The Lakers season has been an abject disaster to this point, as they seem all but assured to miss the postseason in LeBron James’ first year. Still, there are few brands in the NBA bigger than the Lakers and as such, everyone wants to figure out how to get a piece of the pie — and the Lakers want to maximize their earning potential. Currently, the Lakers are scheduled to play at the Staples Center through the 2024-25 season when their lease runs up. The expectation is and has been that they will re-sign at Staples and remain there well past 2025, but a recent lawsuit filed by Madison Square Garden Company against Inglewood over the Clippers’ plan to build a new arena over by the soon-to-be-opened Rams and Chargers stadium shows there were, at least briefly, discussions to move the Lakers to The Forum. MSG owns The Forum and is upset that the Clippers are passing up on the opportunity to play at the renovated building, claiming the city of Inglewood tricked them into a lease with the city for land for parking to help the Clippers build their new arena. Emails produced in discovery and obtained by the L.A. Times show Jeanie Buss discussing the potential to move the Lakers to The Forum after their lease runs up with Staples. Buss, advisor Linda Rambis, and business mogul Irving Azoff had lengthy correspondence via email about the potential for a move back in 2017, although all parties involve say nothing came of it and there are no plans for such a move. The emails are a fascinating look at the way rich business people schmooze each other to get the ball rolling on ideas like moving a franchise worth billions of dollars to Inglewood, but they also indicate a bit of disdain inside the Lakers building for Steve Ballmer, owner of the Clippers. Ballmer is frequently referred to as “Balls” or “Ballz” in the emails and at one point Buss references her ouster of brother Jim from the Lakers as evidence she could ruin Ballmer’s quest for an arena in Inglewood by potentially moving to The Forum. She also seems to question why commissioner Adam Silver would go along with the Clippers’ new arena plan — and, per The Times, had a discussion about Jerry West joining the Clips. After discussing former Lakers player, coach and executive Jerry West joining the Clippers front office, Buss savaged the potential arena. “They are all crazy,” she wrote. “This is a joke. Why would Adam let this happen?” “Adam” is presumably NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “He has no vote unfortunately,” Azoff responded. “It will be a long legal fight.” Buss used a nickname for Azoff when she wrote back. “We need to see you Nugget! !” she wrote. “Didn’t Ballz see what we did to my brother?? He will have nothing but Clippers basketball. Whoopee.” Obviously, nothing came to fruition from these talks but these emails becoming public creates yet another minor PR disaster for the Lakers. They are partially owned by the group that owns Staples Center, so it could cause some internal turmoil over these unofficial discussions taking place, but beyond that the biggest impact this will have is on the relationship of the two L.A. teams. It seems clear Buss isn’t too much of a fan of Ballmer stealing some of the spotlight in L.A. with the Clippers and at least considered a move partially out of spite (and partially due to the promise of a rebuilt Forum for the Lakers. While this isn’t a terrible surprise that privately Buss would vent about frustrations with Ballmer and the Clippers, it getting out may require some smoothing in Los Angeles.<doc-sep>Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss likes to call Clippers owner Steve Ballmer “Ballz.” The nickname appeared multiple times in an embarrassing email exchange between Buss and Madison Square Garden Co. official Irving Azoff. In the exchange, Buss mocked Ballmer and the Clippers, who are now seven games ahead of the Lakers in the Western Conference standings. The emails, published by The Los Angeles Times, emerged as part of a lawsuit between MSG and Inglewood, Calif. over a proposed Clippers arena to be built near the MSG-owned Forum. Azoff had been attempting to lure the Lakers back to The Forum, where they played from 1967 to 1999, according to the emails. The team’s Staples Center lease expires after the 2024-25 season. “Heres my dream,” Azoff wrote in a 2017 email to Buss and Linda Rambis, a Lakers official and the wife of former Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis. “Rebuild the forum from scratch. Lakers plus music. boom.” In another email, Azoff said MSG CEO James Dolan “loves the idea too.” But the conversation took a dramatic turn when Azoff found out the Clippers were planning a new arena less than a mile away from The Forum. “Tomorrow [morning] there will be a press conference in Inglewood.. they will announce that ballz and the clippers have optioned land on century blvd to build a new arena,” Azoff wrote in a panicked email to Buss and Rambis. “We were blind sided and not involved in the process. It’s a long way to fruition but we should talk about how it impacts the lakers, forum, etc. !” MSG’s lawsuit against Inglewood alleges its mayor, James Butts Jr., tricked the company into ending its lease on the city-owned lot it planned to flip for the new Clippers arena. Buss also wrote that she’d treat the former Microsoft CEO like her brothers, Jim and Johnny. Buss has tussled with them in a public feud that ended with her as the team’s controlling owner. “We need to see you nugget! !” Buss wrote to Azoff. “Didn’t Ballz see what we did to my brother?? He will have nothing but Clippers basketball. Whoopee.” MSG told the LA Times in a statement that it “approached the Lakers about the possibility of repurposing the Forum in the future to accommodate basketball once again, but ultimately nothing came of it.” The Lakers are now said to be considering an extension on their lease at Staples Center.<doc-sep>Everyone knows about how much damage was done to the Lakers locker room during the failed Anthony Davis trade talks and Magic Johnson’s non-apology apology. But for the first time we are hearing about how the anxieties of that time extended to the highest level of the Lakers organization. The toxicity of the failed trade talks, as well as sensitive place the Lakers are in with the league after tampering with Paul George, forced owner Jeanie Buss to consider ending the LeBron-Lakers experiment entirely. However, after calling Rich Paul she was able to clear the air, according to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. Then she blamed the media. That prompted Paul to reach out to Buss to clear the air, and whatever ill will existed supposedly dissipated. At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference a few weeks later, Buss blamed the media for making the rumors public. The notion that Klutch Sports was putting the Lakers trouble for tampering charges existed publicly only a few weeks ago, brought forward after Anthony Davis Sr. was at Staples Center with Rich Paul after the All-Star break. Bucher is just adding to the pile of evidence there was a palpable animosity between the Lakers and Klutch Sports. It appears that whatever rift existed between the Lakers and Klutch is no longer there after Paul and Buss finally talked to each other. With the playoffs basically impossible, they have no choice but to move forward. But it’s evident at this point that the trade talks either get more or equal blame for the team’s lost season. And turning it around will require that Lakers front office handle it better than their locker room did.<doc-sep>
When the Los Angeles Lakers left the then Great Western Forum in Inglewood for the brand-new Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, the area surrounding the new arena was, well, let’s just say it’s not recognizable today compared to how it was back then. So, news that Jeanie Buss, in an email, seriously considered a move back to Inglewood after all the renovation they helped stir is pretty shocking, to say the least. Through some brilliant reporting, Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times was able to unearth such an email exchange between Buss and Irving Azoff: “Heres my dream,” Azoff emailed Buss and Rambis on June 14, 2017. “Rebuild the forum from scratch. Lakers plus music. boom.” ... Buss responded a half-hour later to the email from Azoff, who has close business ties with the Forum and its owner, Madison Square Garden Co., the New York-based sports and entertainment giant. “I think about the vision you and [wife] Shelli had when you re-imagined the Forum and how you made it happen,” Buss wrote. “I believe you can do anything.” Rambis chimed in: “That’s an incredible dream count me in!” The piece does say that the Lakers intend to re-up their lease in Staples Center once it expires in 2025, but this is absolutely fascinating nonetheless. Also covered in some email exchanges in the piece: The nickname Buss has for Clippers owner Steve Ballmer (Balls or Ballz), and her thoughts on the Clippers moving to Inglewood (she’s not a fan, though it’s hard to tell why): “They are all crazy,” she wrote. “This is a joke. Why would Adam let this happen?” “Adam” is presumably NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “He has no vote unfortunately,” Azoff responded. “It will be a long legal fight.” Buss used a nickname for Azoff when she wrote back. “We need to see you Nugget! !” she wrote. “Didn’t Ballz see what we did to my brother?? He will have nothing but Clippers basketball. Whoopee.” For someone who reportedly hates leaks so much that she was reportedly prepared to trade LeBron James for such a crime, Jeanie certainly seems to apply some silly putty to her own information avenues. The entire piece is well worth your time. Azoff apparently wanted at one point to completely rebuild The Forum and design it for both music and the Lakers. As it stands right now, it has been redesigned from how fans might remember the historic building for the repurposing as solely a concert venue. Fenno also reported that as part of the previously-conceived deal, Jim Dolan would sell a half-stake in the building to the Lakers. As interesting as all that sounds, as stated earlier, it doesn’t seem like any of this is going to come to fruition and it will be the Clippers who make the move to Inglewood, though that obviously has been complicated by deals made between MSG (the current owners of The Forum) and the city of Inglewood. Such a building for the Clippers and music would offer unwanted competition, even despite how quickly Buss disregarded the prospect. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.