Is Running Point about Jeanie Buss? Real life inspiration behind Netflix's new series
The main character of Running Point very much resembles a real person. Is the Netflix series based on the story of Jeanie Buss? We explain.
A new comedy series, Running Point, was released on Netflix in late February. It's the story of a converted party girl, played by Kate Hudson, who must prove her worth as a businesswoman when she unexpectedly becomes president of a professional basketball team owned by her family.
Viewers began to notice some similarities in the story to the fate of a real person – Jeanie Buss, the controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers. Hence the question arose as to whether this was a story based on her life. We will take a look at this topic.
Is Running Point a true story and tells the story of Jeanie Buss?
Although the character played by Kate Hudson is named Isla Gordon, not Jeanie Buss, her story in many ways overlaps with Buss' life since she became president of the Lakers following the death of her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, in 2013. However, Running Point is not a fully fact-based series, it's a dramatized version of Buss' story with fictional elements, hence the series takes on characters that are not true. So Netflix's production is only loosely based on facts.
However, as Buss confessed during an interview for Tudum, Running Point, while not a biography, shows exactly the burden she felt when she was named majority owner of the Lakers.
There’s one scene where Ali, Brenda Song’s character, says, "You can’t blow this. It would set women back." That really was the pressure I felt taking this job because it’s such a male-dominated field. Not only am I trying to do well by myself, I’m carrying the hopes and dreams of all women in professional sports or the entertainment business. It’s hard enough to be successful, but with that kind of weight placed on you, it’s a scary task.
Jeanie Buss was involved in the production of Running Point, so she had insight into the story being created. And as she confessed during an interview with TIME in February 2025, although she was the inspiration for much of the story, she pointed out that the characters in the Netflix production are fictional, including Isla Gordon.
These characters are not my family, and Isla Gordon is not me.
So Running Point cannot be considered a biographical series, as it’s fictionalized. It merely draws inspiration from a true story that has piqued the interest of many; the character of Jeanie Buss has already appeared in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, for example, but Running Point is ultimately one that Buss herself oversaw.
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