Adam Silver Preparing to Step Into Lakers Sale Chaos as Buss Family Battle Escalates
Adam Silver did not sign up to referee family fights, but that appears to be exactly where the Los Angeles Lakers situation is dragging him.
Per Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, the expectation around the league is that Silver will step in and try to smooth over the ugly and increasingly public spat inside the Buss family. Five of the six Buss siblings have voted to sell their minority stake to incoming owners Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner. Jeanie Buss, the sixth sibling and the family member most connected to the franchise’s operations, is fighting the sale with everything she has.
Silver is close to Jeanie. He has been close to her for years. That gives him a natural entry point into the conversation, but it also puts him on shaky ground if the other five Buss siblings suspect he is picking a side.
The stakes are enormous. The full sale of the Lakers, including the previously announced 12.5 billion dollar transfer of majority control from Mark Walter to Iger and Kushner, is one of the largest transactions in the history of professional sports. The last thing the NBA needs is a legal war between siblings holding up the paperwork on the league’s crown-jewel franchise.
Publicly, Silver’s options are limited. The NBA constitution does not really account for a scenario where the family selling a minority stake starts suing each other while the majority owner is trying to close a new deal. Silver can bring people into a room. He can call. He can urge everyone to protect the franchise’s public image. What he cannot do is force Jeanie or her siblings to change their vote.
What he can do is remind everybody involved that this is a business. The incoming owners are billionaires with patience, but not infinite patience. If the Buss family drama drags into the fall, the deal terms could shift, and shift in ways that leave money on the table for everyone.
Jeanie has been vocal that she believes the vote to sell was procedurally invalid. She has been prepared to challenge it in court since the moment it happened. Her siblings, meanwhile, are done. They want the money. They want out. And they have said as much on the record.
This is the ugly underbelly of family ownership in professional sports. It looks great when the trophies are being lifted. It looks terrible when the estate is being carved up. The Buss family made it through Jerry’s death intact. It is not going to make it through this sale without scars.
Iger and Kushner have already made it clear that they want the drama gone before they take over. They are not trying to inherit a lawsuit. They are trying to inherit a title contender.
Silver, whether he wants the job or not, is now the person expected to make that happen. Good luck.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
