A 17.8% Stake and a 15% Rule: The Buss Fight Now Sits on Top of the Lakers Sale

Jeanie Buss's lawyer told her brothers to take no action on a vote to sell the family trust's remaining Lakers shares to the Bob Iger and Josh Kushner group, Deadline reported on August 17, 2026. The NBA Board of Governors still has to sign off in September.

On August 17, 2026, a lawyer for Jeanie Buss demanded that her siblings publicly confirm she remains the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and take no action on a vote to sell the Buss Family Trust's remaining 17.8% stake in the team, according to Deadline. Hours earlier the same day, four of the six Buss siblings had voted to sell that stake to the group led by former Walt Disney Company chief executive Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, Deadline reported.

The family's own statement, given to ESPN and quoted by Deadline, framed the vote as final: “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.”

What the letter says

Adam Streisand of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, writing for Jeanie Buss, sent a two-page letter to lawyers for her brothers Joey and Jesse Buss describing a “years-long pattern” meant to force their sister's hand, per Deadline's account of the letter. The letter accuses the siblings of leaking “false, defamatory and pernicious” information to ESPN's Shams 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,” Deadline reported.

The legal anchor Streisand cites is not a new filing. It is a 2017 Los Angeles Superior Court order, obtained during an earlier round of family litigation, which in his reading means “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,” according to Deadline. His demand is stated plainly: “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.”

Contacted by Deadline on the evening of August 17, 2026, Streisand said there had been no further developments in the matter. Kushner's Thrive Capital did not respond to Deadline's request for comment on the enlarged ownership.

Why 15% is the number that decides it

Under the rules of the National Basketball Association, run by commissioner Adam Silver, an individual must own at least 15% of a team to serve as its governor, Deadline reported. That is the mechanism that makes the 17.8% stake the whole argument: if the trust sells, Jeanie Buss falls below the threshold and loses the governor role she held under previous owner Mark Walter.

The underlying transaction is also not yet complete. The NBA Board of Governors has to approve the initial sale of the Lakers to Iger and Kushner at its meeting in New York City on September 15 and 16, 2026, per Deadline. Kushner will additionally have to sell his stake in the Miami Heat to hold a Lakers interest, the outlet reported.

Deadline reported that Iger and Kushner bought the team from Walter last week for $12.5 billion, and that the tag-along would lift them from roughly 65% to 83% ownership. Walter had bought control from the Buss family last year for $10 billion, and is under investigation over alleged finances, per Deadline.

Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Lakers, the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum in 1979, and the family won 11 NBA championships before his death in 2013, Deadline noted. Whether anyone named Buss holds a formal role after September remains, in Deadline's word, an “if.”