Five Buss Siblings Want To Sell Their Final $2.2 Billion Lakers Stake. Jeanie Says They Legally Can't

The Buss family's 47-year connection to the Los Angeles Lakers appeared to be coming to a complete end Monday afternoon. Then Jeanie Buss essentially said: Not so fast.

Earlier today, ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported that five of the six children of late Lakers owner Jerry Buss had voted to sell the family's remaining 17.8% stake in the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.

At the $12.5 billion valuation established by Kushner and Iger's agreement to buy Mark Walter's controlling interest, the Buss family's remaining shares are worth approximately $2.225 billion. Split six ways, that would theoretically work out to $371 million sharing. And that's on top of the $500 million each subling received less than a year ago when Mark bought the team at a $10 billion valuation.

You might assume that receiving a $370 million windfall would be a cause to celebrate. Well, for several Buss siblings, that is certainly the case… but recall a few sentences ago when I said "five of the six"? Unfortunately, Jeanie Buss, arguably the most powerful and prominent sibling, was the lone holdout.

And now Jeanie's attorney has fired off a letter arguing that the other siblings legally cannot sell the shares without her approval.

Suddenly, the final chapter of the Buss family's Lakers ownership looks a lot like some of the chapters that came before it: a very expensive family war.

Jeanie Buss (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The $2.2 Billion Decision

The six siblings involved are Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss.

They inherited their father's controlling interest in the Lakers through a family trust after Jerry Buss died in 2013. Last year, the family sold most of its ownership to Mark Walter in a transaction valuing the Lakers at $10 billion, leaving the siblings with a combined 17.8%.

Then, less than a year after officially taking control, Walter agreed to sell his Lakers stake to Kushner and Iger at a stunning $12.5 billion valuation.

That gave the Buss siblings a potentially lucrative opportunity to cash out their remaining shares at the new higher price.

The math is simple. A 17.8% interest in a $12.5 billion franchise is worth about $2.225 billion. Assuming the siblings' economic interests are still divided equally, that's roughly $371 million per sibling before taxes and transaction costs.

Five apparently want the money. Jeanie does not.

A Very Strange Emergency Meeting

The timing becomes especially interesting when you look at what happened immediately before Walter's sale became public.

According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, Lakers senior vice president of finance Joe McCormack called an emergency meeting of the Buss siblings last Monday.

The subject of that meeting was extraordinary. The family was asked to consider dissolving its existing trust and creating a new trust that would effectively lock up the family's remaining Lakers shares for another four years.

The meeting took place Tuesday.

According to ESPN, Walter's impending deal with Kushner and Iger was not discussed. The next day, ESPN broke the news that Walter had agreed to sell at a $12.5 billion valuation.

That timeline raises an obvious question: Did Jeanie know, or at least suspect, that another sale was coming and realize that such an enormous valuation could persuade her siblings to cash out?

We don't know. But we do know what happened next. Once Walter's deal became public, Jeanie's five siblings reportedly voted to sell the family's remaining shares. Jeanie voted against them.

Jeanie Says The Vote Is Legally Meaningless

On Monday afternoon, Jeanie's attorney, Adam Streisand, sent a letter to attorneys representing her siblings disputing ESPN's report and challenging the legality of any purported sale.

The letter does not mince words.

Streisand argues that any sibling vote to sell the family's 17.8% stake "would be and is void" because the family trust and a 2017 Los Angeles Superior Court order require the trustees to take actions necessary to keep Jeanie in place as the Lakers' controlling owner.

That 2017 order grew out of an earlier Buss family battle, when Jim and Johnny Buss attempted to challenge Jeanie's control of the Lakers.

According to the order quoted in Monday's letter, the co-trustees are supposed to use all reasonably available means to ensure Jeanie is elected controlling owner annually during her lifetime, unless a court modifies the arrangement. Jeanie's attorney says no such modification has ever occurred.

Here's where things get really complicated.

The current co-trustees are Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss. Streisand argues that the 17.8% stake cannot be sold without approval from those trustees and that they are required to maintain at least a 15% ownership interest so Jeanie can remain controlling owner.

He warns that attempting to sell anyway could constitute breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and even contempt of court.

In other words, this may no longer be a simple majority-rule situation.

And Then It Got Personal

The letter also reveals just how ugly relations within the family apparently remain.

Streisand accuses Joey and Jesse Buss of engaging in a "years-long pattern" of leaking false and damaging information about Jeanie to ESPN reporter Shams Charania in an effort to hurt both Jeanie and the Lakers.

That's an allegation from Jeanie's attorney, not an established fact. But its inclusion in a formal legal letter makes clear that this dispute goes well beyond a disagreement over whether $2.2 billion is a good price.

It is another chapter in a family conflict that has been simmering for years.

Jerry Buss Tried To Prevent Exactly This

There's an incredible irony in all of this.

Jerry Buss spent years designing his estate so his children could own the Lakers together for generations. He divided the family's ownership equally. He used trusts. He created safeguards intended to prevent the team from being sold simply because one heir needed money.

After his death, those safeguards repeatedly became battlegrounds themselves.

In 2017, Jeanie fought her brothers for control and won. In 2025, the family finally agreed to sell majority ownership to Walter.

Now, just months later, five siblings reportedly want to sell the last 17.8% for another $2.2 billion, while Jeanie is arguing that the very trust Jerry created to preserve the Lakers in the family legally prevents them from doing it.

And apparently, she's prepared to go back to court to prove it.

So, for the moment at least, the Buss family's Lakers era isn't over. It's in overtime.