The Buss family’s 47-year ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers, 17-time NBA champions, could soon come to an end despite their patriarch’s clear wishes before he died. A group of investors that includes former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner – the brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law – wants to buy the basketball team for US$12.5 billion. The pending deal would set a record: No other sports franchise has ever fetched that high a price.
After news about the pending sale broke on Aug. 12, 2026, Jeanie Buss, who has run the Lakers since her father, Jerry Buss, died in 2013, said she wasn’t on board. Her five siblings, however, are ready to sell their stakes.
This transaction isn’t only evidence that investors are willing to pay eye-popping sums to buy teams. It also illustrates how hard it was for the late Jerry Buss to structure his estate so that his family could continue to own and run the Lakers for years to come. And it raises a thorny legal question: Who has the authority to sell property held jointly by multiple relatives in a family trust?