Jeanie Buss Challenges Siblings’ Sale of Remaining Lakers Stake, Citing 2017 Court Order

Jeanie Buss is challenging her siblings’ plan to sell the Buss family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, arguing that the family trust and a 2017 court order prevent the shares from being sold without approval from the trust’s current co-trustees.

Five of Jerry Buss’s six children have voted to sell the remaining family interest to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger as part of their proposed acquisition of the Lakers. Jeanie Buss opposed the vote. The transaction would end the Buss family’s ownership of the franchise and could also end her position as Lakers governor.

Her attorney, Adam Streisand, challenged the decision in a letter to representatives for her five siblings. Streisand argues that any sale of the trust’s Lakers shares requires approval from its current co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss. He claims proceeding without that approval could amount to a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of an existing court order.

The order dates to a 2017 family dispute over control of the Lakers. Jeanie Buss went to court after brothers Jim and Johnny Buss took steps that threatened her position as controlling owner. Streisand maintains that the resulting order requires the co-trustees to use the trust’s Lakers shares to preserve enough ownership for Jeanie to remain the team’s controlling owner.

Trust law limits how trustees may manage property placed under their control. California law requires trustees to follow the terms of the trust, and when two or more trustees share authority, they generally must act unanimously unless the trust provides a different rule.

A family vote and a decision by the trustees who control trust property are therefore not necessarily the same legal act. Jeanie Buss argues that five siblings cannot authorize the sale simply because they support it if the trust requires approval from its co-trustees.

Trustees also owe fiduciary duties, which are legal obligations governing how they manage property for the people who benefit from the trust. California law generally requires trustees to administer trust assets in the beneficiaries’ interests and according to the trust’s terms. A beneficiary or co-trustee may ask a court to stop conduct alleged to violate those duties or set aside certain actions involving trust property.

The five siblings supporting the sale are relying on a separate contractual right created during the family’s 2025 transaction with Mark Walter. The deal, which transferred controlling ownership of the Lakers to Walter, left the Buss family with a 17.8% interest and included a tag-along provision that the siblings now seek to use.

A tag-along right generally allows an owner to participate when another shareholder sells an ownership interest, often on comparable terms. The Buss siblings seek to include the family’s remaining shares in Walter’s sale to Kushner and Iger at the Lakers’ new $12.5 billion valuation.

Jeanie Buss’s objection places that contractual right against the restrictions she says continue to govern the family trust. Her attorney argues that even if the siblings have a right to participate in the sale, they cannot exercise it in a way that conflicts with the trust or the 2017 court order.

Kushner and Iger are purchasing approximately 65% of the Lakers from Walter. Acquiring the Buss family’s additional shares would bring their ownership to roughly 83%. Jeanie Buss currently remains Lakers governor, a position that requires at least a 15% ownership interest, and her earlier agreement with Walter called for her to remain in the role through 2030. Selling the family’s entire remaining stake would leave her without that ownership interest.

Johnny, Jimmy, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss reaffirmed their position Tuesday, one day after the legal objection became public. The five siblings said they remain united behind the decision to sell and intend to move forward through the appropriate process. Janie and Joey are also two of the three co-trustees identified in Streisand’s letter.

The proposed sale to Kushner and Iger still requires approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors. Jeanie Buss continues to challenge her siblings’ authority to sell the family trust’s remaining stake, while the other five Buss siblings maintain that they intend to proceed.