Los Angeles Lakers governor and former majority owner Jeanie Buss has accused her five siblings of conducting a ‘cloak and dagger’ campaign in their effort to sell the family’s shares of the NBA team.
Jeanie is now asking a California judge to block the transaction altogether.
The six children of late Lakers owner Jerry Buss have been feuding over the sale of their 17.8-percent stake in the team after investor Joshua Kushner agreed to buy outgoing owner Mark Walter’s majority share at a valuation of $12.5 billion. Jeanie has demanded that her siblings’ sale of the family shares be voided because it violates a 2017 court order requiring the Buss clan to maintain at least a 15-percent stake in the club.
Filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by The Daily Mail, the latest legal reply claims Jeanie’s siblings Jesse, Joey, Janie, Jim and Johnny Buss have cast themselves as victims in a bitter feud over the future of the team.
‘The cloak and dagger, backroom “votes” and “resolutions” shared with ESPN rather than their co-trustee and sister, and subsequent refusal to discuss the matter, was intended to force Jeanie’s hand, cry victim and again smear her in the media by sharing in advance their specious response,’ the filing claimed.
‘Respondents’ obsession with tearing down Jeanie and their inability to accept that she would be a part of the Lakers’ future is borne of this classic succession parable,’ Jeanie’s attorneys added.
Jeanie Buss (left) arranged the Lakers’ majority sale to Mark Walters (right) in 2025. Walters has now sold his majority stake to Josh Kushner and former Disney exec Bob Iger
Five of the six Buss siblings (including Joey, left, and Jesse, right) are re-affirming their intentions to sell the family’s remaining 17.8 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers
The reply reiterates Jeanie’s demand that the family’s co-trustees comply with the 2017 court order requiring the family maintain a stake in the team of at least 15 percent, thereby allowing Jeanie to remain the team’s governor. She also asked for the removal of Janie and Joey as co-trustees.
The six Buss siblings each stand to make $371 million if the family sells all of its shares in the team in a go-along provision supported by Jesse, Joey, Janie, Jim and Johnny.
In previous filings, Jeanie’s siblings have asked to dismiss her claim blocking the sale, saying the stance lacks merit.
‘There is deep irony in [Jeanie] alleging that it is [Joey and Janie] who are putting their self-interests first,’ read an October 16 filing by the siblings’ attorneys. ‘The entire petition [originally filed by Jeanie] is predicated on the notion that rights expressly granted to the beneficiaries by [the trust] should be subjugated to [Jeanie’s] personal interest in remaining controlling owner. [Jeanie’s] hypocrisy should not go unnoticed.’
Jeanie’s attorneys shot back on Wednesday.
‘It drips with irony that Respondents’ thesis is that Jeanie is self-interested,’ read Wednesday’s reply. ‘Jeanie’s ‘self-interest’ has been to lead as her father and mother directed in their trusts.’
NBA rules state any team governor must hold at least a 15 percent stake, meaning Jeanie would lose her status if the sale is finalized.
The siblings plan to sell to incoming majority owners Joshua Kushner (left) and Bob Iger (right)
In the agreement, Kushner and former Disney executive Bob Iger are buying about 65 percent of the Lakers from Walter. If the Buss family sells their share, the two investors would own roughly 83 percent of the franchise.
Kushner currently has a minority ownership stake in the Miami Heat that he must sell before the Lakers deal is finalized. The NBA Board of Governors has approved the sale to Iger and Kushner, the brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared.
One year before the sale to Kushner, Jeanie had helped arrange the family’s major sale to Walter, who is now under federal investigation for approximately $16 billion in loans made through his life insurance companies. Walter purchased the team at a valuation of $10 billion – a deal Jeanie claims left her siblings feeling jealous.
‘While jealously wringing their hands that Jeanie had struck this remarkable deal, Respondents also clamored for the sale, expressing their certitude that no one would ever pay that price again,’ read Wednesday’s filing.
The Buss family owned the Lakers for decades beginning with a purchase by Dr Jerry Buss
‘However, less than a year later, it was reported that Mark Walter reached a deal to sell his stake in the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the prospective buyers provided investors with materials projecting that the Lakers will be worth $30 billion within the next 10 years.
‘Jeanie, along with minority owners Patrick Soon-Shiong and Ed Roski, believe the best investment decision is to be a part of the Lakers’ new ownership,’ the filing continued.
‘For the Buss family, retaining their remaining interest is particularly beneficial for the beneficiaries of the Trust, given that the trustees took a majority of their chips off the table last year. Further, Jeanie’s contract to remain Controlling Owner and Governor would remain, again providing the Trust beneficiaries an atypical and extremely beneficial advantage.’
The family is due in Los Angeles Superior Court for a hearing on December 8.
