Posted on 08/17/2026 6:16:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings' vote to sell the family's remaining 17.8% share of the Lakers, according to a letter from her lawyer obtained by ESPN.
The Buss family siblings in a statement earlier Monday said they had voted to sell their remaining shares to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at the same $12.5 billion valuation that Mark Walter agreed to last week. They believed they had the right to sell based on a tag-along provision that had been included in the previous sale to Walter in June 2025. Sources told ESPN that provision gave the family rights to tag along on any sale and valuation Walter secured for his shares.
Jeanie Buss was to remain the team's controlling owner through 2030, according to the agreement she made with Walter. Iger told the California Post last week that he intended to honor that agreement with Buss, but added "if something changes, then it changes." Should the sale of the family's stake go through, Jeanie Buss would no longer have the needed ownership percentage to remain governor of the team.
A spokesperson for Kushner and Iger declined to comment on the situation when reached by ESPN.
"We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction," the family said in its statement earlier Monday. "We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles; but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can."
In response, Jeanie Buss' lawyer Adam Streisand wrote to the five siblings who voted to sell that a court had ruled in 2017 that no sale could be "effectuated without approval by the co-trustees, i.e. Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss."
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'The news shocked all of us': NBA execs, agents react to the Lakers getting flipped for $12.5 billion Dave McMenamin Streisand also wrote that the "co-trustees are bound to vote ... to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees ... to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court."
Streisand demanded that the five siblings "make clear publicly that Jeanie Buss is the Controlling Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers" and "take no action on this supposed 'vote' to sell the 17.8% stake."
CNBC was first to obtain the letter from Streisand.
Jeanie Buss was the lone sibling who did not vote to sell the team Monday, and multiple sources told ESPN that she did not respond to the family vote on whether to sell the team.
Sources also said that vote has been open since last Tuesday, before Walter came to an agreement with Kushner and Iger to sell his shares. That vote was called, sources told ESPN's Dave McMenamin, after Joe McCormack, Lakers vice president of finance, called an emergency meeting of the Buss siblings last Monday night to discuss a dissolution of the family trust and seeking approval to lock down all family shares for four years under a new trust.
When the family met to discuss it Tuesday, no mention was made of Walter's impending sale to Kushner and Iger.
One family source told ESPN that meeting "spooked" everyone and prompted new calls among the five siblings to sell the remaining family shares. Multiple family sources told ESPN a previous vote several months ago had been taken and only three siblings had then voted to sell.
This time, after Walter's sale, two more siblings joined in the vote to sell, with Jeanie Buss abstaining from the vote, sources told ESPN.
The Buss family had ownership of the Lakers since Jerry Buss purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke in May 1979. Under the leadership of Buss and then his children after his death, the Lakers won 11 NBA championships -- most recently in 2020.
The Lakers' 2,289 wins since the start of the 1979-80 season are the most of any franchise in that span. More than a dozen Hall of Famers played for the Lakers during the Buss family's ownership, and multiple Hall of Fame coaches patrolled the sidelines, first at the Great Western Forum, then at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), which opened in 1999.
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The Wilpons tried to retain ownership for ten years after they sold it to Steve Cohen. He walked away and bought the team a few years later.
The Lakers need new leadership, this team has blown chunks for years we need to bring in people who want to WIN TITLES instead of just get to the 1st or 2nd round and get knocked out
From what I’ve read, Jeannie Buss has been pretty high-handed with her siblings in her control of the Lakers. I doubt they’re disposed to do anything to help her.
Jeannie Buss has fired or sued all four of her brothers since taking control of the Lakers. Now they get their revenge...maybe.
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