One number decides if Jeanie Buss stays the Lakers’ controlling owner
Five of the six Buss siblings voted to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday. The sixth, Jeanie Buss, did not respond to the vote at all, and by Monday evening her attorney had sent a letter to three law firms representing the others.
Adam Streisand, writing on Jeanie Buss’ behalf, told them the vote carries no legal weight. His argument does not rest on the merits of selling to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, who bought Mark Walter’s majority stake last week at a record $12.5 billion valuation. His arguments rests on a court order from 2017 that has never been modified.
That order instructed the co-trustees of the family trust to take all actions reasonably available to them, including voting the trust’s shares, to ensure Jeanie Buss is elected controlling owner of the Lakers on an annual basis during her lifetime, absent a further order from the court. The trust currently has three co-trustees: Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss. Two of the three voted to sell.
“No sale of the JAB Trust’s 17.8% ownership interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. can be effectuated without approval by the current co-trustees,” Streisand wrote. “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 15% rule sitting underneath the entire dispute
NBA rules require a team governor to hold at least 15% of the franchise. Sell the 17.8%, and Jeanie Buss drops below it, which is why the sale and her title cannot be separated from one another. Streisand made that link explicit, writing that the co-trustees are bound to vote the shares so the minimum 15% requirement is maintained, and that any attempt to do otherwise would constitute a breach of trust, a breach of fiduciary duty, and contempt of court.
In a letter obtained by @TheAthletic, the attorney for Lakers governor Jeanie Buss says the trust vote to sell is void, arguing legal standing that requires her to be controlling owner on a lifetime basis. Her lawyer is demanding that representatives of the trust make it clear…
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 17, 2026
The five siblings are relying on a different instrument. When the family sold the majority stake to Walter in June 2025 at a then-record $10 billion, the deal included a tag-along provision that let the family match any price Walter later secured for his shares. Four of six siblings were required to trigger it, and by ESPN’s account the vote came in 5-0. The family’s statement framed the decision as a chance to exit gracefully.
Both positions can be stated cleanly, which is usually the sign that a court will end up sorting them out. Streisand told CNN he would seek contempt findings and injunctions if the siblings push forward.
The letter also went somewhere more personal. Streisand accused Joey and Jesse Buss of leaking false and defamatory information to ESPN’s Shams Charania as part of a years-long pattern, and said the report that all six siblings voted was wrong. That accusation is not incidental to the legal fight, since the entire dispute concerns which siblings hold authority over the shares and what they have agreed to.
Jeanie Buss fired her brother Jim as president of basketball operations in 2017 and sued him and Johnny Buss; Janie and Joey replaced them as co-trustees. Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 and died in 2013, leaving his stake divided among six children.
Attorneys for Joey and Jesse Buss did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening. Streisand told Deadline later that night that nothing further had developed.
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