Jeanie Buss is challenging her siblings’ decision to sell the Buss family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, creating a legal dispute over the ownership transition to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.
Shams Charania reported Monday that the Buss family trust voted to approve the sale, with five of the six siblings supporting the transaction and Buss the lone member opposed. The stake is part of the deal that values the Lakers at $12.5 billion, with Iger and Kushner set to consolidate roughly 83% ownership once the transaction is completed.
Buss’ attorney, Adam Streisand, disputes the validity of the vote. According to a letter obtained by CNBC and reported by Alex Sherman, Buss contends that the trust vote is void because her legal status as the Lakers’ controlling owner requires her to retain that position on a lifetime basis.
Streisand is demanding that representatives of the trust publicly affirm Buss remains the Lakers’ controlling owner and take no action based on the vote to sell the 17.8% stake. The letter also argues that no sale of the family trust’s shares can be completed without approval from the three co-trustees: Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.
The dispute follows an emergency meeting of the Buss siblings that was called by Lakers senior vice president of finance Joe McCormack. Dave McMenamin reported that the meeting was held Tuesday to discuss dissolving the family trust and potentially placing the family’s shares into a new trust that would lock them in for four years.
According to ESPN, there was no mention during that meeting of a pending transaction involving Mark Walter, Iger and Kushner. Walter’s agreement to sell the Lakers to the Iger-Kushner group was reported the following day.
The ownership dispute comes as the Lakers enter a new basketball era. Los Angeles finished the 2025-26 regular season 53-29, fourth in the Western Conference, before being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the playoffs.
Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 47.6% from the field and 36.6% from three-point range. Austin Reaves averaged 23.3 points and 5.5 assists, while LeBron James averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds in his final season with the franchise.
James subsequently left Los Angeles in free agency, while the Lakers reshaped the roster around Doncic. The franchise also acquired Walker Kessler and signed Reaves to a four-year, $184.8 million extension.
The ownership fight now places the future of the Buss family’s remaining stake at the center of the Lakers’ transition. Buss has indicated through her attorney that she intends to continue contesting the sale rather than accept the family vote.
