Jeanie Buss was expected to represent the Lakers as governor at the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings in New York this week, even as the deal that could end her tenure is not slated for a vote, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal. Friend reported Monday that league sources do not anticipate a vote this week on Mark Walter’s proposed $12.5 billion sale of the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
The meetings, held September 14-15, do not resolve the central question of who controls the franchise. The person representing the Lakers is fighting her own family in court to keep the job, and the transaction that would settle the question is moving on a separate timeline that runs through a Los Angeles courtroom in December.
The dispute turns on a league rule. NBA guidelines require a team’s governor to hold at least 15 percent of the franchise. The Buss family trust holds 17.8 percent of the Lakers, and that stake is what keeps Buss above the line. In August, five of the six Buss siblings voted to sell that stake to the Kushner-Iger group. In late August, Buss petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court to declare the trustee resolution void, block the sale and remove two of her siblings, Joey and Janie Buss, as co-trustees. Her petition says she “never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed.”
Friend also noted Buss retains standing within the league itself. Buss was expected to walk through the doors on Monday, as she has since the 1990s, reflecting her longstanding relationship with Adam Silver and “almost universal support” from the rest of the board.
What This Means
The reporting draws a clean line between two clocks running at different speeds. The league can meet, discuss the Lakers, and decline to vote because the ownership stake underneath the sale is still contested in court, and that fight does not resolve until December. Buss’s position rests on a single fact: as long as the trust’s 17.8 percent stake stays intact and under her control, she clears the 15 percent floor and keeps her seat. If the sale depends on that stake moving, as the siblings’ vote suggests, her lawsuit stands in the way, and the transaction is unlikely to clear the league while her challenge is pending. That is the practical takeaway from Friend’s report — not that anything changed this week, but that nothing can until a judge rules.
What’s Next
The Board of Governors meetings run September 14-15 in New York, where the Lakers sale is expected to be discussed but not put to a vote. Jeanie Buss is fighting her siblings’ decision to sell those shares, with a court date on the matter coming in December. That hearing, now scheduled for December 8, is the next dated step that could clear the path for the sale or keep it stalled.
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