• Jeanie Buss pushed the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter, finalizing a $10 billion transaction that ended decades of family ownership.
• Longstanding sibling infighting, trust disputes and a series of abrupt firings accelerated the handover and fractured the Buss family.
• The November 2024 dismissals of Jesse and Joey Buss signaled the shift from family control to new ownership, even as questions linger about the trust and motivations.

H2: What happened

The Los Angeles Lakers, valued at about $10 billion in the sale to investor Mark Walter, left the Buss family after decades of ownership. Jeanie Buss, the team’s governor and the driving force behind the transaction, became the focal point of a family rift that played out in public and behind closed doors.

In late October 2024 the sale closed, and in November several family members who held front-office roles — including Jesse and Joey Buss — were dismissed. Those firings marked the end of a post-Jerry Buss era defined by longtime tensions among the siblings.

H3: Key moments in the fallout

  • November 20, 2024: Joe McCormack, the Lakers’ CFO, informed Jesse and Joey Buss that they were being let go. Jim, Johnny and sister Janie also lost administrative roles soon after.
  • 2017–2019: Jeanie’s earlier moves — firing Jim Buss as president of basketball operations and hiring Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson — intensified sibling disputes and led to legal battles.
  • 2019: A revealing family dispute surfaced publicly after the Lakers’ Anthony Davis news conference; reported personal remarks widened the divide.

H3: Family trust and competing visions

Sources told ESPN that the family trust’s structure — designed to preserve Jerry Buss’ wishes — became a battleground. Some siblings favored selling a partial stake to raise cash while retaining family control; others ultimately accepted a sale that transferred a controlling interest to Walter.

Those who pushed for a more measured sale hoped to preserve the Buss majority. Jeanie’s supporters said she followed the trust’s intent to name a controlling owner; critics said she isolated allies and prioritized a narrow inner circle.

H4: Organizational and on-court consequences

The infighting coincided with uneven on-court results and management criticism. The Lakers have had fewer playoff appearances and championships since Jerry Buss’ death in 2013, and those performance questions fed into discussions about leadership and the franchise’s future.

H4: What’s next

Under Mark Walter, the Lakers move into new ownership after a turbulent transition. For the Buss siblings, the sale closed a chapter that began with Jerry Buss’ vision of keeping the team within the family.

Embedded post:

  • Baxter Holmes (ESPN senior writer) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/baxter

The sale represents both a business decision and a family reckoning — a high-value transaction that also ends a multi-decade legacy of family stewardship at the NBA’s crown jewel.

Image Referance: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47594947/inside-jeanie-jerry-buss-family-infighting-drove-10b-sale-los-angeles-lakers-mark-walter