It’s certainly been quite a few weeks for the Los Angeles Lakers, as June was coming to a close, they were a franchise owned by innovative businessman Mark Walter and weighing whether to bring back the greatest player of the last 25 years, LeBron James– leaning heavily toward doing so. But James walked, and the lakers remade the roster in July. And in here August, as Walter’s pressing financial difficulties came to the fore, and the fact that federal investigators were closing in on him, he pulled off a stunning sale of the team last week, unloading the franchise he bought for $10 billion a little more than a year ago for $12.5 billion.
But there was a new wrinkle reported on Monday by ESPN’s Shams Charania–not only is the franchise being sold, but the Buss family is getting out of the Lakers business altogether. That’s a big change from the original reported plan, which was for the Busses to keep their percentage of the team and for former owner Jeanie Buss to remain as the representative on the NBA’s board of governors.
Lakers’ Jeanie Buss Is Out as Governor
Here is what Charania reported in an update to the Lakers’ shocking sale: “Breaking: The Buss family has decided to sell its remaining 17.8% ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to new majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, sources tell ESPN. The Buss family trust — composed of siblings Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse — received majority votes to allow trustees to execute the sale. It required four of six votes to enact the tag-along provision of Mark Walter’s sale to Kushner and Iger, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion.”
Under NBA rules, the family needed 15% of the franchise for Buss to remain as a governor. Now, Jeanie Buss is out, and it certainly looks that it is the end result of years of infighting among the children of Dr. Jerry Buss, the popular owner of the Lakers who bought the franchise in 1979 for $67.5 million.
‘Wild Reality Show’
Arash Markazi, who has covered the Lakers and other teams in Southern California for decades, pointed out that this is a full-circle moment coming out of the years of tension around the Buss children.
It might seem petty. But it was a chance for the other Busses to make Jeanie Buss pay for her ascension to the top of the Lakers’ org chart.
Markazi wrote: “Jim, Johnny, Joey and Jesse Buss had the chance to cash in on the record sale of the Lakers and effectively fire Jeanie Buss as governor and did just that. Jeanie has fired or sued all of her brothers since taking control of the team. It’s the final act of a wild reality show.”
The Lakers, a franchise with stable ownership for four decades, are now in flux, and apparently remaining that way.
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