What Jeanie Buss’ court order means for family’s attempt to sell Lakers

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The state of the Lakers’ ownership continued to more turns.

It was just last week when Mark Walter agreed to sell his share in the franchise to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at a historic valuation of $12.5 billion – just 10 months after Walter officially became the Lakers’ majority owner. 

This week, it appeared the Buss family voted to sell their remaining 17.8% share of the Lakers to Kushner and Iger.

Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss is opposing her siblings’ vote to sell the family’s share of the Lakers, according to a letter from her lawyer, Adam Streisand. The letter, obtained by the California Post on Monday, argued her siblings can’t legally execute a sale without her approval and that any vote of the Buss family selling would be “void.”

Her siblings who are part of the Buss family trust (Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss) fired back at Jeanie on Tuesday, making it clear they intend to go through with the sale.

At the heart of Buss opposing her siblings’ vote to sell their share of the Lakers is a 2017 court order, with Streisand saying that no sale could happen “without approval by the co-trustees, i.e. Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”

Jeanie didn’t vote to sell the family’s ownership stake in the Lakers, while the other five siblings in the trust did.

The court document from 2017 stated that the co-trustees of the Buss family trust are instructed to take all “actions reasonably available to them, including voting the Trust’s shares” to ensure that Jeanie was elected as the Director of the Board of the Lakers on an annual basis during her lifetime.

The document goes on to state “absent a further order of this Court modifying the Trust based upon proof of circumstances justifying modification under applicable law.”

The document also added that the co-trustees of the family trust are “instructed to take all actions [reasonably] available to them, including voting the Trust’s shares” to ensure that Jeanie is elected as the controlling owner of the Lakers on an annual basis during her lifetime.

One of the main problems of the Buss family attempting to sell their share of the Lakers: It would result in Jeanie no longer being the team’s Governor, since she would no longer have the qualifying 15% ownership stake in the franchise required to hold that position. 

She has been the team’s Governor since 2013 after Dr. Jerry Buss’ death.

When Walter purchased the majority ownership of the Lakers from the Buss family, the league announced that Buss would remain the team’s Governor for a period of at least five years (through 2030).

Iger told the California Post last week he and Kushner intended to honor the agreement made between Walter and Buss. 

And based off of the last couple of days, it appears Jeanie wants to remain Governor of the Lakers. 

Streisand wrote in the letter to the Buss siblings’ attorneys: “No sale of the JAB Trust’s 17.8% ownership interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. can be effectuated without approval by the current co-trustees, i.e., Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.

“Pursuant to the JAB Trust and the attached Court Order, 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.”

Jeanie’s siblings believe they have the right to sell the family’s shares of the Lakers via a “tag-along” provision that was included when the Buss family sold the Lakers to Walter in June 2025. 

ESPN reported the provision gave the Buss family the opportunity to “tag along on any sale and valuation Walter secured for his shares.”

The siblings believe that the family trust, which includes six of Jerry Buss’ children — Johnny (69), Jim (66), Jeanie (64), Janie (62), Joey (41) and Jesse (37) — needed a majority vote (four out of six) to allow the trustees to sell the family’s shares.

What happens next is unknown, with the potential of this dispute having to be resolved through a legal process growing unless the side can come to an agreement without litigation.