It turns out burning bridges with all of your siblings might come back to haunt you.
On Monday, the Buss Family Trust agreed to sell its remaining nearly 18% of the Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, a surprising final twist in the family’s ownership of the team. Whatever Hollywood-esque storyline you can come up with about how this played out probably won’t live up to the finale that played out.
According to reporting from Dave McMenamin of ESPN, an emergency meeting of the siblings was called last
week where Jeanie tried one last power play.
While this could be connecting dots that aren’t there, the four-year timeframe would align with Jeanie’s agreement with Mark Walter to remain governor for at least five years. The initial word from Bob Iger was that the new owners intended to honor that agreement.
However, Jeanie’s fraught history with her siblings came back to bite her as there was a reason for the emergency meeting. As it turns out, the family executed the tag-along clause, which allows minority owners to join the sale if a majority owner sells.
The other Buss siblings took the chance to cash in on the sale and, in the process, oust Jeanie as governor.
What an incredible bit of drama. I’d say to bring back “Winning Time” so that we could eventually see this play out on screen, but this feels like something straight out of “Succession” anyway.
Truly, it couldn’t be scripted any better.
Jeanie thought she had the final say by siding with Mark Walter on the sale, securing her spot as team governor and firing the last members of her family from the team over the last year. As it turns out, the dominoes had already started falling, as Walter had his own issues with the federal government that may have prompted the sale, leading us to this point.
Imagine the siblings’ realization when it dawned on them that they could not only pocket another couple hundred million dollars but also force Jeanie out in the process.
It’s a show that’d win all the awards in Hollywood.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
