Getty President of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jeanie Buss, speaks onstage at the Concordia Summit.
With so much turmoil surrounding the Lakers front office, one fan on Reddit decided to take matters into his own hands. Organizing protests scheduled for May 10th and 11th, Reddit user C-P-R has already gotten the attention of some of the nation’s biggest media outlets. Strategically held across the street from ESPN’s LA Radio HQ, the protest is almost certain to get plenty of coverage from the media giant while going on.
After landing the best player in basketball, the Lakers subsequently missed the playoffs, parted with their coach, and saw their head of basketball operations step down. With the front office repeatedly striking out over the past few seasons, fans are getting fed up with the mishandling of the storied franchise.
Much of their blame is placed on the shoulders of Jeanie Buss, who the organizer feels is primarily responsible for the ineffectiveness of the franchise. However, many Laker fans did not agree with the protest’s core rationale and the reaction was mixed from the Laker subreddit where it was posted. With over 70 people RSVP’d as “attending” to the event at the time of this article, it should be interesting to see what sort of turnout the divisive protest pulls off.
Lakers Fan Protest: Where & When It’s Held
As stated in the Reddit post above, the main protest is set to be held at 12pm PT outside of Staples Center at the corner of Figueroa and 11th. This is already across the street from the ESPN LA Radio HQ and the organizer intends to move the protest across the street in front of ESPN should the police require them to move from in front of Staples Center.
There is also a second, smaller protest held on Saturday at 12pm PT.
Laker Protest Against Jeanie Buss Has Fans Divided
While Jeanie Buss is the focal point of the protest, many fans had mixed reactions regarding how Buss has handled the franchise. While some sided with the organizer and shared the view that Jeanie is running the team into the ground, many felt that the blame was unfairly being heaped on her shoulders. Jeanie Buss took over the Lakers in the midst of a dumpster fire and was tasked with helping the franchise navigate Kobe Bryant’s final years.
Many of the fans put the majority of the blame on her brother, Jim Buss as well as former GM Mitch Kupchak. The duo, who were doomed by the atrocious signings of Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng, had mostly controlled all basketball operations following the death of Dr. Buss while Jeanie handled the business side. Jeanie took a gamble on bringing in Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka as their replacements, two untested front office executives. Clearly, Magic didn’t work out and now Rob seems to be struggling to find a head coach capable of handling the mega-star he signed last summer.
While the blame may not solely land on Jeanie Buss, she has overseen one of the worst runs of Laker basketball in franchise history and has had entrusted the wrong people to make key basketball decisions for her.