LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is challenging her brothers’ vote to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the Lakers, according to a letter from her attorney obtained by ESPN. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported earlier Monday that the Buss family voted to sell their remaining shares to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for the same $12.5 billion valuation that Mark Walter agreed to last week. They believe they have the right to sell based on a tag-along provision that had been included in the previous sale to Walter in June 2025. Sources told ESPN that provision gave the family the right to tag-along with any sale and valuation Walter got for his shares. Jeanie Buss, through her attorney Adam Streisand, maintains that a court ruled in 2017 that no sale could “be effected without the approval of the co-trustees, i.e., Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.” Control of ownership of the Lakers could be at stake, as Jeanie Buss would no longer have the ownership percentage necessary to remain the team’s governor if the transaction goes through. She had an agreement with Walter when she first purchased the team, under which she would remain majority owner of the franchise through 2030. Iger told the California Post last week that she intended to honor that agreement with Buss, but added, “If something changes, then it changes.” Iger met with Buss late last week and the two discussed Walter’s transition, sources said. A spokesperson for Kushner and Iger declined to comment on the situation when contacted by ESPN. SEE MORE: Sources: Josh Kushner, Bob Iger to buy Lakers for $12.5 billion “We have decided as a family to sell the remaining shares of the Buss Family Trust to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the family said in a statement Monday. “We love the Lakers, we love the Lakers fans, and we will continue to support Los Angeles; but it’s time to take this opportunity to move forward and emerge gracefully while we still can.” In response, Streisand wrote to the five siblings who voted in favor of the sale that the “co-trustees are required to vote… to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained to ensure that Jeanie Buss can remain a controlling owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees… to aid or abet the co-trustee as such would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and would be a contempt of court.” Jeanie Buss was the only sister who did not vote to sell the team on Monday, and multiple sources told ESPN that she did not respond to the family vote on whether to sell the team. Streisand demanded that the five siblings “make it publicly clear that Jeanie Buss is the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers” and “take no action on this alleged ‘vote’ to sell the 17.8% stake.” CNBC was the first to obtain Streisand’s letter. Sources said voting to sell the family’s remaining shares has been open since last Tuesday, before Walter reached a deal with Kushner and Iger to sell the team. That vote was called, sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, after Lakers vice president of finance Joe McCormack called an emergency meeting of the Buss brothers last Monday night to discuss a dissolution of the family trust and seek approval to lock up all family shares for four years under a new trust. When the family met to discuss it Tuesday, there was no mention of Walter’s impending sale to Kushner and Iger. A family source told ESPN that the meeting “scared” everyone and prompted new calls among the five brothers to sell the remaining family shares. Multiple family sources told ESPN that a previous vote had been taken several months ago and that only three siblings had voted in favor of the sale. This time, after Walter’s sale, two more siblings joined the vote to sell, and Jeanie Buss abstained from the vote, sources told ESPN. The second sale of the Lakers in just over a year came in the wake of the federal investigation into Walter for alleged tax fraud by companies linked to the billionaire. Kent Cooke in May 1979. Under the leadership of Buss and then his sons after his death, the Lakers won 11 NBA championships, most recently in 2020. The Lakers’ 2,289 wins since the start of the 1979-80 season are the most of any franchise in that span. More than a dozen Hall of Famers played for the Lakers during Buss family ownership, and several Hall of Fame coaches patrolled the sidelines, first at the Great Western Forum and then at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), which opened in 1999. ESPN’s Shams Charania contributed to this report. Copyright © 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.
