The Buss family drama is back in court.
On Wednesday, Jeanie Buss, through her attorney Adam Streisand, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court asking the judge to block a vote by Jeanie’s five siblings to sell the family’s remaining shares of the Lakers, something detailed in multiple reports. The petition challenges the vote’s legality, calls her siblings “devious,” and says they have been plotting to remove Jeanie as the team governor.
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The Buss family still owns 17.8% of the Lakers through a trust involving all six siblings: Johnny, Jim, Janie, Joey, Jesse and Jeanie. Among that group, Joey, Janie and Jeanie are the three co-trustees. Every one of the children of Jerry Buss had a role with the franchise, but that changed over the years and especially after the sale to Mark Walter, with Jeanie locked in as team governor as part of the sale contract but the other siblings ultimately being pushed out of an active role. For example,
The five other siblings voted to exercise a tag-along clause and join Walter’s sale of the iconic basketball franchise to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, a deal made at a $12.5 billion valuation. That would have the Buss family stake worth $2.2 billion, or a little more than $370 million each.
The five siblings believe all they need to force the sale is four total votes and two-thirds of the co-trustees, which they have.
Buss’ petition challenges that through five causes of action. Those include referencing a 2017 court order, when Jeanie was in a power struggle with Jim (who had been the GM of the team but Jeanie fired, to the cheers of Lakers fans) and Johnnie, an order that “requires the trustees to take all actions reasonably available to ensure Jeanie’s appointment as Controlling Owner.” She also says the trust requires her to keep control of the team as governor, and to fill that role NBA bylaws require at least a 15% ownership stake (and Jeanie represents the Buss trust in that sense).
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This all feels like an episode of “Succession.” Over the years, Jeanie has overseen, or at least kept her position, while every other family member has been forced out, at times directly by her hand. Jeanie enjoys her position as team governor and, in many ways, is still the face of the franchise her father built into one of the largest global sports brands — she doesn’t want to give it up. Would the other siblings like to force her out for personal reasons? Maybe that’s part of the motivation, but also $370 million is a lot of money.
This drama is not expected to impact the sale of the Lakers from Walker to Kushner and Isner. The likely biggest winners in all this drama will be the lawyers.
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