Lakers Ownership Shift: Walter Buys Team Amid Family Drama
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The Lakers finally thought they were out of this mess when Walter bought the team last year. The backstabbing between the Buss siblings had been legendary since their father died. Jeanie fired her brother Jim Buss in 2017 and replaced him with Magic Johnson as team president. Jim and his brother Johnny Buss then unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Jeanie by kicking her off the board of directors, but it went against the terms of the trust. Jeanie responded by filing a restraining order against her brothers. The end result was that Jeanie would serve as the controlling owner as long as the family owned the Lakers. Jeanie blessed the sale to Walter a year ago under the condition that she would have a few years left as governor.
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BBC SportPublished Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is trying to block her siblings' sale of her family's remaining stake in the NBA franchise.
Sky SportsTuesday 18 August 2026 16:35, UK Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings' plans to sell the family's remaining 17.8 per cent ownership stake in the team.
Bleacher ReportWhile it seemed at first that the Buss family would move on from the Lakers after nearly five decades in control, CNBC's Alex Sherman reported that Jeanie Buss did not vote for the sale of the team, unlike her five siblings.
ESPNFive Buss siblings 'united' in selling Lakers shares Five of the six members of the Buss trust say they are "united" in their intention to sell their remaining shares in the Lakers, despite pushback from Jeanie Buss.
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"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," the statement read.
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Sky SportsThe Buss family released a statement on Monday, saying: "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.
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Jeanie's lawyer Adam Streisand said in a letter to her five siblings that any vote for a sale "would be and is void" because her approval as one of three co-trustees, along with siblings Joey and Janie Buss, is needed for such a move.
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Sky SportsBut Jeannie Buss' attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to representatives for her five siblings to state that any decision to sell the family trust's ownership stake "would be and is void", according to ESPN.
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The Buss family drama should have ended when the siblings agreed to sell the franchise to Mark Walter for $10 billion last year. Only one problem: that sale included a provision that said Jeanie Buss would continue to serve as the team’s governor for five years. That seemed like a pretty sweet deal for Jeanie until Walter turned around and flipped the franchise to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger earlier this month for $12.5 billion. Jeanie’s place with the franchise going forward seemed to be in peril after that deal, and it got even weirder on Monday.
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BBC SportWalter bought his share from the Buss family last year for about $10bn (£7.45bn) in a deal that ensured Jeanie remained as governor until 2030.
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The NBA was verging on being a failing business when Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979 for $67.5 million. Pro basketball only had a small television footprint at the time, attendance was falling, teams were claiming to lose money, and the league couldn’t untangle itself from the perception that its players would rather do an eight ball than dive for loose balls. The NBA’s meteoric rise over the next 20 years happened for a variety of reasons, but the story of its success goes hand-in-hand with Buss turning the Lakers into arguably the premier franchise in American sports.
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BBC SportJerry Buss bought the Lakers in a $67.5m deal (£50m) in 1979 that included the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and a Los Angeles arena that is known as the Kia Forum.
4 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Sky Sports Kushner and Iger are reportedly buying about 65 per cent of the team from Mark Walter, who also owns a stake in baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers along with Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly. They would own about 83 per cent if they also reach a deal with the Buss family.
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02 Bleacher Report The recent changes in the Los Angeles Lakers' ownership could impact how the team goes about filling its front office.
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03 BBC Sport However, Jeanie's lawyer has now said she plans to fight her siblings' plan to sell.
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04 SB Nation Lakers fans thought they had a dream ownership situation when Walter agreed to buy the team a year ago. He had been a terrific owner for MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, spending a record amount of money on contracts that helped the team win the last two World Series. It appears that Walter’s empire started to crumble when the DOJ began breathing down his neck for loan fraud related to the Lakers purchase. Now he’s also in talks to sell his shares of English football powerhouse Chelsea. Walter needs to get liquid quickly, and it’s hard to beat cashing out an investment that makes you $2.5 billion in under a year. That’s what he originally bought the Dodgers for back in 2012.
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Sources (5)
- espn
- bleacherreport
- sbnation
- skysports
- bbc-sport