On Monday, the drama over Mark Walter selling the Los Angeles Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner reached another level, with the Buss family adding an unexpected twist to the record-setting $12.5 billion deal.
Reportedly, the Buss family agreed to sell its remaining stake (17.8%) in the Lakers to the new ownership group, which was a surprising development, to say the least.
Perhaps the most surprising part was the impact it would have on Jeanie Buss’ future with the Lakers, as it would mean she would no longer be the team’s governor, since there must be at least a 15 percent stake to hold that position.
Jeanie Buss Contests Sale of Buss Family’s Stake in Lakers
According to Khobi Price of The California Post, Jeanie Buss is contesting the sale of the Buss family’s minority stake in the team. Her lawyer, Adam Streisand, released the following statement after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the news of the sale.
Streisand claims Charania falsely reported the sale, and any vote among Jeanie’s siblings is void ab initio, which is Latin for void from the beginning.
Clearly, Jeanie doesn’t see eye to eye with her Buss family siblings once again. There’s been a lot of infighting within the family for quite some time, with Jeanie and her siblings not on the same page about the direction of the Lakers franchise.
Buss Family Drama Continues to Get Messy Amid Lakers Sale
The latest drama within the Buss family may only be the beginning of what could get messy now that Jeanie has gone the legal route to remain Lakers governor and prevent the sale of this minority stake in the team.
This might be only the beginning of what could drag on for months, making this another distraction for a franchise that seemed to finally have some stability under Mark Walter and has been thrust into chaos with Iger and Kushner taking over.
Jeanie’s original agreement with Walter was that she would stay in her role as Lakers governor for five years. Iger and Kushner were reportedly ready to honor that agreement now that the team has changed hands again, but this situation with the Buss family complicates the regime change, which already had many questions to be answered ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season.
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