NBA author Yaron Weitzman says the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to prevent his upcoming book from coming out.
Weitzman, known for his previous work on the Philadelphia 76ers, Tank Top, recently announced his new book, Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of LeBron's Lakers.
The book, which explores the inner workings of the franchise during the LeBron James era and beyond, quickly sparked controversy when the author claimed the Lakers “threatened to sue me to stop you from reading the book.”
Weitzman explained on social media that he began the project around January 2023, conducting interviews and fact-checking with several people within the organization, including team owner Jeanie Buss. He revealed that tensions escalated after he sent parts of the manuscript to Bass and others for verification.
“When you work on a project like this, the way it works is when you're done, you send some fact-checking to the client,” Weitzman said. “Not something positive, just something they might want to respond to.
“I did that for the Lakers, and instead of getting on the phone with me, they decided to hire a famous defamation attorney named Marty Singer to handle their deal with me, and he ended up writing me a very strong letter.”
Weitzman shared portions of the letter, accusing his reporting of being “riddled with unabashed misogynistic slurs, exposing chauvinism and negative bias, and undermining the credibility of my sources.”
Singer concluded his letter with a warning: “I want to be very clear with you. Too often, individuals threaten lawsuits but have neither the reputation to withstand scrutiny nor the resources to make strong defamation claims. Please make no mistake, none of those issues apply here.”
Despite the threats, Weitzman said he stands by his reporting. “I'm absolutely not slandering Buss or the Lakers,” he insisted.
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