The new owners of the Los Angeles Lakers are consolidating their control over the franchise and amplifying their stake in the team.
The Buss family agreed to sell its remaining 17.8% stake in the franchise on Monday, Aug. 17 to new majority owners, businessman Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Robert Iger.
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“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family said Monday in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles; but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025. The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, are being sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner in a deal valued at a reported $12.5 billion. The sale announced on August 12, 2026 would mark a record-breaking valuation for a North American sports franchise and comes only about a year after billionaire Mark Walter agreed to buy a controlling interest in the team in a then-record $10 billion deal.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025. The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, are being sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner in a deal valued at a reported $12.5 billion. The sale announced on August 12, 2026 would mark a record-breaking valuation for a North American sports franchise and comes only about a year after billionaire Mark Walter agreed to buy a controlling interest in the team in a then-record $10 billion deal.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Oscar CEO Mario Schlosser (left) and co-founder Joshua Kushner want to leverage technology to make health care insurance as easy to interactive with as an e-commerce site. Joshua is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump.
(Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss attend The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019 in New York City. They married in 2018 and have three children, sons Levi and Elijah and a daughter, Rae.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss attend The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2023 in New York City.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss, CEO of Bedford Media and Joshua Kushner, Founder and CEO of Thrive Capital at Fortune Global Forum Gala Dinner celebrating Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful People in Business list during the Fortune Global Forum on Nov. 11, 2024 in New York City.
(Jemal Countess, Getty Images for Fortune Media)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner, Founder and CEO, Thrive Capital, speaks onstage during the Big Bets panel at the Fortune Global Forum 2024 on Nov. 12, 2024 in New York City.
(Jemal Countess, Getty Images for Fortune Media)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, Joshua Kushner, speaks during the Hill & Valley Forum at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver, Joshua Kushner and CEO of Disney Bob Iger attend the Men’s Quarterfinal match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Taylor Fritz of the United States on Day Ten of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 2, 2025 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
(Sarah Stier, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner attend the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif.
(Neilson Barnard, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner attend the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Julian Hamilton, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Joshua Kushner attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and his wife Karlie Kloss attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 7, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and his wife Karlie Kloss attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 8, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Josh Kushner, founder and CEO of Thrive Capital, and Lee Styslinger, co-owner of Altec, Inc., attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July , 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
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Joshua Kushner makes a bold move from investor to NBA owner
Founder and CEO of Thrive Capital Josh Kushner attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 10, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every year, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures from the media, finance, technology, and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference hosted by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
(Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images)
This comes just days after Kushner and Iger stunned the NBA world by agreeing to a purchase agreement of the Lakers for a record $12.5 billion on Wednesday, Aug. 12, which came just 10 months after Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner and TWG Global CEO Mark Walter bought the team from the Buss Family.
The Busses had retained a minority position after the June 2025 sale to Walter. According to ESPN, the six children of late Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss held a vote as part of the Buss family trust to consider the sale of the remaining shares to Kushner and Iger’s group. The deal required four of six votes.
Monday’s decision now ends the family’s memorable 47-year run with the franchise.
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Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in May 1979 for $67.5 million, in a deal that also included other assets the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the arena where both franchises played, the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Under the Buss family’s direction, the Lakers ushered in the “Showtime” era and oversaw a stretch of consistent competitiveness; the Lakers won 11 championships during the family’s reign as majority owners.
Under the Busses, the Lakers recorded just 10 seasons with a win percentage below .500 and missed the playoffs just nine times. In fact, Los Angeles clinched postseason berths in the first 14 years of Buss’ ownership of the team. A number of franchise icons and eventual Hall of Fame players — names like Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant — starred with the Lakers under the Buss family.
With Monday’s decision, Jeanie Buss can no longer serve as governor of the Lakers. When Walter first bought the majority stake of the franchise in June 2025, he had agreed to allow Jeanie, the daughter of Jerry, to serve as governor of the Lakers through the 2030 season. On Wednesday, Iger had told the California Post that he and Kushner had “every intention to honor” the agreement that Jeanie Buss had made with Walter to remain on as governor.
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Yet, NBA rules mandate that a person retain at least a 15% ownership stake in a franchise to act as governor.
It is unclear who will serve in that role moving forward. With their addition of the 17.8% stake that had belonged to the Buss family, the Kushner and Iger group will now control north of 82% of the franchise.
The sale to the Kushner and Iger group will still need approval from the NBA’s board of governors. The next session will be held in September in New York, though a vote on the transference of ownership may not take place then.
Whenever it does, approval will require 75% to pass, which constitutes at least 23 of the 30 owners.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Buss family will sell remaining stake in Los Angeles Lakers
