include the future of James and questions about how the organization will build around Doncic.

This season, both James and Doncic are dealing with injury woes already. James has yet to appear in a game, and Doncic was sidelined for the first time this season on Sunday. However, L.A. is off to a 2-1 start, and if key contributors keep playing at a high level, the team could become dangerous when both James and Doncic are back.

The Lakers last won an NBA title in 2020. They’d certainly love nothing more than to get another one in 2026.