Buss

Jerry Buss put together what was then thought to be a wild business deal to purchase the Lakers and related assets for $67.5 million in 1979.

Buss had a degree in chemistry, but his money came from real estate holdings and loans that moved between third parties to help him obtain the Lakers, Kings and the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke, who was going through a costly divorce.

Buss’ vision was to infuse Hollywood glamour into an NBA team few in Los Angeles seemed to care about, win championships and share that glory with his family.

Buss realized his Hollywood dream in more ways than he ever could have imagined, with his death in 2013 from complications from cancer touching off battles among his six children over control of the Lakers.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss, center, with children Janie, from left, Jeanie, Johnny and Jim in 1979.

(Gunther/mptvimages.com)

At least two siblings have tried to oust another from a leadership role. One sibling reportedly said two others never should have been born. And one sibling managed to fire the five others from jobs with the team.

The rifts mirror the HBO hit show “Succession.” Buss’ tenure and the family drama has been direct inspiration for two television shows and was chronicled in a docuseries the Lakers produced.

The latest daggers were delivered this week, with attorneys representing Buss’ daughter, Jeanie, admonishing her five siblings — Janie, Johnny, Jim, Joey and Jesse — for announcing the Buss Family Trust was selling its 17.8% ownership of the Lakers to new buyers Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner.

The sale would yield billions for the trust, with Iger and Kushner set to purchase the franchise at a $12.5-billion evaluation for the majority ownership stake of the team and a tagalong provision extending that price to the minority shareholders.

The Buss children are already billionaires following the sale of their majority stake to previous owner Mark Walter in 2025, but in addition to a big jump in share value, the minority stake sale would remove Jeanie from her coveted role as governor.

Neither side is giving up ground, suggesting lawsuits will soon be filed to resolve the family ownership dispute.

How did we get here?

The roots of the infighting date to the early days of Jerry Buss’ team ownership.

Buss focuses on building a family business

For the first 12 seasons Buss owned the team, the Lakers won NBA championships in 1980 and 1982 against the Philadelphia 76ers, 1985 and 1987 against the hated Boston Celtics, and 1988 against the Detroit Pistons.

Former player and shrewd executive Jerry West helped build the Lakers’ rosters, Pat Riley blossomed into an elite coach, and stars Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led a collection of elite playmakers during the Showtime era.

Jerry Buss, right, talks with his children Johnny, Jim, Jeanie and Janie in 1979.

(Gunther / mptvimages.com)

The Buss family came along for the ride, with each child working on some aspect of the family business. Jeanie notably helped organize events at the Forum and was eager to take on more challenges while honoring her father’s ambition. Her father put her in charge of the team’s indoor tennis franchise when she was only 19.

As Jerry aged and new stars emerged, including Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and coach Phil Jackson, it was clear the next ownership chapter for the Lakers would be messy.

For one thing, Jerry had trouble letting go of what he built.

“I just can’t visualize myself walking away, relinquishing control,” Jerry told The Times in 2002. “My relationship with this team is a lifelong marriage.”

A clear successor emerges

By the time they reached their 40s, Jeanie took on a greater role on the business side, while Jim became a basketball executive.

Joey and Jesse, the youngest Buss children, learned about scouting and business operations.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss poses with the NBA championship trophy in 1980.

(NBAE / Getty Images)

Jerry’s health challenges could not be denied and at age 69, he scaled back his involvement.

In 2002, Jeanie emerged as Jerry’s clear successor. At the time, her siblings did not seem interested in the role.

Her biggest challenges seemed to be getting the rest of the NBA to take her seriously after previously partying with her father’s girlfriends and posing nude for Playboy magazine. She told The Times she wished the media hadn’t focused as much on her past and stood by her work moving forward.

Soon after the Lakers hired Jackson in 1999, he asked Jeanie on a date. Their ensuing relationship added challenges to business operations, but The Times reported Jerry didn’t oppose it.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, pose for a photo at the Staples Center.

(Michael Kelley / For the Times)

Jeanie joined her father at NBA board of governors meetings for three years before being the Lakers’ sole representative at the gatherings that featured no other women. She handled an array of business challenges, big and small, and helped supervise the team’s move from the Forum to the Staples Center.

In 2002, all her siblings seemed content with Jeanie emerging as the face of the Lakers’ front office. They either were driven to make a name for themselves in other lines of business or had clearly carved out roles within the Lakers organization.

“My dad likes a system of checks and balances,” Jim told The Times. “Jeanie has more of the administrative part. We all have a good relationship. There’s no jealousy or envy. It’s very smooth.”

Buss family hits troubled waters

The smooth sailing didn’t last forever.

Jeanie helped her father navigate a series of difficult decisions. The Lakers agreed with Jackson to mutually part in 2004 amid a feud between Bryant and O’Neal, the first sign Jeanie was willing to part with someone she loved for the sake of the business. Jackson returned to coach the team in 2005 and held the role until his retirement in 2011, guiding the team to five titles.

In 2013, Jerry died and Bryant ruptured his left Achilles tendon. The Buss children reportedly decided against selling the team immediately after their father’s death, with Jeanie a clear vote against the move.

In 2014, coach Mike D’Antoni’s Lakers won 27 games. In 2015, the team won 21. In 2016, the team hit rock bottom with just 17 wins. Jeanie and Jackson broke up in 2016, ending their four-year engagement. She has since married comedian Jay Mohr.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss stand beside each other on the basketball court.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

In 2017, the Lakers were headed to another losing season when Jeanie fired Jim, the president of basketball operations, and Mitch Kupchak, the team’s general manager. They were replaced by Rob Pelinka, Bryant’s former agent, and Johnson, the former Showtime star turned businessman.

Shortly after the firing, Jim and his brother, Johnny, tried to remove Jeanie from the team’s board of directors, sparking a legal feud that included Jeanie filing a restraining order while she wrestled control of the team.

“It wasn’t like we were trying to get rid of Jeanie as president of the Lakers,” Johnny said during a docuseries the team produced. “We wanted Jeanie to understand that Dad would not have wanted you to just take total control, hire and fire whoever you wanted, without the rest of us being involved.”

Jeanie countered her father created a trust that put her in control.

“They tried to disregard what their father wanted,” Jeanie said in the docuseries. “That’s a betrayal of all the hard work and what he did on our behalf to make this possible. I felt that there was this desire to remove me or stab me in the heart.”

A court ultimately delivered a ruling that Jeanie is still clinging to today as she hopes to retain the family’s minority ownership of the Lakers and her role as governor.

“The co-trustees are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain controlling owner,” a letter written this week by Jeanie’s attorney reads, citing a 2017 court ruling outlining her role. “Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

The ruling stipulated that co-trustees “would take all actions reasonably available to them, including voting the trust’s shares to ensure that [Jeanie] is elected as the controlling owner of the Lakers on an annual basis during [her] lifetime.”

A title masks more drama

Soon after the ruling, Jeanie included younger brothers Joey and Jesse in the search for a coach to replace Luke Walton. Her siblings continued to hold roles within the team.

With Jeanie’s power firmly defined by the court, the Lakers signed LeBron James in 2018, traded for Anthony Davis in 2019 and won a title during a season shortened by COVID in 2020. It is the sole championship the team has won since Jerry’s death.

LeBron James hugs Lakers governor Jeanie Buss after winning the 2020 NBA championship.

(Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)

The run to the latest title was far from smooth.

ESPN reported that when Jesse called Jeanie to ask a question about a remark Pelinka made during Davis’ introductory news conference in 2019, she told a story of a promise made between her father and mother that Jerry would never have any other children. Jeanie’s mother reportedly was heartbroken when Jerry and his then girlfriend had Joey and Jesse.

“You should’ve never been born,” ESPN reported Jeanie told Jesse, stunning her younger brother.

The siblings still somehow continued to work in various aspects of the Lakers’ operation.

Jeanie reportedly took intense criticism of the team during the last five years personally and Joey and Jesse wondered whether she might be open to selling the franchise. At the same time, value of NBA teams soared as more billionaires moved into the space. A sale would shift the siblings from millionaires who struggled to invest in growing the Lakers’ operations into billionaires.

A climate opposed to a sale

Jerry created a trust he hoped would prevent his children from feeling pressure to sell the team.

ESPN reported he prepaid inheritance taxes to prevent his children from having to do so upon his death and added provisions to the trust allowing siblings to buy each other out and forcing shares to be redistributed among the siblings when one died rather than passing them on to the next generation of their respective families.

Joey and Jesse began exploring small shares of the team and tried to get other family members on board, ESPN reported. They had not completed their work before Jeanie announced Walter’s offer. Four of the six siblings approved selling 50% of their shares to Walter for a figure that reportedly stunned all of them. Joey and Jesse learned the sale had been approved via a post on X by ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Janie told ESPN the Buss siblings were assured their roles with the team would not change for five years.

Walter’s purchase of the majority stake of the Lakers was approved by four of the six siblings in June 2025, with Jeanie endorsing the deal. She was assured she’d represent the Lakers on the NBA board of governors for at least the next five years.

On Nov. 20, three weeks after the NBA approved the sale to Walter, Jeanie fired Joey, Jesse, Jim, Johnny and Janie, who all worked for the team in various roles.

“I don’t think my dad would be happy with the way things just went down,” Janie told ESPN. “Not at all.”

While she disagreed with the way Jeanie handled the firings, her sister said in an interview with ESPN she didn’t think she meant to hurt her family.

“Jeanie doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, and so she just has to make these tough decisions,” Janie told the network. “And she’s been having to make them … I just wish she would’ve done it differently.”

Firing the last Buss family member

Last week, the family drama flared up again.

When Walter, who is facing multiple investigations into his business practices, reached a deal to sell his majority stake to Iger and Kushner, the family resumed conversations about completely cashing out of the Lakers.

Iger pledged to honor Walter’s agreement with Jeanie to remain as governor for at least five years and spoke highly of the Buss family in multiple interviews and statements released after the deal was announced.

Six days later, five of the siblings voted to approve the sale of their minority stake to Iger and Kushner, effectively firing Jeanie as governor.

Rob Pelinka, from left, Luka Doncic and Jeanie Buss pose for a photo in Katowice, Poland, on Aug. 27.

(Marcin Golba / Associated Press)

“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 family’s statement to ESPN read. “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.”

Jeanie’s attorney has contested the sale, citing the 2017 court ruling. The attorney’s letter calls out two of Jeanie’s siblings for sending false information to ESPN: “This is just the latest instance of a years-long pattern whereby Joey and Jesse Buss leak false, defamatory and pernicious ‘information’ to Mr. Charania for the malicious purpose of doing harm to the Los Angeles Lakers so long as Dr. Buss’s chosen successor, Jeanie Buss, carries out her father’s wishes.”

Charania said he stands by his reporting.

The Buss Family Trust issued the following statement to The Times defending the five siblings’ right to sell the team:

“The Los Angeles Lakers have never been just a basketball team. They have been one of the greatest privileges of our lives. Our focus has always been on what we believe is best for the Lakers, the fans who have supported this franchise for generations and the greater Los Angeles community.

“Johnny, Jimmy, Janie, Joey and Jesse have made the decision to sell the family’s remaining stake, and we remain united in that decision. We intend to move forward thoughtfully, respectfully and through the appropriate process.

“We have tremendous respect for Bob Iger and Josh Kushner and believe they understand what the Lakers represent to Los Angeles and our incredibly loyal fan base. We are confident they will honor everything this franchise stands for while building upon the foundation our father created.”

It appears the Buss family will soon be headed back to court to decide their future as Lakers owners.

For more than four decades, the Lakers were a family-run business. The sibling rivalries still remain.

Jeanie Buss is fighting back after her siblings reportedly voted to sell the family’s remaining stake in the Lakers on Monday. The team’s governor, Buss sent a letter through her attorney to her brothers’ attorneys stating any votes to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the team to new majority owners Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner are void because the sale cannot be completed without approval of the other trustees: Jeanie and her younger siblings, Janie and Joey.

ESPN reported Monday that the six Buss family siblings, who took over team ownership after their father, Jerry Buss, died in 2013, are selling their shares of the Lakers to Iger and Kushner following a family vote. Iger, the longtime Disney chief executive, and Kushner, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, agreed last week to buy Mark Walter’s controlling stake of the Lakers for a record valuation of $12.5 billion.

The transactions still need to be approved by the NBA board of governors. Jeanie Buss, who was to remain the Lakers governor for at least five years after Walter’s purchase of the team was approved last October, no longer would be eligible to serve on the board if the Buss family sells its shares. Governors are required to own at least a 15% stake.

“The co-trustees are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain controlling owner,” the letter from Buss’ attorney reads, citing a 2017 court ruling outlining Jeanie Buss’ role. “Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

The trust was revised in 2017 after a series of legal battles between Jeanie and her older brothers, Johnny and Jim. It stipulated that co-trustees “would take all actions reasonably available to them, including voting the trust’s shares to ensure that [Jeanie Buss] is elected as the controlling owner of the Lakers on an annual basis during [her] lifetime.”

The statement to ESPN attributed to the Buss family regarding the sale read: “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.” ESPN didn’t report a price for the shares.

The Buss family has owned the team since 1979, when Jerry Buss bought the franchise, the Forum and the Los Angeles Kings for $67.5 million. The family patriarch leveraged Hollywood glamour with entertainment spectacle to elevate the Lakers into an internationally recognized brand. The NBA’s biggest stars shone brightest in L.A.; Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant helped pile up 10 championships under Buss. The Laker Girls became a harbinger of sports dance teams to come. Celebrities flocked to the courtside seats. Books and TV shows told the team’s Hollywood story.

Each of Buss’ six children — Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse — held titles in the organization. Jeanie was her father’s hand-picked successor. She fought to maintain her position against Johnny and Jim, who tried to reorganize the board of directors to push Jeanie out in 2017. She eventually ousted them from team operations. Joey and Jessie, the two youngest, were fired by the new owners last November. Joey was the team’s alternate governor and vice president of research and development, and Jesse was the assistant general manager. Janie held an administrative role directing the team’s charitable services.

The booming sports business quickly caught up to the team that once held the attention of the city with the league’s biggest stars, iconic “Showtime” style and old Hollywood feel. The Lakers slogged through a six-year playoff drought from 2013-19. The team started falling behind in resources and revenue compared to other organizations that controlled their own arenas and could maximize alternative revenue streams. The Buss family voted to relinquish a majority ownership of the team last year, bringing in Walter, who also owns the Dodgers.

Walter then shockingly flipped the NBA’s crown jewel franchise for a profit of $2.5 billion last week. The investment mogul who is under federal investigation for unpaid loans agreed to sell his stake in the Lakers to Kushner and Iger. Kushner is a co-founder of Thrive Capital, which started a permanent holdings company, Thrive Eternal, this year to invest in sports and cultural brands. Iger is the longtime Disney CEO who already owns Southland soccer club Angel City FC and previously flirted with NFL ownership by trying to build a stadium in Carson before the project ultimately went to the Stan Kroenke-led group that built SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Before including the Buss shares, the deal for the Lakers’ majority stake already was the largest sum paid for any professional sports franchise, surpassed only by Walter’s $10-billion purchase of the team. It still sits below Sportico’s estimate for the most valuable franchise, with the outlet listing the Dallas Cowboys’ valuation at $15.5 billion.

Minority stakeholders Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who also owns the Los Angeles Times Media Group; real estate billionaire Ed Roski; and Walter business partner Todd Boehly own about 14% of the Lakers, according to Sportico.

How Iger and Kushner will finance the Lakers deal is unclear.

When the duo agreed to buy Walter’s share last week, Kushner and Iger released a statement that in part praised the Buss family’s work with the Lakers.

“We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss,” the statement read. “Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”