Jeanie Buss fights siblings' vote to sell Lakers stake

For a few hours Monday night, it looked like the last chapter of the Buss family's Lakers story had quietly closed. Shams Charania reported that the Buss family trust had voted to sell its remaining 17.8% stake in the team to incoming majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, tagging along at the $12.5 billion valuation Mark Walter got when he flipped his controlling stake last week.

Shams Charania

@ShamsCharania

Breaking: The Buss family has decided to sell its remaining 17.8% ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to new majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, sources tell ESPN.  The Buss family trust -- composed of siblings Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse -- received majority votes to allow trustees to execute the sale. It required four of six votes to enact the tag-along provision of Mark Walter's sale to Kushner and Iger, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion.

The family even put out a statement leaning into the goodbye: "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." Combined with the sale, it would've marked the first time since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 that no Buss owned a piece of the Lakers -- and it would've cost Jeanie the 15% ownership threshold the NBA requires to stay on as governor.

Shams Charania

@ShamsCharania

Statement from the Buss family to ESPN: "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. 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."

Then the story flipped. Ramona Shelburne reported that Jeanie was the lone holdout in a 5-0 sibling vote -- Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse all voted to sell, but Jeanie never signed off. Her attorney, Adam Streisand, fired off a letter calling Shams's initial report false and demanding Kushner and Iger's camp publicly confirm Jeanie remains the Lakers' controlling owner and take no action on the sale.

ClutchPoints

@ClutchPoints

Jeanie Buss was the only sibling who voted against selling the remaining 17.8% ownership stake in the Lakers, per @ramonashelburne. Full letter from Jeanie Buss's lawyer: “This afternoon, Shams Charania of ESPN falsely reported that the six Buss siblings voted to sell the 17.8% ownership stake in the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger... On behalf of Jeanie Buss, I demand that your clients make clear publicly that Jeanie Buss is the Controlling Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and that your clients shall take no action on this supposed "vote" to sell the 17.8% stake. (via @sherman4949)

The legal argument goes back to a bitter 2017 fight, when Jeanie ousted brother Jim as a trustee and replaced him with sister Janie -- and got a court order requiring the trustees to vote in a way that keeps her as controlling owner for life. Streisand's letter leans on that same order, arguing no sale of the trust's shares can happen "without approval by the co-trustees -- Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss," meaning a simple sibling majority isn't enough.

Shams Charania

@ShamsCharania

Jeanie Buss was the lone family member not in favor to sell as the five siblings voted 5-0 -- including two of the three trustees -- to sell the Buss stake, sources said. Jeanie Buss' attorney says tonight that she intends to battle the remainder of the family in order to keep their shares.

The other five siblings are leaning on a different mechanism entirely: the tag-along provision baked into Walter's sale to Kushner and Iger, which they believe gives the family the right to cash out at Walter's price regardless of trustee unanimity. It's a real disagreement over contract language, not just a family squabble -- and per Shelburne, the vote had reportedly been open since Tuesday, with an earlier vote on the same question months back.

Ramona Shelburne

@ramonashelburne

Full @SportsCenter breakdown of yet another stunning turn with the Lakers. Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings vote to sell the remaining family shares.

Nobody's spelled out what happens if this ends up back in court, and a spokesperson for Kushner and Iger had no comment when ESPN asked. But the stakes are enormous: if the sale goes through as the five siblings intend, Jeanie loses the ownership percentage that's kept her as governor since 2013, ending the Buss family's Lakers era for good. If her letter holds up, the whole tag-along sale stalls out, and the NBA's board of governors -- which still has to approve any transaction -- inherits a genuine family lawsuit sitting on top of a $12.5 billion deal.