{"id":821629,"date":"2026-08-27T06:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/821629\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:57:18","slug":"jeanie-buss-goes-on-offense-sues-siblings-to-keep-stake-in-l-a-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/821629\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeanie Buss Goes On Offense, Sues Siblings To Keep Stake In L.A. Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTwo of her siblings are now onboard with the San Diego Padres ownership, but Jeanie Buss<\/a> is clearly nowhere near an agreement with them when it comes to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJeanie never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed,\u201d declares a petition filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court by the Running Point<\/a> EP and Lakers governor to stop the five other children of Dr. Jerry Buss from selling the family\u2019s remaining 17.8% in the championship-winning team they owned for decades. In fact, anointed heir and her lawyers argue it\u2019s actually bad business for the competitive siblings to sell right now as the Lakers are a growth asset with \u201ccontinuously skyrocketing value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack on August 17,<\/a> just a few days after Bob Iger<\/a> and Josh Kushner<\/a> snagged over 63% of the fabled franchise for $12.5 billion from short-term owner Mark Walter,<\/a> the other Buss children said it was \u201ctime to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.\u201d Within hours, Jeanie Buss and her lawyers issued a rebuttal, and today they made it court-stamped official<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the five-claim document, Buss not only wants the family fire sale stopped, but siblings Joey and Janie Buss tossed out as co-trustees of the clan\u2019s stake. She also asks for a \u201ccontempt of court\u201d measure to be brought down hard on her siblings for their \u00a0\u201cdefiant\u201d behavior. With the 2026\/2027 NBA<\/a> season starting on October 20, a hearing on Buss\u2019 petition is currently on the LASC calendar for November 15.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the Busses do sell, Jeanie will lose her governor role at the Lakers (gotta have at least 15% of the team to qualify).<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though the family sold most of its Lakers holding to the now federally-investigated Walter in June 2025 for a hefty $10 billion, Jeanie Buss (who got a five year governor term out of the deal) is taking all this family drama very personally. \u201cTheir conduct is not driven by financial necessity but by animosity toward Jeanie and in willful disregard for the (Trust), this Court\u2019s 2017 Order, their fiduciary duties, and Dr. Buss\u2019s express intent,\u201d today\u2019s petition says of her siblings<\/p>\n

\n\tIf present posturing continues and Buss holds hard to a previous court order from 2017 when the family last played legal dodge ball, that post-midterms hearing won\u2019t be pretty. It also may see some big names pulled into court.<\/p>\n

\n\tLakers fans are accustomed to decades of on-court drama, from the friction between Magic and Kareem to the cold war between Kobe and Shaq to the more recent tension between the roles of their current superstar, Luka Doncic, and a still potent all-time great named LeBron James. But, in recent years, ownership drama has joined the narrative. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Jerry Buss died, there was speculation about who might take his place. That led to a years-long family drama between Jeanie and, most specifically, Jim Buss, who took over basketball operations from his father whiel Jeanie ran the business side. That power struggle ended when Jeanie replaced him with Magic Johnson, who himself was out in two years when Rob Plelinka took over basketball operations.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo other siblings, Joey and Jesse Buss, were ousted from their roles with the team when Walter bought in last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiving a shout out to August 12 minted Lakers majority stakeholders Iger and Kushner,<\/a> Buss\u2019 filing states \u201cindeed, other owners of stakes in the Lakers have expressed their support for Jeanie remaining Controlling Owner, and have voiced their intent to hold, not sell, their stakes in the Lakers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s true, when the ex-Disney boss and Thrive Capital<\/a> founder made their deal with Dodgers boss Walter, Iger made a point of proclaiming Jeanie Buss was part of the package in his eyes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they\u2019ve contributed to this franchise,\u201d Iger\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Rupert Murdoch<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0The California Post\u00a0on August \u201cAnd we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie. If things change, they\u2019ll change, but we\u2019re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, as Iger and Kushner await a near sure approval of their Lakers purchase at the NBA Board of Governors\u2019 September 15-16 meeting, the presence of the Buss family won\u2019t change their sway over the 11-championship winning team \u2014 but it will leave a courtside stink.<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for Iger and Kushner did not respond to Deadline\u2019s request for comment on the latest Buss family squabble. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of her siblings are now onboard with the San Diego Padres ownership, but Jeanie Buss is clearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,61805,8300,7438,150,6,88289,97973,97974],"class_list":["post-821629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-bob-iger","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-josh-kushner","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-running-point","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-thrive-capital"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117166174568915688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}