The $12.5 billion sale of the Los Angeles Lakers has unleashed a family feud.
The Buss children are at it again.
Jeanie Buss, 64, took over as the team’s governor and controlling owner in 2013 after the death of her father, Jerry, the team’s longtime and celebrated owner. She sued in 2017, alleging that two other brothers tried to oust her. Now Jeanie Buss is fighting to hold on to that power.
She is one of six siblings and apparently is outnumbered. Her five siblings issued a statement saying they plan to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% in the Lakers to the incoming owners — venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The 17.8% is how much the Buss children retained after selling the team to Mark Walter in June 2025 on a valuation of about $10 billion. The terms of that sale stipulated that Jeanie Buss was to remain the team’s governor for at least five years following the sale.
But that plan looks to be in jeopardy after Walter sold the team to Kusher, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, and Iger. NBA rules require a team’s governor have at least 15% ownership. If her siblings are allowed to sell their shares, Jeanie Buss won’t meet the threshold needed to oversee the team.
The NBA has not yet approved the sale and it could take months to resolve.
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025. The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, are being sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner in a deal valued at a reported $12.5 billion. The sale announced on August 12, 2026 would mark a record-breaking valuation for a North American sports franchise and comes only about a year after billionaire Mark Walter agreed to buy a controlling interest in the team in a then-record $10 billion deal.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025. The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, are being sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner in a deal valued at a reported $12.5 billion. The sale announced on August 12, 2026 would mark a record-breaking valuation for a North American sports franchise and comes only about a year after billionaire Mark Walter agreed to buy a controlling interest in the team in a then-record $10 billion deal.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Oscar CEO Mario Schlosser (left) and co-founder Joshua Kushner want to leverage technology to make health care insurance as easy to interactive with as an e-commerce site. Joshua is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump.
(Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss attend The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019 in New York City. They married in 2018 and have three children, sons Levi and Elijah and a daughter, Rae.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss attend The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2023 in New York City.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss, CEO of Bedford Media and Joshua Kushner, Founder and CEO of Thrive Capital at Fortune Global Forum Gala Dinner celebrating Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful People in Business list during the Fortune Global Forum on Nov. 11, 2024 in New York City.
(Jemal Countess, Getty Images for Fortune Media)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner, Founder and CEO, Thrive Capital, speaks onstage during the Big Bets panel at the Fortune Global Forum 2024 on Nov. 12, 2024 in New York City.
(Jemal Countess, Getty Images for Fortune Media)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver, Joshua Kushner and CEO of Disney Bob Iger attend the Men’s Quarterfinal match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Taylor Fritz of the United States on Day Ten of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 2, 2025 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
(Sarah Stier, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner attend the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif.
(Neilson Barnard, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner attend the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Julian Hamilton, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and his wife Karlie Kloss attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 7, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and his wife Karlie Kloss attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 8, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and Lee Styslinger, co-owner of Altec, Inc., attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July , 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and CEO of Thrive Capital Josh Kushner attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 10, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
Can Jeanie stop her siblings from selling?
When Jerry Buss died in 2013, he owned 66% of the Lakers, and he left 11% to each of his six children. But Jeanie Buss, through Adam Streisand, contends her siblings need her approval to sell their remaining shares.
In a copy of a letter obtained by ESPN, Streisand wrote that any family vote for a sale “would be and is void” because Jeanie’s approval is needed.
“Co-trustees are bound to vote to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain controlling owner,” Streisand wrote, via ESPN.
“Any attempt by the co-trustees to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.
“On behalf of Jeanie Buss, I demand that your clients make clear publicly that Jeanie Buss is the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and that your clients shall take no action on this supposed ‘vote’ to sell the 17.8% stake.”
The siblings see things differently.
“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles, but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”
Lakers in limbo off, on court
Under Jerry Buss, the Lakers became one of the most iconic teams in sports.
The team won 10 NBA titles between Jerry Buss’ purchase of the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million and his death in 2013.
Since then, the Lakers have won just one more title, giving the franchise 17 — second behind only the Boston Celtics’ 18 titles.
Jeanie Buss’ biggest move since firing her brother Jim in 2017 was to sign LeBron James the following year. James led the Lakers to an NBA title in 2020 during a COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season. The Lakers have not returned to the Finals since. This offseason, James left the Lakers and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Lakers have retooled their roster around star Luka Doncic, and for the moment, the Lakers look to be in limbo on and off the court.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to know about Jeanie Buss’ fight for Lakers control, family feud
