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Byron Scott spent a total of 13 years with the Los Angeles Lakers organization, 11 as a player, during which he won three NBA championships, and two as the team’s head coach during the final years of Kobe Bryant’s illustrious career. With that being said, if there’s anyone who can definitively describe what it was like to work in the environment that the Buss family had fostered for the Lakers, it’s B-Scott.
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However, with the recent development involving the sale of the storied franchise to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for an eye-popping $12.5 billion, Byron said he fears that everything the Buss family, led by the late Dr. Jerry Buss, had built over the decades they owned the Lakers will be gone under the new regime.
It was all about winning
From the moment Jerry purchased the Lakers in 1979, he had only one goal for the purple and gold: to win as many championships as possible. It’s safe to say that he accomplished that goal, as he personally oversaw 10 championship banners being raised before he died in 2013. His daughter, Jeanie, then helped lead the Lakers to the 2020 championship in the “Orlando Bubble.”
“Being a Laker fan for so many years, and the Buss family controlling the Laker organization, the Buss family was all about winning, all about culture, all about family,” B-Scott
“It seems that that’s gone now. I think it’s more of a transaction, you know, today than it has ever been,” he stressed. “And I don’t think any of us that’s sitting here right now thought 14 months ago that the Lakers would sell for, you know, $10 billion, and then today they sold for $12.5 billion. So for me, I always look at it and go, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. What’s going on?'”
Despite the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the organization for the last few years, Scott reminded everyone that it remains one of the most beloved and popular sports franchises in the world. So, for the Lakers to change hands twice over the last 14 months is undoubtedly head-scratching.
“That organization, to me, is still one of the greatest organizations in all of sports,” Byron asserted. “To have to go through this in the last 14 months is trifling to me.”
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A business deal
One of the driving forces behind the success of the Buss family’s regime was their knowledge of the game and their relationship with the players. They were legitimate fans of the game and the athletes, which made their relationship with the players more meaningful.
However, Scott contended that, with this new ownership group taking over, he feels they will treat the Lakers as nothing more than an expensive pawn in their fight for the throne.
“No, it ain’t about knowing basketball, you know. It ain’t about knowing basketball anymore. And that’s what it used to be about when you owned the team, is because you were not only a big fan and a businessman,” Byron stated. “But you wanted to win because most businessmen, they’ve been winning all their life.”
“These guys are doing it now because they just, you know, it’s something to talk about. It’s a hobby. It’s a hobby to these guys now. It ain’t about winning. It’s a toy. It’s a hobby,” he declared.
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This story was originally published August 17, 2026 at 10:40 PM.