Jeanie Buss is legally challenging her siblings' plan to sell the family's remaining 17.8% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently at the center of a complex ownership dispute as Jeanie Buss formally contests her siblings' attempt to liquidate the family's remaining stake in the storied franchise. While the Buss family trust recently announced its intention to divest its 17.8 percent interest to an investment group led lock the transaction. This conflict marks a significant chapter in the ongoing restructuring of the franchise's ownership landscape.
At the heart of the disagreement is the preservation of Jeanie Buss’s position as the team's controlling owner. NBA league regulations dictate that a controlling owner or governor must maintain a minimum of 15 percent equity in the franchise. that the siblings' actions threaten her ability to satisfy these mandatory ownership thresholds, thereby risking her status as the primary governor of the organization.
This development follows a major transition period that began fourteen months ago when Jeanie Buss led the sale of the Lakers to Mark Walter. That landmark deal, valued at $10 billion, set a record for professional sports franchise valuations at the time. Despite the successful closure of the sale, the process was reportedly marred and execution of the transition.
As part of the initial agreement with Walter, provisions were established to ensure that Jeanie Buss would remain in her role as governor through 2030. However, the post-sale period saw the termination of her siblings from their respective roles within the Lakers organization. The current attempt to sell the residual trust shares to the Iger-Kushner group has now reignited these long-standing familial tensions, bringing the internal management of the trust back into the public eye.
Legal arguments presented g the JAB Trust. According to the filing, this ruling stipulates that any sale of Lakers shares necessitates the express approval of the co-trustees, a group that includes Jeanie herself. The legal team contends that the siblings are bound s preserved, allowing Buss to retain her controlling interest.
The letter from Buss’s legal counsel characterizes any unauthorized sale as a breach of fiduciary duty and a violation of the existing court order. This creates a significant legal hurdle for the proposed acquisition, as the transaction requires the approval of the NBA Board of Governors. With the board scheduled to meet in mid-September in New York, the timeline for resolving this dispute is narrow, especially given the ongoing federal investigations surrounding Mark Walter regarding his other business interests.
If the sale to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner proceeds as intended, the new owners would control approximately 83 percent of the franchise. This would represent a total shift away from the legacy ownership model that has defined the Lakers since 1979, when the Buss family first entered the fold. The family's public statement emphasized a desire to exit the ownership arrangement gracefully, stating that it was the appropriate time to move on.
Regardless of the family's stated intent to exit, the legal reality remains that the trust's governance is subject to the conditions established rd a potential courtroom showdown, the NBA will be closely watching to see how the ownership structure of one of its most valuable assets is resolved before the upcoming board meetings.