Laker-Quake: Jeanie Buss Says Family's $2.2 Billion Sellout Is 'Void,' Vows Legal War
The Buss family voted to sell its last stake in the Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner — but Lakers governor Jeanie Buss says the deal can't happen without her, and she's not signing off.
The Buss family's 47-year hold on the Los Angeles Lakers is fracturing in public. The family has voted to sell its remaining 17.8% stake in the franchise to media mogul Bob Iger and investor Josh Kushner — but Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is refusing to go along with it, setting up a legal showdown over one of the NBA's most storied franchises.
Iger and Kushner had already agreed to buy roughly 65% of the Lakers from current governor Mark Walter for $12.5 billion. Adding the Buss family's remaining 17.8% stake, valued at approximately $2.225 billion, would push their combined ownership to about 83%, according to TMZ, which first reported the family vote. In a joint statement, the family said: "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."
"It Cannot Happen"
Jeanie Buss isn't ready to exit anything. Her attorney, Adam Streisand, says a 2017 court order names her the team's "controlling owner" and requires her to remain the Lakers' owner for life — meaning the sale, in his view, legally cannot proceed without her consent, Forbes reports.
THIS SALE CANNOT HAPPEN
Streisand went further, accusing Jeanie's siblings Joey and Jesse Buss of "feeding [NBA insider] Shams Charania bad info maliciously" as part of what he called a "years-long pattern." The family rift adds a messy legal wrinkle to what was supposed to be a clean transition of the NBA's most valuable and storied franchise into new hands.
Under NBA rules, Jeanie would lose her governor title if the family's ownership stake falls below 15% — a threshold the proposed sale would blow well past. The league's Board of Governors still has to approve any change in Lakers ownership, and it's unclear how the board will navigate a sale that one of the team's own controlling family members is actively fighting in court filings.
Neither side has indicated a settlement is close. With Streisand threatening a contempt-of-court fight and the rest of the Buss family pushing to close the sale, the fate of the Lakers' ownership structure now likely rests with a judge — not the NBA.