Jeanie Buss moves to block siblings from selling remaining 17.8% Lakers stake to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner

Sibling vote and legal pushback

On 17 August 2026, five children of the late Jerry Buss announced a collective decision to sell the Buss Family Trust's remaining 17.8% minority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to incoming majority buyers Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. The announcement marked an attempt to conclude the family's 47-year ownership involvement with the franchise. Hours later, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss launched a legal challenge through her attorney, Adam Streisand, asserting that her siblings lacked the legal power to approve the transaction without her explicit consent. In a formal letter delivered to her siblings, Streisand declared that any purported sale vote was void because trust provisions require specific co-trustee consent to dispose of team equity.

Co-trustees are bound to vote to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain controlling owner.

Governance rules and ownership stakes

The core of the dispute centers on NBA governance guidelines, which dictate that an official team governor must maintain at least a 15% equity stake in the organization. If the Buss Family Trust transfers its entire 17.8% share to Iger and Kushner, Jeanie Buss would lose the ownership threshold required to retain her position. Streisand stated that co-trustees Joey Buss and Janie Buss owe fiduciary obligations that bar them from stripping Jeanie of her governing role. Tensions among the six siblings (Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey, and Jesse) have persisted since Jerry Buss died in 2013. In 2017, Jeanie removed Jim from front-office operations and pursued litigation after an attempt by Jim and Johnny to replace her as controlling owner.

Walter's exit and rapid valuation growth

The current clash follows a chain of rapid transactions that began 14 months earlier, in June 2025, when the family sold controlling ownership to TWG Global chief executive and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation. Under that pact, Jeanie Buss secured a guarantee to remain team governor through 2030, while her siblings were removed from operational roles, with Joey and Jesse formally dismissed in November 2025. Walter recently agreed to flip his estimated 65% stake to Iger, the former Disney chief executive, and Kushner, the venture capitalist leading Thrive Capital, at a valuation of $12.5 billion. Walter's abrupt divestment occurred as federal authorities conduct investigations into alleged tax fraud across four of his other corporate entities.

Franchise impact and league review

Adding the Buss trust's 17.8% holding to Walter's stake would grant Iger and Kushner an approximate 83% total ownership interest in the Lakers, requiring roughly $2.2 billion in additional capital from the incoming group. Meanwhile, the organization faces internal instability following successive rounds of front-office restructuring and layoffs over the past year. Front-office staff and players preparing for the upcoming season must now navigate another ownership change while the family's legal confrontation unfolds. The NBA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet on 15–16 September 2026 in New York, where league officials will review the ownership transfer and address the governing authority of the franchise.