Jeanie Buss has taken her fight with her five siblings back to court, accusing them of carrying out a “devious” attempt to remove her as governor of the Los Angeles Lakers.
In a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Buss asked a judge to block Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss from selling the family trust’s remaining 17.8% stake in the franchise.
The 97-page filing also disputes reports that a secret family meeting shortly before Mark Walter’s $12.5 billion Lakers sale prompted her siblings to pursue their own sale.
“There was no emergency meeting; indeed, there was no meeting at all, and any suggestion that Jeanie concealed details about the potential Walter sale is false,” the petition states, according to The Athletic.
The denial challenges a key part of the reported timeline explaining how Jeanie’s five siblings united against her.
Jeanie Buss Disputes Meeting That ‘Spooked’ Siblings
Getty Siblings Jesse Buss (in hat), Johnny Buss, Jeanie Buss, from left, and Ronnie Weinstein, a mediator who often works with the family, are sitting in the front row during a Los Angeles Lakers press conference.
ESPN previously reported that Lakers senior vice president of finance Joe McCormack called an emergency meeting of the six Buss siblings shortly before Walter agreed to sell his controlling interest to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
According to ESPN’s account, the family met the following day to discuss dissolving its existing trust and locking the Lakers shares into a new trust for four years.
One family source told ESPN the meeting “spooked” everyone and renewed the five siblings’ interest in selling the family’s remaining stake.
Jeanie offers a sharply different account.
Her petition says McCormack’s proposed discussion concerned the trust’s “last man standing” provision, which determines what happens to a sibling’s financial interest after death. The existing arrangement reportedly distributes those funds among the surviving siblings rather than the deceased sibling’s descendants.
Her attorney, Adam Streisand, said discussions about revising that provision began long before anyone in the Lakers organization knew Walter was considering a sale.
Walter’s agreement with Kushner and Iger came as a “total and complete surprise” to Jeanie and the Lakers organization, Streisand said.
Jeanie Buss Alleges ‘Devious’ Effort to Remove Her
Getty Siblings Joey and Jesse Buss (in black hat), from left, were fired from the Lakers front office last year.
Jeanie’s filing portrays the sale attempt as the latest maneuver in a long-running struggle over control of the Lakers.
The latest confrontation follows Jeanie’s decision to fire Joey and Jesse from their Lakers front-office roles last year, after the Buss family sold its controlling interest to Walter. Their removal deepened a family divide that had already produced a court battle over control of the franchise in 2017.
“Jeanie never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed,” the petition states.
Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse ultimately voted 5-0 to sell the family’s remaining stake. Jeanie did not participate in that vote, according to The Athletic.
She alleges that Joey and Janie, acting as co-trustees, violated their fiduciary duties by signing a resolution authorizing the sale. Jeanie asked the court to invalidate the resolution, remove them as trustees and hold her siblings in contempt.
Her case relies on a 2017 court order requiring the trustees to take all reasonably available actions to preserve her appointment as controlling owner.
NBA rules require a team governor to hold at least a 15% ownership interest. Selling the full 17.8% family stake could therefore end Jeanie’s tenure, regardless of Kushner and Iger’s reported willingness to honor Walter’s agreement keeping her as governor through 2030.
The allegations have not been adjudicated. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5.
Walter’s separate sale is not expected to be derailed by the family dispute. But the court fight could decide whether the Buss family retains any Lakers ownership — and whether Jeanie’s five siblings can complete what she describes as their “devious” effort to push her out.
Lakers’ Jeanie Buss Denies ‘Secret’ Meeting, Accuses 5 Siblings of ‘Devious’ Scheme