Jeanie Buss opened a 97-page court filing with Yogi Berra — “It’s like déjà vu all over again” — and she was not chasing a laugh line. She was putting the Los Angeles Superior Court on notice that her five siblings had, according to the petition, tried to cash out the family’s remaining 17.8 percent of the Lakers and shove her out of the governor’s chair her father handed her before he died.
I have watched this franchise since Jerry Buss bought it in 1979. I watched him build a purple-and-gold empire on Showtime, on Kobe, on the idea that the Lakers were a family business with a single controlling voice. When he chose Jeanie as successor, that was not a suggestion. That was a will. The siblings who just tried to force a go-along sale under Mark Walter’s $12.5 billion flip to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner treated it like a suggestion they could ignore in private.
The petition is blunt. “Jeanie never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed.” That sentence alone should stop the room. She calls the conduct “devious.” She asks the court to hold Joey and Janie Buss — the co-trustees who signed the resolution — in contempt, remove them for breach of fiduciary duty, and make them “liable for damages.” She names Jim, Johnny, and Jesse for aiding and abetting. Those are her allegations, filed and pending a Nov. 5 hearing. I am not the judge. I am the guy who has seen this movie before and knows how it ends when you forget who put the name on the building.
The 2017 Order Was a Wall, Not a Memo
Let me tell you something about that 2017 Los Angeles Superior Court order, because the siblings appear to have treated it like optional reading. After Jim and Johnny tried to pry the franchise out of Jeanie’s hands, the court installed Jeanie, Janie, and Joey as co-trustees and instructed them to take all actions reasonably available to ensure Jeanie remained Controlling Owner for her lifetime. NBA rules require a governor to hold at least 15 percent. The family trust’s 17.8 percent is the floor under her feet. Sell it on the same terms as Walter’s majority stake and you do not just bank a check. You risk dropping her under the league’s ownership threshold and finishing what the 2017 fight started.
According to the filing, Joey and Janie’s resolution agreed “to exercise the power to sell the Trust’s Shares of the Company pursuant to the terms of the Proposed Go-Along Sale.” Jeanie’s lawyers argue that vote was void the second it hit paper because it violates the trust terms that keep her in control. The petition goes further: their “deliberate exclusion of Jeanie” proves they cannot act impartially. “Their conduct is not merely noncompliant; it is defiant.” That is the language of someone who already won this war once and is furious she has to win it again with the same last name across the table.
I said this when the majority sale to Walter closed at a $10 billion valuation and Jeanie stayed governor for at least five years: the minority stake was her insurance policy. Tag-along rights exist so minority holders can exit clean. They do not exist so five siblings can stage a surprise resolution, freeze out the controlling trustee, and call it family business. The siblings put out a statement that they “remain united” and would move forward. United against the person Jerry Buss picked. That is the part that sticks.
Skyrocketing Value Is Not a Reason to Panic-Sell
Jeanie’s filing argues the sale does not even make financial sense. The Lakers’ value is “continuously skyrocketing.” Other minority owners, she says, have voiced support for her remaining Controlling Owner and intend to hold, not sell. She frames her job as carrying out her father’s legacy and creating value for fans and the Buss family. I buy that framing. A stake that just rode a jump from $10 billion to $12.5 billion in roughly a year is not a distressed asset. It is a compound-interest machine wearing gold trim. Cashing it because you are mad at your sister is not fiduciary duty. It is a family feud wearing a term sheet.
I have watched Joey operate as alternate governor and Jesse work the basketball side. I have watched Jim’s long shadow after Jeanie fired him as president of basketball operations years ago. Animosity is real in this bloodline. The petition alleges the push to sell was driven by that animosity rather than necessity. If the court finds the 2017 order still binds, the resolution collapses and the trustees who signed it face removal and surcharge. If the court blinks, Jeanie’s governorship becomes a countdown clock tied to a percentage she no longer controls. Legacy is the only currency that matters here. Rings, banners, and the right to walk into Crypto.com Arena as the face of the franchise — that is what Jerry left her. The siblings, per her filing, tried to liquidate it without a phone call.
The majority deal with Iger and Kushner is not expected to sink over this. Good. The league will get its shiny new ownership group. The fight that matters is smaller on paper and larger in history: whether a dead man’s chosen successor can be outvoted into irrelevance by the people who share her last name and not her mandate.
Nov. 5 is on the calendar. Until then, the 17.8 percent sits in a trust that already survived one coup. Jeanie Buss did not petition for theater. She petitioned because, in her account, five siblings tried to sell her authority out from under her while the valuation kept climbing. Jerry Buss already made the call. The court gets to decide whether anybody still has to listen.
