Jeanie Buss and Lakers Allegedly Threatened To Sue Reporter Who Claimed Russell Westbrook Called LeBron James "Fake"

Jeanie Buss and the LA Lakers are the subject of the “A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers” that was released Oct. 21. Not that the Lakers are new to being in the limelight, certain claims, however, by the author, Yaron Weitzman, have been doing the rounds on social media.

Weitzman posted a TikTok on Sunday where he claimed the Buss family and the Lakers sought the help of a famous defamation lawyer to pressure him after he started writing the book in 2023.

Weitzman detailed the intricacies of writing a book, how he had to interview people for knowledge on the subject, and eventually had to fact-check those claims with the organization. He claims this is where he hit a snag with Jeanie Buss and the family, via Awful Announcing:

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

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"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."

He continued:

"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 or scrutiny nor the resources to pursue a strong libel claim. Please have no doubt neither of these issues apply here.'"

One of the most viral claims from the book was Russell Westbrook allegedly getting tired of LeBron James’ “fake” behavior. The current Sacramento Kings guard allegedly said:

“I hate that fake sh*t, I just can’t do it.”

Jeanie Buss Sold Majority Ownership of Lakers for $10 billion

One of the subjects that Yaron Weitzman touched upon in the book was Jeanie Buss’ alleged reluctance to spend lavishly on players. While this was assumed to be a financial decision, it is all in the past now.

In June, the Buss family reached an agreement with Mark Walter to sell majority ownership of the team for approximately $10 billion, as per ESPN’s Shams Charania. The family continues to have a minority ownership, which results in about 15% of the total valuation.

Edited by Rajdeep Barman