Buss Family's Last 18% of the Lakers Goes to Iger and Kushner — and Jeanie Buss Loses the Governor's Seat

A report published August 17, 2026 says the Buss Family Trust is selling its remaining stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, a transfer that puts Jeanie Buss below the NBA's 15% ownership threshold for a team governor.

The Buss family has agreed to sell its remaining stake in the Los Angeles Lakers — nearly 18% of the franchise — to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, according to a report published August 17, 2026 by the Lakers site Silver Screen and Roll, which cited reporting by Shams Charania of ESPN. The report describes the sale as ending the family's ownership of the Los Angeles team entirely.

The family gave a written statement to ESPN, quoted in that report:

“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.”

The governance consequence

The most concrete effect of the transfer is on who runs the franchise at the league level. Under NBA rules cited in the Silver Screen and Roll report, a team's governor must own at least 15% of that team. Selling the Buss Family Trust's remaining shares therefore removes Jeanie Buss from the governor's role.

That outcome runs against what Iger had said earlier. Iger told the California Post that he and Kushner intended to honor an agreement keeping Buss as governor, with the caveat, as quoted in the report, “If things change, they’ll change.” In the same interview, per the report, Iger said the pair had not yet made plans for the franchise's future.

The decision to sell came from the rest of the family rather than from Jeanie Buss. Citing Yaron Weitzman, who wrote a recent book on the LeBron James era of the Lakers, the report says the five other Buss siblings decided to sell, removing Jeanie Buss as governor in the process. The site's own index of later stories carries the headlines “Jeanie Buss opposing sale of family’s stake in Lakers,” dated August 17, 2026, and “Buss family releases statement rebutting Jeanie, endorses sale of Lakers stake,” dated August 18, 2026 — the shape of a family dispute conducted in public statements.

Who owns what

Iger and Kushner will not hold 100% of the Los Angeles Lakers even after this sale. Patrick Soon-Shiong retains a minority stake; the report notes the Los Angeles Times reported in the week before August 17, 2026 that he intended to remain a minority owner.

This is the second transaction between the same parties in a short window. The Silver Screen and Roll report says Iger and Kushner bought Mark Walter's stake in the franchise less than a week before the family's remaining shares were put to them.

Several things the brief would want are not established by this source, and are not asserted here. The report gives no purchase price for the remaining stake. It does not report an NBA Board of Governors vote or approval date, and it frames the deal conditionally — “When/if this sale becomes official.” No trust or probate filing, and no corporate registration for the buying entities, appears in the material.

The chronology the report does supply: Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, and the family held majority ownership through the sale to Mark Walter in 2025. The report also states that over the last 10 years Jeanie Buss fired every sibling from the franchise, with Joey and Jesse Buss's departures coming in the fall before this sale.