Jeanie Buss reportedly seeks to block siblings’ sale of remaining 17.8% Lakers stake

Jeanie Buss is reportedly attempting to halt her siblings’ plan to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers, hours after the Buss family announced the intended transaction on Monday. CNBC and ESPN said Buss’s lawyer moved to block the sale on legal grounds following the family statement that the shares would be sold to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.

The Buss family trust, made up of Jerry Buss’s six children, issued a statement to ESPN saying it had decided “to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction.” The family added: “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.” Fourteen months earlier Jeanie Buss led the sale of the franchise to Mark Walter for $10bn, and part of that agreement provided she would remain governor through 2030.

Lawyer Adam Streisand, in a letter obtained by CNBC and ESPN and addressed to Jeanie’s siblings Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse, argued a 2017 court ruling required co‑trustees’ approval for any sale of the Lakers. “Pursuant to the JAB Trust and the attached Court Order,” Streisand added, “the co-trustees are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares 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 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.”

At the center of the dispute is Jeanie Buss’s status as the Lakers’ controlling owner and the NBA’s ownership threshold. The article states NBA guidelines require controlling owners or governors to own at least 15% of a franchise, and the contested shares represent 17.8% of the team.

Last week Mark Walter sold the Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for $12.5bn, a transaction that has not yet received NBA approval. Should the family sale proceed as announced, Iger and Kushner would own approximately 83% of the Lakers, according to the report.

The report also notes Walter is the CEO and chair of TWG Global, owns Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, and is under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud involving four of his other business interests.

The NBA board of governors must approve the Iger‑Kushner transaction and does not meet until 15 September in New York, leaving formal league approval as the next scheduled step in the sale process.