Speaking on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Jeanie Buss claimed that an NBA owner grabbed her “ass” when she was a young executive in her very first board of governors meeting in the league.
“As we were waiting, taking a break from the meeting and everybody’s in line for the buffet for lunch during the lunch break, somebody grabs my ass,” Buss said.
“I turn around and I was so shocked. But it was like, again — if I didn’t have the confidence that my dad put in me, that was a moment where I wanted to shrink and to be nothing, that I would have, you know, gotten sick and said, ‘I gotta go.’ Do I really belong here? You know, I’m just really not one of the group, like I’m been singled out. It made me really self conscious.”
Buss — who took over ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers after her father, Jerry, died in 2013 — first talked about this experience in her 2010 book “Laker Girl,” according to the New York Post.
The alleged sexual assault took place in 1995, the NY Post noted, citing the Los Angeles Times.
Buss said that she held her ground against the owner. (RELATED: Atlanta Hawks Tweet Bizarrely Sexual Video Promoting In-Season Tournament)
“I just gave him a dirty look, like back off,” Buss said. “And I stayed in the room. I realized that I might not be able to gain the respect of the existing ownership groups. But everybody that came after me, I could help them in the room because they’d be the new person.”