{"id":870038,"date":"2026-08-27T08:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870038\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:28:13","slug":"jeanie-buss-seeks-court-help-keeping-her-familys-share-of-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870038\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeanie Buss seeks court help keeping her family’s share of Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jeanie Buss<\/a> is taking her siblings to court. Again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing the Lakers<\/a>\u2019 controlling governor filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday to block her five siblings from trying to sell the family\u2019s remaining 17.82% of the NBA franchise the Buss family has owned since 1979.<\/p>\n

Jeanie contends that her siblings should abide by a 2017 court order that mandated the family\u2019s co-trustees to \u201ctake all actions reasonably available to ensure that Jeanie is appointed and remains as the NBA controlling owner of the Lakers.\u201d The 2017 legal battle installed Jeanie\u2019s younger siblings, Janie and Joey, as her fellow co-trustees, two roles that were previously held by her older brothers Jim and Johnny, who were ousted after a failed attempt to wrestle control away from Jeanie.<\/p>\n

The 97-page petition accuses Janie, Joey and the other siblings Jim, Johnny and Jesse of \u201cdevious behavior\u201d for not including Jeanie in discussions to sell the family\u2019s last stakes in the team earlier this month. While the other siblings elected to sell soon after Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to a record-breaking transaction<\/a> with Mark Walter<\/a> and released a statement attributed to the Buss family, Jeanie \u201cnever agreed to any sale, was never consulted and was never even informed,\u201d the petition states.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeanie thought she had put all of her siblings\u2019 scheming and manipulations behind her in 2017,\u201d the petition reads. \u201cSadly, that was not the case \u2014 and Jeanie must respectfully request relief from this Court a second time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among five points on the petition, Jeanie hopes to declare her siblings\u2019 votes to sell the team void, remove Janie and Joey as co-trustees for \u201cbreach of fiduciary duty\u201d and hold both in contempt of court and hold Jim, Johnny and Jesse in contempt and liable for \u201caiding and abetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanie, the third-oldest child of former Lakers owner Jerry Buss<\/a>, was hand-picked by the family patriarch to oversee his prized investment that grew from a $67.5-million purchase into a $12.5-billion world-renowned brand. Iger, the former Disney chief executive, and Kushner, founder of a venture capital firm, bought a majority stake of the Lakers from Walter earlier this month at a record valuation, and reports of five of the Buss siblings\u2019 plans to sell their ownership stake in the team came days later.<\/p>\n

To remain on the NBA board of governors, Jeanie would need to own at least 15% of the team. She was to stay in the leadership role for at least the next four seasons after the Buss family relinquished control of the team to Walter in 2025.<\/p>\n

That unique aspect of the 2025 sale \u201cdemonstrated the co-trustees could fulfill their duties under the trust \u2014 and honor Dr. Buss\u2019s intent \u2014 while also delivering extraordinary financial returns to the beneficiaries,\u201d the petition states. <\/p>\n

Jeanie contends that not only is her latest fight to maintain her governor role a way to \u201cenforce of her parents\u2019 intent,\u201d but the petition says Jeanie also believes remaining the governor can \u201cprotect the strategic decision by the trustees less than a year ago to sell a portion of the team and retain an interest sufficient to maintain control and to benefit from the continuously skyrocketing value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Jerry Buss built the Lakers into the NBA\u2019s most glamorous franchise during four decades of stewardship, the team will now have a third controlling owner in as many years. Walter, who previously owned a minority stake in the team, took majority control in 2025 when the team was valued at $10 billion. His reign was short-lived; he shockingly sold his shares of the team to Iger and Kushner for a 25% profit 14 months after Walter\u2019s purchase offer was accepted by the Buss family trust. <\/p>\n

The sale from Walter to Iger and Kushner is not expected to be affected by the Buss family\u2019s legal proceedings, according to a source close to the matter but not authorized to speak publicly. <\/p>\n

The petition adds that Lakers minority owners Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times and said he plans to hold onto his 4% stake in the Lakers, and real estate developer Ed Roski Jr. believe Jeanie is \u201cthe right person to continue as controlling owner and NBA governor of the Lakers to help preserve and continue to grow the value of the Lakers stock investments.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Lakers functioned as a family-run business for decades under the Buss family. Each child held different roles, but Jeanie is now the only one left at the organization. Jim and Johnny were ousted in 2017. Janie, Joey and Jesse were all fired soon after Walter\u2019s sale was approved in November. Joey was the chief executive of the G League affiliate South Bay Lakers and Jesse was the Lakers\u2019 director of scouting. Janie led the organization\u2019s charity efforts. ESPN reported<\/a> that Jim and Johnny had returned to roles with the team and were among those fired in November.<\/p>\n

After Jeanie and her legal team announced their intention to contest the siblings\u2019 attempt to sell, the five other siblings released a statement saying they were \u201cunited\u201d in their decision and intended to \u201cmove forward thoughtfully, respectfully and through appropriate process.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Los Angeles Lakers have never been just a basketball team,\u201d the statement released Aug. 18 continued. \u201cThey have been one of the greatest privileges of our lives. Our focus has always been on what we believe is best for the Lakers, the fans who have supported this franchise for generations and the greater Los Angeles community.\u201d <\/p>\n

A court hearing to review the request is scheduled for Nov. 5, according to the petition. The Lakers will be two weeks into their season at the time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeanie Buss is taking her siblings to court. Again. Attorneys representing the Lakers\u2019 controlling governor filed a petition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,138241,438492,438491,2582,438493,31649,120984,126197,13055,2873,12829,590,438494,214030,56182,85,3018],"class_list":["post-870038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bob-iger","tag-co-trustee","tag-court-help","tag-family","tag-janie","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-jesse","tag-joey","tag-johnny","tag-lakers","tag-mark-walter","tag-nba","tag-other-sibling-jim","tag-petition","tag-sibling","tag-sports","tag-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}