Jeanie Buss has accused her siblings of waging a “cloak and dagger” campaign through the media, claiming they are jealous that their father picked her over them to govern the Los Angeles Lakers. In a court filing this week, she asked a judge to block her siblings’ attempt to sell the family’s remaining shares in the team, a move that would end her run as the Lakers’ governor.
The filing is the latest salvo in the bitter legal battle between Jeanie and her siblings, Joey and Jesse Buss, ahead of a scheduled hearing on 8 December at Los Angeles Superior Court.
The filing responds to recent submissions from Jeanie’s siblings, who want to sell the family’s remaining Lakers shares to the ownership group of Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. That group is 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 filing.
“Respondents’ obsession with tearing down Jeanie and their inability to accept that she would be a part of the Lakers’ future is borne of this classic succession parable.”
The family’s stake and the sale
In 2025, Walter bought a majority stake in the Lakers from the Buss family at a $10 billion valuation. The family retained a 17.82% stake, just above the NBA’s 15% minimum needed for the family to keep control, and it also received go-along rights. On 17 August, Shams Charania reported that Johnny, Jim, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss had voted to sell the remaining family shares to Iger and Kushner using those rights. Each sibling stands to make an additional $371 million if the family sells its entire stake through the go-along provision.
Jeanie has tried to block the sale. She argues that her siblings must obey a 2017 court order requiring the two co-trustees, Janie and Joey, to always vote in a way that keeps her as the controlling owner of the team.
In this week’s filing, she again asks the court to remove Joey and Janie as co-trustees for breach of fiduciary duty, to hold them in contempt of court, and to find Jim, Johnny and Jesse liable for aiding and abetting a violation of the 2017 order. She also seeks reimbursement of her legal costs.
Sources close to the family have said that settlement talks have taken place between the two sides, but it remains unclear how much progress has been made before the December hearing.
Trading accusations
“Jeanie had no choice but to seek court intervention to enforce the clear terms of the trust and this court’s 2017 order,” the filing states. “Respondents respond [by] casting themselves as victims, when in reality, the entire episode is their own false flag operation.
“The cloak and dagger, backroom ‘votes’ and ‘resolutions’ shared with the media, rather than their co-trustee and sister, and subsequent refusal to discuss the matter, was intended to force Jeanie’s hand, cry victim and again smear her in the media by sharing in advance their specious response.”
In earlier filings, the siblings argued that Jeanie’s stance lacks merit and asked the court to dismiss the claim. They maintain that they exercised voting rights expressly granted to them as beneficiaries.
“There is deep irony in [Jeanie] alleging that it is [Joey and Janie] who are putting their self-interests first,” an 16 October filing by the siblings stated, as reported by Dave McMenamin. “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.”
In this week’s filing, Jeanie hit back: “It drips with irony that Respondents’ thesis is that Jeanie is self-interested. Jeanie’s ‘self-interest’ has been to lead as her father and mother directed in their trusts.”
Deal progress
On Friday, Ramona Shelburne reported that go-along rights can technically be invoked only after Walter officially notifies the family that he has signed a deal to sell. The same day, Shelburne reported, citing sources close to the negotiation, that Walter and Kushner have agreed on all outstanding terms and are expected to sign the formal agreement soon. Once signed, the deal will be reviewed by the NBA.