Jeanie Buss Siblings File Opposition To Her Efforts To Block Laker Sale

LOS ANGELES, CA — The five Buss siblings who want to sell the family's shares of the Lakers have filed their response opposition to team governor Jeanie Buss' efforts to block the sale, calling her petition "legally and factually baseless," according to the Los Angeles Times.

"While discussions among the siblings continue, their focus remains on facilitating the proposed transaction and the trust's participation in it, while ensuring that all beneficiaries, including Jeanie, are treated equally," Jimmy, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss said in the statement, The Times reported.

The siblings said Wednesday's Los Angeles Superior Court filing was a "necessary step to protect those interests and ensure the transaction proceeds on schedule," The Times further reported.

The five siblings voted in August to include the family's 17.82% of the team in the sale from Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger. Jeanie Buss immediately opposed her siblings' vote, saying that the transaction would breach the family trust that states she and her co-trustees Janie and Joey must take reasonably available actions to maintain Jeanie Buss' role as the controlling governor of the team "on an annual basis during (her) lifetime," The Times reported.

If the Buss Family Trust sells its remaining shares, Jeanie Buss would be ineligible to serve on the board of governors because the NBA requires governors to own at least 15% of the franchise. Although the Buss family ended its more than 40 years of majority ownership of the team in 2025 by selling to Walter at a then-record $10-billion valuation, Jeanie Buss was to remain the controlling governor for at least five years, according to The Times.

Jeanie Buss filed a petition about two weeks after her siblings' vote in which she argued their plan was void.

In 2017, Jeanie Buss was forced to seek court relief when two of her siblings, James and Johnny, unsuccessfully "plotted a boardroom coup to remove Jeanie from her position as controlling owner," the petition states.

Now, siblings Janie and Joey Buss have "brazenly, knowingly and intentionally violated a 2017 order obtained by Jeanie Buss as well as the express provisions of the Jo Ann (C. Buss) 2006 ESBT by secretly signing a purported resolution `void on its face' to sell a portion of the trust's 17.82% stake in the Lakers," according to the petition. Jo Ann C. Buss was the late mother of the Buss children Jeanie, Johnny, Jim and Janie. Jo Ann Buss established the trust in September 2006 and died at age 86 in December 2019.

The resolution "flies in the face of the 2017 order as it would disqualify Jeanie from serving as the NBA controlling owner of the Lakers," the petition further alleges.

Buss, 64, is asking a judge to declare the siblings' resolution void and for Janie and Joey Buss to be removed as trustees for allegedly putting their interests ahead of those of the other trustees. Jeanie Buss also wants a judge to demand that Janie and Joey Buss show why they should not be held in contempt of court for allegedly violating the 2017 order. A hearing is scheduled Dec. 8.

Jerry Buss, the team's longtime owner, died in February 2013 at age 80.

City News Service