{"id":2104479,"date":"2026-08-21T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T06:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104479"},"modified":"2026-08-21T09:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T06:30:52","slug":"how-could-the-buss-family-saga-surrounding-the-lakers-sale-play-out-legal-experts-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104479","title":{"rendered":"How could the Buss family saga surrounding the Lakers sale play out? Legal experts weigh in"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>It\u2019s a drama right at home in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>First, news broke last week that Mark Walter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7508177\/2026\/08\/12\/los-angeles-lakers-sale-mark-walter-bob-iger-joshua-kushner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">intends to sell the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> to billionaire venture capitalist Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation.<\/p>\n<p>Then five of the six Buss siblings \u2014 who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7520700\/2026\/08\/19\/lakers-ownership-buss-family-timeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">inherited ownership of the team from their father<\/a>, Jerry, when he died in 2013 \u2014 voted to sell their remaining stake in the Lakers, approximately 17.8 percent of the team.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But Jeanie Buss, who operates as the team governor and is the last family member actually working for the Lakers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7520209\/2026\/08\/17\/jeanie-buss-opposed-lakers-sale-iger-kushner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argued via an attorney that her siblings can\u2019t sell<\/a>. Her attorney referenced a 2017 court order requiring her co-trustees to \u201ctake all action reasonably available to them\u201d to ensure Jeanie remained the controlling owner of the Lakers.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"88cbUtgKURO09HI\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">Everything we know about the Lakers being sold again<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">Dan Woike<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"metadata\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>What\u2019s going on here? <em>The Athletic<\/em> interviewed nine legal experts, many of whom specialize in trust and estate law, to get their take on the drama and what might happen next.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>Which side has the upper hand?<\/h2>\n<p>This is a complex situation that even confounds experts, largely because the trust documentation is not yet publicly available. It also involves many different kinds of law: trade and estate laws, corporate laws, contracts and, of course, the NBA\u2019s rules, creating what one expert termed \u201ca Russian nesting doll of legal issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think everyone has a perfect right to be kind of confused about this. Because as a trust and estates professor, I\u2019m a little confused about this,\u201d said William P. LaPiana, professor of wills, trusts and estates at New York Law School. \u201cWe\u2019re all kind of in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The experts <em>The Athletic<\/em> interviewed stressed that their insight is based on public reports, given that they have not seen the terms of the trust. What is more clear, however, is that this saga may just be getting started.<\/p>\n<p>There appears to be three different agreements that are at odds with one another. The original trust requires a majority of the beneficiaries (i.e., four of the six Buss children) to agree on a sale of trust assets. The 2017 court order instructs the trust to refrain from taking actions that would result in Jeanie Buss losing her position as the Lakers\u2019 \u201ccontrolling owner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers\u2019 sale last year complicates things as well. As part of the sale, Walter agreed that Jeanie could remain the team\u2019s governor for the next five years. While most team governors are majority owners, the NBA allows a governor to own as little as 15 percent of a franchise. That sale also reportedly contained a tag-along provision, an opportunity for the Buss family to sell their stake along with Walter if he chose to sell.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid2\" data-position=\"mid2\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some experts believe that Jeanie Buss\u2019 approval is required for the family to sell its ownership stake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe three trustees \u2013 Jeanie, Janie and Joey \u2013 must consent to the sale that has been authorized by a majority of the siblings. Without her consent, the sale cannot go forward,\u201d said Bridget Crawford, a law professor at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y. \u201c[The siblings] have a textual argument about what the trust terms mean. That debate runs right into the 2017 ruling, though. That court order makes this a clearer case in Jeanie\u2019s favor. That order says the co-trustees must protect Jeanie\u2019s controlling ownership \u2026 If the trust sells the whole 17.8 percent, the order isn\u2019t just inconvenient to follow, it\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether the Buss family can sell its stake could require a legal interpretation of which rules take precedent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the siblings (other than Jeanie) are purporting to sell 17.8 percent, this would violate the 2017 amendment\/order,\u201d said Jeff Schneider, the executive director of the University of Southern California\u2019s Center for Sports, Entertainment, Media &amp; Technology Law. \u201cThe sale does not violate the trust per se, only the 2017 order, and theoretically, the entire case will come down to whether she could get an injunction based on the 2017 amendment to stop this new sale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-pickem\">\n<p>A general rule in trust law that California follows requires trustees to act as a \u201cprudent investor\u201d would, Schneider said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsually, this means maximizing wealth without taking unreasonable risks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is hard to argue that if five of the six beneficiaries and two of the three trustees voted to maximize the overall wealth of all parties, it was not the most prudent thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other experts believe Jeanie\u2019s siblings make a good case, too, aided by last year\u2019s sale to Walter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid3\" data-position=\"mid3\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cJeanie\u2019s siblings may counter that the 2017 order does not expressly prohibit a sale and that a unanimous vote of the trustees is not required to sell the trust\u2019s interests in the Lakers,\u201d said Rutgers law school professor Reid Kress Weisbord and University of Virginia law school professor Naomi R. Cahn in a joint statement. \u201cThe 2025 transaction with Mark Walter, in which the Buss family sold most (but not all) of their interest in the Lakers, also reportedly included a \u2018tag-along\u2019 provision. That provision reportedly allows the family to sell its remaining stake for the same valuation as Walter if he later sells his interest. The siblings may argue that the current transaction implements the type of sale that Jeanie and the trustees contemplated in the tag-along provision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately, who has the stronger position will depend on the terms of the trust instrument and the 2025 agreement, neither of which is public, and the 2017 court order.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"inline-graphic\">\n<p>        a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n  display: flex;<br \/>\n  gap: 20px;<br \/>\n  flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n  align-items: center;<br \/>\n  padding: 20px 0px;<br \/>\n  border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  text-decoration: none;<br \/>\n  color: #121212;<br \/>\n  cursor: pointer;<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-franklin;<br \/>\n    font-size: 14px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 700;<br \/>\n    line-height: 13.8px;<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 1.1px;<br \/>\n    text-transform: uppercase;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-image {<br \/>\n    border-radius: 8px;<br \/>\n    object-fit: cover;<br \/>\n    width: 200px;<br \/>\n    height: 150px;<br \/>\n    margin: 0px;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      width: 120px;<br \/>\n      height: 120px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-inner-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: row;<br \/>\n    gap: 16px;<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-text-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n    gap: 20px;<br \/>\n    justify-content: center;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      gap: 8px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-title {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-cheltenham;<br \/>\n    font-size: 24px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 500;<br \/>\n    line-height: 120%; \/* 24px *\/<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 0.01px;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 3;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-imperial;<br \/>\n    font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 400;<br \/>\n    line-height: 139%; \/* 19.46px *\/<br \/>\n    color: #323232;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 4;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 12px;<br \/>\n      line-height: 121%;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>.showcase-link-inputs {<br \/>\n  .showcase-link-input {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n    font-size: 1rem;<br \/>\n    background-color: white;<br \/>\n    margin-bottom: 12px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-indent {<br \/>\n    margin-left: 25px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  option {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {<br \/>\n  .native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n    background-color: #121212;<br \/>\n    color: #f0f0ee;<br \/>\n    .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n      color: #c4c4c0;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>            \/\/ Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click<br \/>\n            document.querySelectorAll(&#8216;.showcase-link-image&#8217;).forEach((img) =&gt; img.removeAttribute(&#8216;onclick&#8217;));<\/p>\n<p>        <a id=\"showcase-link-7525376\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7525376\/2026\/08\/20\/lakers-sale-jeanie-buss-ownership-stake\/\" class=\"showcase-link-container in-content-module-link testbed-shortcode\" data-shortcode-id=\"101\" data-shortcode-string=\"showcase-link\" data-content-id=\"7525376\" data-content-post-type=\"article\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link\">What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-inner-content\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/19195059\/GettyImages-117931207-1024x753.jpg?width=400&amp;quality=70\" alt=\"Jerry Buss left Lakers to his children. It\u2019s tearing their family apart\" class=\"showcase-link-image\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-text-content\">\n<div class=\"showcase-link-title\">\n                  Jerry Buss left Lakers to his children. It\u2019s tearing their family apart\n              <\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-excerpt\">\n                  Five siblings against one. Public accusations. Old wounds made new. It is messy and uncomfortable \u2026 and impossible to look away.\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<h2>What could happen next?<\/h2>\n<p>If there is no settlement, this could be headed for a court battle that could take years to hash out. The trust and estates world \u201cdoes not move fast,\u201d LaPiana said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the trust dispute went to litigation, that could take years,\u201d said Maureen A. Weston, professor of Law at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. \u201cIf it went to trial and there was testimony \u2026 that\u2019s a year at that, that\u2019s two years. It could drag on. If there\u2019s an arbitration provision in there in the trust document\u2026 that can be faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That potential timeline makes it crucial, Schneider said, for Jeanie to obtain a preliminary injunction to pause the sale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why being able to stop the sale, and not just suing after the fact, is so important,\u201d he said. \u201cThese cases take potentially years; injunctions happen pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most sports teams are owned by families, and family trusts are not uncommon, these experts say.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid4\" data-position=\"mid4\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cA conflict over a purported sale of a franchise is nothing new in the sports law context, where partners in ownership, or various members in the trust, have had differences in agreement,\u201d said Marc Edelman, professor of law at Baruch College\u2019s Zicklin School of Business. \u201cThe first thing that comes to mind as a reasonable analog also took place in Los Angeles several years back when the McCourt family had owned the Dodgers and the two owners of the team had gone through a divorce, leading to complications in ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The McCourt dispute ended with a financial settlement where Jamie McCourt received $131 million, plus more than $50 million in real estate and luxury properties, while Frank McCourt remained the sole owner of the Dodgers.<\/p>\n<p>Disputes are also not uncommon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are really rich people, and any time there is some big transfer of assets like this in the legal world, you better get yourself ready for some type of fight,\u201d said Aaron Hernandez, director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University.<\/p>\n<p>But what makes the Buss trust unusual, according to trust and estate experts, is a so-called \u201clast-person-standing\u201d provision that redistributes the shares to the living members if someone dies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless a beneficiary sells his or her share while still alive, it passes to the remaining surviving beneficiaries as each passes, until there is only one left who gets it all,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cSupposedly, Jerry did this to ensure that one of his kids would always own the team but it also creates a huge incentive to sell while still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Will the Lakers still be sold to Kushner and Iger?<\/h2>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7523080\/2026\/08\/19\/lakers-buss-family-jeanie-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Athletic<\/em> reported earlier this week<\/a>, a source with knowledge of Mark Walter\u2019s thinking said the current Lakers owner didn\u2019t believe the latest Buss family disagreement would threaten his deal with Iger and Kushner. Two other league and team sources also said they don\u2019t expect the conflict to impact the transaction.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid5\" data-position=\"mid5\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That sale still needs to be approved by the NBA\u2019s Board of Governors. If it is, and if Jeanie Buss is able to ensure the Buss family retains at least 15 percent of the Lakers, will the new ownership group would honor Walter\u2019s commitment that Jeanie could retain governorship for the near future?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would imagine, without knowing for sure, that (the other NBA governors) would probably be\u00a0 happy to see the majority owners having the requisite control,\u201d said Matt Mitten, a law professor at Marquette University Law School. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones that are basically going to be that voice and vote when they have the league meetings. That\u2019s an important thing to have that vote. It seems to me that if there\u2019s someone, a group with a minority interest that\u2019s holding that \u2013 and it\u2019s a small minority interest (17.8) \u2014 that just seems to me like, at some point, there\u2019s going to be a conflict between majority ownership and the Buss family ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iger has supported the commitment to Jeanie Buss\u2019 governorship both publicly and privately. Then again, as he said during <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/12\/sports\/bob-iger-reveals-details-of-lakers-purchase-its-extraordinary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">a recent interview with The California Post<\/a>, \u201cif things change, they\u2019ll change.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a drama right at home in Hollywood. First, news broke last week that Mark Walter intends to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to billionaire venture capitalist Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation. Then five of the six Buss siblings \u2014 who inherited ownership of the team from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2104479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}