Rumors

The filing responds to recent filings by Jeanie's siblings, who are seeking to sell the family's remaining shares of the Lakers to the Bob Iger and Josh Kushner ownership group, who are seeking to buy the team from Mark Walter at a $12.5 billion valuation. "The conflicts that ensued after Dr. [Jerry] Buss's death [in 2013] were sadly inevitable, and no doubt intensified given that Dr. Buss chose his daughter over four sons to be his successor," Jeanie's lawyers wrote in the Wednesday filing.

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Josh Kushner and Bob Iger have been offering Lakers minority stakes to investors starting at $250 million apiece as they build out their ownership group, Front Office Sports has learned. The duo, which agreed to buy the Lakers from embattled billionaire Mark Walter over the summer at a record $12.5 billion valuation, have been working to sell minority stakes for between $250 million and $300 million each, four sources familiar with the matter tell FOS. That is just the starting point, and there will be minority investors who put significantly higher amounts into the deal, two sources say.

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The idea that Kushner is having trouble raising money for the deal is not true, one source tells FOS. There has been massive demand to get in on the Lakers deal, according to two sources, although it’s not clear who has expressed interest in buying in. The transaction could be completed within the next few months, one source says. Once the deal closes, Kushner will be majority owner, while Iger will be a minority owner and will oversee day-to-day operations of the team, the same source says.

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Most recently, it was reported that Walter is looking to sell the WNBA’s Sparks. A source confirms to FOS that Kushner and Iger are not currently interested in buying the Sparks. Bloomberg first reported they’re not among the potential buyers.

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Iger had also been a longtime season-ticket holder of the LA Clippers, although he notably canceled them last season over the team's treatment of Chris Paul, a close friend of Iger's, sources close to him said.

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Despite the public hedge, Iger reaffirmed his commitment to Jeanie to maintain a role after the sale closes when they met, those sources said. They have stayed in regular contact since then. Whether she'll be able to do so -- and what that role ultimately is -- depends on how the latest round of family discord is resolved.

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Luka Doncic was the only person outside of the small circle of people close to Mark Walter, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger who had any inkling how the sports world was about to dramatically change before Aug. 12. The last time he had gotten a text from Lara Beth Seager, his longtime manager, at an odd hour was in February 2025, when she reached him after midnight and told him he had been traded to the Lakers. This time, she had gotten a tip well after midnight at her home in Dallas that something big might be happening again. She texted Doncic, who was just waking up in Slovenia, alerting him to the possibility.

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If the sale goes through and Kushner and Iger are approved by the NBA, and that is expected to happen by the end of the year or early next year, according to multiple sources close to the sale process, they'd be his fifth team owners across two franchises in the past three years. By the time Seager called Doncic to tell him the deal was done, he had already processed the initial shock. "There's not much that can shock me anymore," Doncic told her.

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Jeanie Buss learned of Mark Walter's agreement to sell his shares of the Lakers hours before ESPN reported the news on the morning of Aug. 12, according to multiple sources with knowledge of their conversations. She was stunned, according to sources close to her. This was not what she had planned for or expected when she reached out to Walter in 2021 to suggest he purchase Philip Anschutz's shares to become the largest minority shareholder in the franchise, and with it, hold the first right of refusal to buy the Buss family's shares for a controlling interest in the team.

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The legal jostling between five of the Buss siblings against their sister, Lakers acting governor Jeanie Buss, continued Friday with an additional filing submitted to the Los Angeles Superior Court. The 29-page document, reviewed by ESPN, was filed on behalf of Joey and Janie Buss in opposition to their sister and her previous petition seeking to remove them as co-trustees and void the siblings' 5-1 vote to sell the family's remaining stake in the team. "This dispute turns on (1) who had the authority to decide whether the Trust would continue, (2) what event would terminate it, and (3) what the Trustee Respondents were required to do once that event occurred," Friday's filing says. "The Trust's text unambiguously answers each question."

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The new filing not only argues Joey and Janie's right to hold the vote to sell and highlights language in the trust that states a sale requires a two-thirds majority by the siblings, which they exceeded, but it also challenges the breadth of Jeanie's rights as a co-trustee and acting governor. The filing follows a 36-page opposition submitted to the court Oct. 7 by all five siblings -- Jimmy, Johnny and Jesse included -- that argued their right to terminate the family trust and sell their remaining 17.82% of the team to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger's ownership group after the pair agreed to purchase the Lakers from Mark Walter at a $12.5 billion valuation. Both filings come in response to Jeanie, through her lawyer Adam Streisand, submitting a 97-page petition to the court in August aimed to block the sale of the family's stake in the team to Kushner and Iger, who, sources told ESPN, are expected to take control of the franchise following an NBA board of governors vote in November.

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Friday's filing contends that a 2017 court decision that instructed the trustees to take "whatever actions are reasonably available" to have Jeanie appointed as the controlling owner while the family trust holds Lakers stock became moot once a vote was held to terminate the trust to facilitate a sale. "It does not require the Trust to remain in existence for Jeanie's lifetime ... or require the Trust to maintain any minimum ownership percentage," the filing states.

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Additionally, the new filing argues that Jeanie's petition, which held her siblings in contempt, lacks merit and asks the court to dismiss the claim. The siblings exercised voting rights expressly granted to them as beneficiaries, which the filing argues cannot constitute contempt or aiding and abetting a fiduciary breach. "There is deep irony in [Jeanie] alleging that it is [Joey and Janie] who are putting their self-interests first," the filing says. "The entire petition [originally filed by Jeanie] is predicated on the notion that rights expressly granted to the beneficiaries by [the trust] should be subjugated to [Jeanie's] personal interest in remaining controlling owner. [Jeanie's] hypocrisy should not go unnoticed."

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According to a source with knowledge of the siblings’ thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal dispute, their goal is for the Lakers’ sale to Kushner’s ownership group to close without legal delays. The siblings also want to ensure that any arrangement that could allow for Jeanie Buss to retain shares in the Lakers be offered equally to all other siblings.

New York Times