A dispute erupted Monday among the Buss family siblings, who initially announced plans to sell off the family’s remaining stake in the Lakers, but an attorney for Laker governor Jeanie Buss quickly called the announcement “false, defamatory and pernicious.”
On Monday morning, ESPN first reported that the six Buss siblings had voted to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% ownership of the team to new majority owners Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.
In a statement to ESPN, the Buss family said, “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. 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.”
ESPN reported that a majority of the Buss siblings — Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse — voted to sell off the family’s remaining stake in the team.
Any such sale would result in Jeanie Buss no longer being the team’s governor, since she would no longer have the qualifying 15% ownership stake in the franchise required to hold that position. She has been team governor since 2013, following the death of her father Jerry Buss.
But Monday afternoon, an attorney for Jeanie Buss sent a letter to lawyers for the other siblings, demanding that they retract the announcement of the proposed sale, insisting that rules of the family trust and a 2017 court ruling make clear that she will remain a controlling owner of the team for life.
“Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise, and any attempt 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,” according to the letter sent by Jeanie Buss’ attorney Adam Streisand and obtained by multiple media outlets, including ESPN and the California Post.
“On behalf of Jeanie Buss, I demand that your clients make clear publicly that Jeanie Buss is the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and that your clients shall take no action on this supposed `vote’ to sell the 17.8% stake,” Streisand wrote.
The letter called the announcement of a planned sale of the family’s stake “just the latest instance of a years-long pattern whereby Joey and Jesse Buss leak false, defamatory and pernicious `information’ … for the malicious purpose of doing harm to the Los Angeles Lakers so long as Dr. (Jerry) Buss’ chosen successor, Jeanie Buss, carries out her father’s wishes.”
According to ESPN, under the terms of the team’s $10 billion sale last year to current owner Mark Walter, Jeanie Buss was set to be governor of the franchise through at least 2030. Iger and Kushner announced last week plans to purchase the team from Walter for $12.5 billion.
Iger is the former CEO of the Walt Disney Co., and Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
According to ESPN, Kushner and Iger were originally purchasing 65% of the Lakers franchise under its deal with Walter. Adding the Buss family’s share would give Kushner and Iger about 83% of the team.
That sale is still contingent on approval from the NBA Board of Governors, which is scheduled to meet Sept. 15-16 in New York.
Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million in a deal that also included the NHL’s Kings and The Forum. Buss sold his controlling interest in the Kings in 1988 and what is now Kia Forum in 1999. Following his death in 2013, Lakers ownership passed to his children, with Jeanie Buss serving as team governor ever since.
The Lakers thrived under the Buss family’s leadership, becoming one of the most storied franchises in sports. They captured 11 NBA championships during that span, including a three-peat from 2000 to 2002 under coach Phil Jackson and star guard Kobe Bryant, and most recently won a title in 2020.