{"id":880736,"date":"2026-09-05T09:02:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880736\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T09:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:02:26","slug":"josh-kushner-or-jeanie-buss-lakers-governorship-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880736\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Kushner or Jeanie Buss? Lakers governorship unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeanie Buss remains the Lakers\u2019 governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that title \u2014 as well as many things relating to the Lakers \u2014 hangs in the balance after the last month of the Lakers\u2019 ownership saga.<\/p>\n

Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, is expected to be the lone controlling shareholder of the Lakers. Getty Images for Fortune Media<\/p>\n

There will be a majority ownership change after Mark Walter agreed to sell his shares of the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger<\/a> at a historic valuation of $12.5 billion, less than a year after Walter bought the team from the Buss family<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for Jeanie Buss and her family, they\u2019re set for another date in court as Jeanie attempts to block her five siblings<\/a> (Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss) from selling the family\u2019s 17.8% share of the Lakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That litigation, with the initial court hearing being pushed back from Nov. 5 to Dec. 8<\/a>, will have a significant impact on the Lakers\u2019 internal dynamics.<\/p>\n

If Jeanie Buss\u2019 siblings are able to sell the ownership stake, then she won\u2019t be able to remain the Lakers\u2019 governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Buss is successful with blocking her siblings\u2019 attempted sale, she\u2019ll retain the ownership stake in the Lakers (through the Buss family trust) required for her to remain the franchise\u2019s governor (at least 15%, by league rules).<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n

A source close to the NBA told The Post\u2019s Charles Gasparino that Kushner will be the Lakers\u2019 governor<\/a> once he and Iger\u2019s purchase is official.<\/p>\n

Which makes sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bob Iger, former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, will be most involved in the Lakers\u2019 operations between him and Josh Kushner. Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Disney<\/p>\n

As The Post reported, Iger is expected to be most actively involved in the Lakers\u2019 day-to-day<\/a> operations between him and Kushner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with Kushner being the person expected to have the largest shares of the Lakers, as if Iger doesn\u2019t have the minimum 15% ownership stake required to be an NBA franchise\u2019s governor, Kushner being in the role would be appropriate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a conflict: Iger told The Post in the immediate aftermath of the sale that he and Kushner intended to honor the agreement made between Walter and Buss<\/a> that would have Buss remain the franchise\u2019s governor through at least 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That comment came with a very important caveat.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss is attempting to stop her siblings from selling the family\u2019s minority ownership stake in the franchise. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf things change, they\u2019ll change,\u201d Iger told The Post at the time. \u201cBut we\u2019re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who [Buss] is and what she represents in the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Change appeared to be on the horizon when the Buss siblings announced their wishes to sell their ownership stake of the Lakers. But that change may not happen if Jeanie Buss gets her wish and has the attempted sale legally blocked.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of the reason the Lakers\u2019 plans under new ownership aren\u2019t known.<\/p>\n

Not just because there isn\u2019t precedent of a Kusher\/Iger-led regime for an NBA franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But because what will be the Lakers\u2019 internal hierarchy isn\u2019t clear.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And with the majority ownership sale not official and still under review from the league, and the Buss family\u2019s court date pushed back a month, those answers will likely take a while to gather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeanie Buss remains the Lakers\u2019 governor.\u00a0 But that title \u2014 as well as many things relating to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,138241,485,31649,442971,7232,590,85],"class_list":["post-880736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bob-iger","tag-california","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-josh-kushner","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880736","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=880736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}