Jeanie Buss Went to Court to Block the $12.5 Billion Lakers Sale. Her 17.8 Percent Is All That Keeps Her Governor.
Two things happened to the Los Angeles Lakers inside about 48 hours, and they point in opposite directions.
On Thursday, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Mark Walter and Josh Kushner met at Walter’s home in Florida and agreed on all outstanding terms of a sale valuing the franchise at $12.5 billion. Sources told ESPN that Kushner assured Walter the money is raised. It would be a record for an American sports franchise, topping the Lakers’ own $10 billion mark from 2025.
On Wednesday, Jeanie Buss filed in Los Angeles Superior Court to stop the family’s shares from going anywhere.
What the Filing Asks For
It is her third family court filing since August. Per ESPN, she is asking the court to remove her brother Joey and sister Janie as co-trustees for breach of fiduciary duty, hold them in contempt, find Jim, Johnny and Jesse Buss liable for aiding and abetting a violation of a 2017 court order, block the sale of the family’s Lakers shares and reimburse her legal costs.
The filing describes “cloak and dagger” tactics and backroom votes. Her lawyers wrote that “Dr. Buss chose his daughter over four sons to be his successor” and called the fight “this classic succession parable.”
The siblings have called her petition “legally and factually baseless” and asked the court to dismiss it. One line from their opposition: “[Jeanie’s] hypocrisy should not go unnoticed.”
Nothing here has been decided. No court has ruled, nobody has been found to have violated anything, and every allegation in that filing is an allegation by one of six siblings, contested by the other five. The hearing is Dec. 8.
The Number That Explains All of It
When the family sold majority control to Walter in 2025 at a $10 billion valuation, it kept 17.82 percent through the JAB Trust. The NBA requires a 15 percent stake to serve as a team’s governor. Jeanie Buss, 64, is the Lakers governor.
Sell that 17.82 percent and the cushion is gone. ESPN reports each sibling would collect roughly $371 million by exercising the family’s go-along rights, which USA Today and CBS Sports describe as a tag-along clause.
So the choice in front of the Buss children is $371 million apiece, or their sister keeping the job their father handed her. Five of them have already voted on which they prefer.
The History Is the Whole Story
Jerry Buss died in 2013 and left the team to a trust in which his six children hold equal votes. In 2017, Jeanie fired Jim as head of basketball operations. Jim and Johnny tried to strip her board seat. That fight settled with Jeanie in control and produced the 2017 court order now at the center of this case, which she contends bars any vote to sell the remaining family shares without her consent.
In November 2025 the Lakers fired Joey and Jesse Buss in a scouting overhaul, though both kept their ownership shares. In early August 2026 a Lakers executive called an emergency meeting of the siblings about dissolving the trust. By Aug. 17 the other five had voted to sell.
ESPN’s earlier reporting framed Buss family infighting as the force that drove the original $10 billion sale. The same infighting is now the last obstacle to the $12.5 billion one.
And the Basketball Team Is Fine
The Lakers are 4-2 and fourth in the Western Conference. Their only recent stumble was blowing a 25-point lead to Golden State on Friday in the NBA Cup opener, a night Luka Doncic scored 37.
No agreement has been signed. The NBA reviews a deal only after signing, examining financing and ownership structure, and approval requires a majority vote of the 30 owners. ESPN reports settlement talks in the family case have begun.
The most valuable franchise in American sports is being settled in a Florida living room and a Los Angeles courtroom, and the basketball is the least interesting part of it.
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.
