Former Los Angeles Lakers majority owner Jeanie Buss reportedly began to turn against franchise superstar LeBron James some time ago and even considered trading him.
A new report from ESPN’s Baxter Holmes detailed a ton of inside info on the Lakers, including events that created distance between Buss and the four-time champion.
“And team sources told ESPN she even began to turn against the Lakers’ star player, LeBron James,” Holmes wrote of Buss.
“Jeanie privately grumbled, people close to the team say, about what she felt was James’ outsized ego and the overt control that he and Klutch Sports, which represents both James and Anthony Davis, exerted over the organization at times.
“She didn’t like that James was considered a savior for a floundering franchise when he arrived in 2018 and that it was he who chose the Lakers rather than the team’s leadership receiving praise for landing him. Team sources have been adamant for years that James’ camp informed the Lakers as early as 2017 that he was coming to join them when he became a free agent the following year.”
James came to the Lakers for the 2018-19 season, and it didn’t take long for him to make an impact, as Los Angeles won the NBA Finals in the 2019-20 season with Davis as James’ running mate.
Even though the 2019-20 season was a wild one with the league pausing due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to play in the league’s Orlando, Fla. bubble, the Lakers proved that they were the best team by rolling through the playoffs.
However, things might’ve started to unravel between James and Buss shortly after, starting with the Lakers’ move to acquire former league MVP Russell Westbrook in a trade.
“The distance between Jeanie and James widened after the Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook in July 2021, people close to the team said,” Holmes wrote. “The team had made the trade in an effort to appease James, but the acquisition backfired in catastrophic fashion. L.A. went 33-49 and missed the playoffs, and James seemed to wash his hands of his role in the acquisition.
“Jeanie privately bristled about what she felt was his lack of accountability and the way James would shift blame onto others after the Westbrook trade, the people said.
“In 2022, in the aftermath of the Westbrook trade, multiple people said Jeanie privately mused about not giving James a contract extension and, later that year, even about trading James, with the LA Clippers floated as a possibility. (This was before James received a no-trade clause in July 2024 after signing a new two-year, $104 million contract.)”
It’s unclear what the Lakers would have received in a potential trade of James, but it’s shocking that Buss even considered trading the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. James has been with the Lakers for eight seasons now, the longest consecutive stint that he’s had with one franchise in his career.
James spent 11 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but four of those came after he left the franchise to play for the Miami Heat.
It also appears that Buss wasn’t happy with a perceived lack of gratitude from James after the Lakers selected his son in the 2024 NBA Draft.
“And when the Lakers drafted James’ son Bronny with the 55th pick in the 2024 draft, Jeanie privately remarked that James should be grateful for such a gesture, but she felt that he wasn’t, people close to the team told ESPN,” Holmes wrote.
“That summer, as she discussed a new contract for James, Jeanie seemed more resigned to the fact that they’d have to do it — almost begrudgingly accepting that they’d take a massive PR hit by not doing so.”
Despite the disconnect between Buss and the elder James, the four-time league MVP remains with the franchise in the 2025-26 season. However, it’s possible that this season could be the elder James’ last with the Purple and Gold.
He is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 season, as the two sides did not come to terms on an extension prior to this season. At 41 years old, the elder James could opt to retire or leave Los Angeles for a new team.
However, there is still a possibility that the future Hall of Famer remains with the franchise, although it may be hard to bring him back at a similar salary number to the one he’s making this season.
After executing a trade for superstar Luka Doncic, the Lakers clearly have the next era of their franchise ready to go, and they may need to let the elder James walk in order to optimize the roster around Doncic.
Right now, the Lakers are the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and hoping to be in the mix to win the NBA Finals. The elder James, despite his age, has played well this season, averaging 22.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game while shooting 51.0 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range.
