Jeanie Buss is the governor and a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and one of the most influential women in professional sports.
She has spent more than four decades in sports management, from running a professional tennis team at 19 to overseeing one of the most storied and valuable franchises in the NBA.
In 2025, Jeanie helped orchestrate the sale of the Lakers’ majority ownership stake to Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a record $10 billion valuation while continuing to serve as the team’s governor.
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Jeanie Buss Biography
She was born on September 26, 1961, in Santa Monica, California, to Dr. Jerry Buss and JoAnn Mueller.
Her parents divorced in 1972, an experience Jeanie has said left her feeling emotionally abandoned as a child.
At 14, Jeanie Marie Buss began attending World Team Tennis meetings with her father, and by 17, she had moved into the historic Pickfair estate with him, an experience that helped shape her early fascination with sports and business.
Jeanie is one of six children fathered by Jerry Buss, whose ownership of the Lakers passed to his children through a family trust after his death.
Her known siblings include brothers Johnny and Jim Buss, and sister Janie Buss. There is also a lesser known and genuinely remarkable chapter in the family’s history.
Early in their marriage, Jerry and JoAnn placed a daughter for adoption. That daughter, Kathy Klose, tracked down the family decades later and learned that her birth parents were Jerry Buss and JoAnn Mueller.
Klose was able to meet JoAnn shortly before her death in 2019, a reunion Jeanie spoke about emotionally in the Lakers documentary Legacy.
A second individual, using the name Lee, also reportedly contacted the family in 2018, claiming to be another child who had been placed for adoption, though this account has not been documented as extensively as Klose’s story.
Jeanie earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with honors, from the University of Southern California.
Career
Jeanie Buss entered the family business at 19 when her father named her general manager of the Los Angeles Strings professional tennis team while she was still a student at USC. She has said openly that her father essentially bought her the team.
After the Strings folded in 1993, she brought professional roller hockey to Los Angeles as the owner of the Los Angeles Blades, earning Executive of the Year honors from the league.
Buss went on to serve four years as president of the Great Western Forum, the Lakers’ former home arena, before being named senior vice president of business operations for the Lakers in 1999.
She had served as an alternate governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 1995. In 2005, Sporting News named her one of the Top 20 Most Influential Women in Sports. Forbes and ESPN later gave her similar recognition in 2011.
After her father’s death in 2013, Jerry Buss’s controlling 66 percent ownership stake in the Lakers passed to his six children through a family trust, with Jeanie assuming her father’s role as team governor and the Lakers’ representative on the NBA Board of Governors.
In February 2017, she made the significant decision to fire both general manager Mitch Kupchak and her brother, Jim Buss, from his role as executive vice president of basketball operations, replacing them with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka.
The move led to internal family conflict, including an attempt by her brother Johnny Buss to remove her from the team’s board, though Jeanie ultimately retained control.
Beyond basketball, Jeanie co-founded Cincoro Tequila in 2016 alongside NBA figures Michael Jordan, Wes Edens, Wyc Grousbeck, and Emilia Fazzalari after the group bonded over a shared love of tequila at an NBA Board of Governors dinner.
She is also the co-owner of Women of Wrestling, a professional women’s wrestling promotion that secured a major multiyear distribution deal with ViacomCBS in 2021, the largest media distribution agreement in the history of women’s professional wrestling.
2025 Lakers Sale
In one of the most significant transactions in professional sports history, the Buss family agreed to sell majority ownership of the Lakers to Mark Walter, chief executive of TWG Global and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, at a valuation of at least $10 billion, a record price for a sports franchise.
Jeanie described the decision as bittersweet, noting that her family members each have their own opinions and are living their own lives, and that the sale ultimately reflected what her late father would have wanted: ensuring the Lakers had the resources to remain a top spending, competitive franchise.
The Buss family retained approximately 15 percent ownership of the team, and Jeanie agreed to continue serving as governor for at least five years under the new ownership structure.
Steve Timmons
Jeanie Buss was first married to Steve Timmons in 1990. The marriage lasted three years before ending in divorce.
Timmons is a decorated volleyball player who won Olympic gold medals with the U.S. men’s national volleyball team in 1984 and 1988 after a standout career at USC, where he helped the Trojans win the 1980 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Buss has said she never prioritized the marriage, reflecting candidly on the demands of her career at the time.
In May 1995, Buss posed for Playboy magazine, a decision she made during a period of her life that she has described as embracing greater independence and confidence.
Buss began dating Phil Jackson, the longtime Lakers head coach, in December 1999. The couple became engaged in 2013 but called off the engagement in December 2016, citing career demands and geographic distance in a joint public statement.
In 2017, Jeanie Buss began dating comedian and actor Jay Mohr, and the two publicly confirmed their relationship in 2021.
They became engaged in December 2022 and married in a private ceremony in Malibu on September 3, 2023.
The couple has an unconventional living arrangement, residing in the same three story building, with Jeanie occupying one unit and Jay another.
She has described the arrangement as ideal because it allows her to keep her own space and schedule while still being able to see her husband whenever she wants.
Jeanie Buss Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $500 million, largely tied to her ownership stake in the Lakers and her broader business ventures, including Cincoro Tequila and Women of Wrestling.
Following the 2025 sale of the Lakers’ majority stake to Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation, the value of the Buss family’s retained 15 percent stake, and Jeanie’s individual share of that stake alongside her five siblings, has not been publicly disclosed.