Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings’ vote to sell the Buss family’s remaining 17.8 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, with her attorney sending a legal letter warning that the sale would violate a court ruling and constitute a breach of trust, according to documents obtained by ESPN.
Five of the six siblings voted Monday to sell the remaining family shares to a group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation, the same figure at which Mark Walter recently sold his controlling stake. She was the only sibling who did not vote in favor of the sale. Multiple sources told ESPN she did not respond to the family vote.
Her attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to the five siblings who voted to sell that they are bound to ensure the minimum 15 percent ownership threshold is maintained so that she can remain the team’s controlling owner. He described any action to proceed with the sale as a breach of trust, a breach of fiduciary duty and contempt of court.
The letter cited a 2017 court ruling that Streisand said prohibits any sale from being completed without approval from all three co-trustees, named as Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.
What is at stake for Jeanie Buss
If the transaction goes through, Jeanie Buss would lose enough ownership percentage to no longer qualify as the team’s governor under NBA rules. She had an agreement with Walter when he first purchased his stake that she would remain controlling owner through 2030.
Iger said last week that he intended to honor that arrangement, but added that if something changes, then it changes. Iger met with her late last week and the two discussed the transition from Walter’s ownership.
Streisand demanded in the letter that the five siblings publicly affirm her as controlling owner and take no action on the vote. A spokesperson for the Iger and Kushner group declined to comment.
How the vote came about
The sequence of events that led to Monday’s dispute began before Walter finalized his sale. Sources told ESPN the family vote on selling the remaining shares had been open since last Tuesday, before Walter reached his agreement with Iger and Kushner.
The vote was called after a Lakers finance official convened an emergency meeting of the siblings the previous Monday night to discuss dissolving the family trust and locking down all family shares under a new trust for four years. When the family met the following day, sources said, no mention was made of Walter’s impending sale. One family source told ESPN the meeting spooked everyone and prompted new calls among five of the siblings to sell.
A previous vote taken several months earlier had only produced three votes in favor of selling. After Walter’s transaction with Iger and Kushner became known, two more siblings joined the coalition favoring a sale, with Jeanie Buss abstaining.
The family said in a statement that they had decided as a family to sell the remaining trust shares as part of the ongoing transaction, describing the decision as an opportunity to exit gracefully.
The end of the Buss era
The family has owned the Lakers since Jerry Buss purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke in May 1979. Under Jerry Buss’s stewardship and his children’s, the Lakers won 11 NBA championships, most recently in 2020, and made Los Angeles Lakers basketball synonymous with excellence.
The sale of the remaining family trust shares to the Iger and Kushner group would complete a rapid transition of Lakers ownership that began with Walter’s acquisition just over a year ago. That transition itself came after a federal investigation into Walter for alleged tax fraud by companies connected to him.
Since the 1979-80 season, the Lakers have more wins than any other NBA franchise in that span. More than a dozen Hall of Famers played for the team during the ownership era, and multiple Hall of Fame coaches led the Lakers, first at the Great Western Forum and later at Crypto.com Arena, opened in 1999.
Whether the legal challenge succeeds or the transaction proceeds will determine the final chapter of a Lakers ownership story that shaped one of the most successful franchises in professional sports history.
