When Joey and Jesse Buss were unexpectedly fired from their front-office positions in late 2025, it became clear how strained the relationship was between the youngest Buss siblings and Jeanie.
But it was made clearer on Wednesday just how bad things have gotten.
Baxter Holmes of ESPN published a piece on the Buss family and the crumbling dynamic between them. To fully understand the most damning part of the story, though, some context is required.
During Dr. Jerry Buss’ first marriage, he made a promise
to his then-wife, JoAnn, that he would not have children with anyone else. The need to clarify it as his first message, though, should give you an idea of how that played out. While Johnny, Janie, Jim and Jeanie all came from that marriage, Joey and Jesse did not.
Eventually, Janie and Jeanie learned of this promise, which lays out the details before Holmes details a phone call between Jeanie and Jesse around the time of the press conference after the Anthony Davis trade in 2019.
It’s not clear when Jeanie learned about the promise between JoAnn and her father, but when she spoke over the phone with Jesse on that 2019 call, in what multiple sources with knowledge of it say marked a sharp pivot from the topic of the Davis news conference, she brought it up.
Given that promise between her mother and father, Jeanie told Jesse, “You should’ve never been born.”
What a truly shocking thing to say. For some time, it felt like Joey and Jesse were the two siblings closest to Jeanie, but one can hardly imagine that being the case after those words and that telephone call.
Not shockingly, those remarks rang through the team’s front office and the Buss family.
News of Jeanie’s comments on the call with Jesse soon made the rounds within the organization and to Joey.
“It’s mind-blowing that she would say that,” said someone on the team who became aware of the remarks. “I don’t care who you are. You don’t say that to somebody else.”
Said another: “Why would that ever get thrown into somebody’s face? I don’t know.”
Of Jeanie’s alleged remark to Jesse, Janie said, “I can’t imagine my sister saying that, but that was the truth. They [Jerry and JoAnn] did have an understanding.”
An obvious but ominous dynamic had revealed itself from that call, people close to the family told ESPN — the remark was perhaps a sign of something more, a deep-rooted resentment that for decades had lingered.
“That,” someone close to the family said, “was the beginning of the end.”
Ultimately, Joey and Jesse stuck around the franchise for some time after those remarks before being fired by Jeanie late in 2025. The strong remarks from Joey and Jesse at the time were understandable considering how blindsided everyone was by the news, but given the added layer of this tension simmering just underneath, it’s a shock that the response from them wasn’t stronger.
The whole story from Holmes also details just how much drama there has been with the franchise because of the Buss family. Even if most of the family is already out of the front office, this should serve as the final straw and hopefully push Mark Walter to remove Jeanie from her position and rid this franchise of the Buss family at last.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
