EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsLos Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings' vote to sell the remaining 17.8% of the Lakers, according to a letter from her lawyer obtained by ESPN.The Buss family in a statement earlier Monday said they had voted to sell their remaining shares to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at the same $12.5 billion valuation that Mark Walter agreed to last week and believed they had the right to sell based on a tag-along provision that had been included in the previous sale to Walter in June 2025. Sources told ESPN that provision gave the family rights to tag along to any sale and valuation Walter secured for his shares.Jeanie Buss was to remain the team's controlling owner for five years, according to the agreement she made with Walter. Iger told the California Post last week that he intended to honor that agreement with Buss, but added "if something changes, then it changes."A spokesperson for Kushner and Iger declined to comment on the situation when reached by ESPN.Buss' lawyer Adam Streisand wrote to the five siblings who voted to sell that a court had ruled in 2017 that no sale could be "effectuated without approval by the co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss."Streisand also wrote that the "co-trustees are bound to vote to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees 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."Streisand demanded that the five siblings "make clear that Jeanie Buss is the Controlling Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers" and "take no action on this supposed vote to sell the 17.8 % percent stake."CNBC was first to obtain the letter from Streisand.Jeanie Buss was the lone sibling who did not vote to sell the team Monday, and multiple sources told ESPN that she did not even respond to the family vote on whether to sell the team.Sources also said that vote has been open since last Tuesday, before Walter came to an agreement with Kushner and Iger to sell his shares. That vote was called, sources told ESPN's Dave McMenamin, after Lakers VP of finance Joe McCormack called for an emergency meeting of the Buss siblings last Monday night to discuss a dissolution of the family trust and seeking approval to lock down all family shares for four years under a new trust.When the family met to discuss on Tuesday, no mention was made of Walter's impending sale to Kushner and Iger.One family source told ESPN that meeting "spooked" everyone and prompted new calls amongst the five siblings to sell the remaining family shares. Multiple family sources told ESPN a previous vote several months ago had been taken and only three siblings had voted then to sell.This time, after Walter's sale, two more siblings joined in the vote to sell, with Jeanie Buss abstaining from the vote entirely, sources told ESPN.ESPN's Shams Charania contributed to this report.
