In less than a day since he was fired from the Lakers, Jesse Buss laid everything out. The new ownership made its first big move on Thursday morning by overhauling the scouting team. The biggest shockers from that were the dismissals of Joey and Jesse Buss, the younger brothers of Jeanie Buss who remains as the primary governor of the team. While the Lakers were quiet on the entire issue, the brothers didn’t leave quietly. Their exit statement undercut their true feelings about the Lakers’ $10 billion sale to Mark Walters. Jesse in particular has been the most vocal.

The 37-year-old was the assistant GM, working under Rob Pelinka and the director of scouting. The franchise’s CFO Joe McCormack handed out the sentence on November 20. Hours later, Jesse opened up about “the decision, his diminishing role in the front office, the effects of an unidentified illness that has kept him away from gym at times and the future for him and the organization,” to The Athletic.

After we move past Jesse blaming Jeanie Buss for their ouster, his illness stands out. He doesn’t state what’s ailing him but implies that his prolonged health issues affected his role within the organization. “I think typically that’s how things go, and you know, whenever a franchise is sold, there’s a restructuring of the basketball operations department. Obviously, over the last two years, I’ve been dealing with quite a bit of health issues. I’m currently undergoing treatment for that.”

Jesse says while he was getting treated for his health issues, he noticed changes in the front office and operations. The changes seemingly began before the 2023 draft, which gives an idea about when his health issues manifested. The Lakers had only two draft picks that year that didn’t amount to much. Jesse says he felt, “siloed” in that atmosphere but didn’t think about it till the problems cropped up.

“As time went on and there was a lack of communication between not only my sister and I, but the organization as a whole while I was combating various health issues, I kind of felt like the writing was on the wall,” he goes on to say.

He claims he saw his dismissal coming once Jeanie Buss sold the team to Mark Walters. According to reports, Joey and Jesse voted against it. But their decisions weren’t taken into account.

Outside of the news of his firing, Jesse spoke about working through his illness.

Lakers staff helped Jesse Buss through his sickness

Joey and Jesse Buss are often credited for scouting Austin Reaves and Kyle Kuzma. Though it’s debated by fans about who deserves credit for those signings, the Buss brothers’ presence was felt within the organization.

Even when his health restricted his commute, Jesse tried to be involved. “Luckily during COVID-(19) when we were pretty much unable to travel, we had to think of creative ways in order to stay engaged (for) the college season. The 2020-21 season progressed, and a lot of that was just done on film. So one of the silver linings of not traveling is I got to do additional film work, and just was able to stay up to date with my scouts in the day-to-day.”

Jesse talks about relying on a very “passionate” staff but hints that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the leadership. That probably includes Jeanie Buss. And maybe GM Rob Pelinka.

In the initial statement to ESPN, Jesse said, “Dr. Buss’ idea was for Joey and I to run basketball operations one day. But Jeanie has effectively kept herself in place with her siblings fired.”

According to Jesse, he and Joey were the backup plans for the day Dr Jerry Buss’ eldest son, Jimmy retired. But things changed before Jesse’s health declined. Jim Buss was fired from operations in 2017 after a dispute with Jeanie. Rob Pelinka was brought in as GM and in 2020, he was promoted to president of basketball operations.

Maybe focusing on his health now might not be his immediate priority. Jesse and Joey have their independent sports capital group and that could take up his time.