Top News

Jeanie Buss, the franchise’s governor, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, looking to block her siblings’ attempted sale of their minority ownership stake of the franchise.

Five of the Buss siblings who are part of the Buss family trust — Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss — voted to sell the rest of the family’s 17.8% ownership stake of the Lakers to soon-to-be majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.

Kushner and Iger agreed to purchase the majority shares of the Lakers from Mark Walter for a valuation of $12.5 billion, less than a year after Walter bought the Lakers from the Buss family at a valuation of $10 billion.

Jeanie Buss called her siblings’ behavior “devious” in the petition, obtained by the California Post on Wednesday, which stated Jeanie was “blinded” by the attempted sale and that the family’s statement provided to ESPN last week was “knowingly false: Jeanie never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed.”

The petition includes five orders:

1. Instructing trustees to comply with 2017 court order;
2. Declaring purported trustee resolution void;
3. Surcharging and removing co-trustees Joey H. Buss and Janie M. Buss for breach of fiduciary duty;
4. Holding Joey H. Buss and Janie M. Buss in contempt of court;
5. Holding James, Johnny and Jesse Buss in contempt and liable for aiding and abetting.