Jeanie Buss is not sitting quietly amid reports indicating that her family was giving up control of the Los Angeles Lakers.
News broke Monday that the Buss family, which has owned the Lakers franchise for nearly 50 years, had reportedly decided to sell the family trust’s remaining 17.8 percent stake in the team. The Buss family released a statement through ESPN’s Shams Charania on Monday confirming the sale to new majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
The move was interpreted by many as Jeanie officially deciding to relinquish her role as team governor, a post she has held since Dr. Jerry Buss died in 2013. NBA rules require controlling owners/governors to own at least 15 percent of their franchise.
Jeanie contested the report hours later, claiming her siblings had sent Charania the statement without her approval. Through her attorney, Jeanie sent a letter to the law firms representing her five siblings, claiming that Joey and Jessie Buss had leaked erroneous information to Charania as part of an alleged “years-long pattern” of the two leaking “false, defamatory, and pernicious” information to Shams.
You can read the letter obtained by CNBC here with an excerpt below:
“As you know, this afternoon, Shams Charania of ESPN falsely reported that the six Buss siblings voted to sell the 17.8% ownership stake in the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, and that my client, Jeanie Buss, is “out” as controlling owner.
“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.”
Jeanie’s attorney, Adam F. Streisand, argued further that such a sale is not legally permissible. Per the letter, the family’s JAB Trust instructs its co-trustees to ensure that Jeanie Buss continues to be elected as the team governor “on an annual basis” throughout her lifetime, barring a court order modifying the trust.
It’s an episode of HBO’s “Succession” unfolding in real time, folks.
