In a court filing, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss accused her siblings of a “cloak and dagger” campaign against her in the media and asked a judge to stop them from selling the family’s shares, ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported on Oct. 31. She also said they were jealous that their father picked her over them to govern the Los Angeles Lakers. The sale would end her time as governor.
The fight is over the family trust’s remaining 17.8% stake in the team. NBA governorship requires at least a 15% ownership stake, so Buss would lose the role if the trust sold.
On Aug. 17, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the trust had voted to sell the stake to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. It required four of six votes to enact the tag-along provision of Mark Walter’s sale to Kushner and Iger, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion. Buss argues that a court ruled in 2017 that no sale could be “effectuated without approval by the co-trustees, i.e., Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”
The filing, dated Wednesday, Oct. 28, answers October filings from her siblings. The five siblings filed a formal opposition on Oct. 7, claiming Jeanie Buss’ petition “is legally and factually baseless.”
In her filing, Buss asks the court to remove Joey and Janie as co-trustees for breach of fiduciary duty and to hold them in contempt. She also wants the court to “find Jim, Johnny and Jesse liable for aiding and abetting a violation of the 2017 court order and be reimbursed for legal costs,” per ESPN. These are claims in a civil case, and no court has ruled on them.
Buss’s Five-Year Guarantee Now Depends on a Court
When Walter bought control of the team in June 2025, he agreed to keep Buss as controlling owner for at least five years, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported. That promise only worked as long as the family stayed above the league’s 15% minimum, and the trust’s 17.8% clears that line by less than three points.
Four siblings voting to sell was enough to put the guarantee at risk. That moves the question out of any agreement with the owners and into a court’s reading of a 2017 order. It is a different kind of risk from the one Buss carried in September, when she attended the NBA Board of Governors meeting as Lakers governor with no sale vote expected.
The incoming owners have not settled it either. Iger said he had “every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie,” adding, “If things change, they’ll change.” In SES’s read, Buss’s claim to the governor’s seat now rests mainly on the 2017 order.
Los Angeles Superior Court Hears the Case Dec. 8
Both sides’ filings head to a scheduled Dec. 8 hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. That date came after the hearing was originally set for Nov. 5, but Jeanie Buss’s lawyer, Adam Streisand, filed a continuance.
Meanwhile, the separate sale of the team from Walter to Kushner’s group is still waiting on NBA review.
Source: Baxter Holmes of ESPN
Leave a Reply