LeBron James is still getting the full retirement-tour treatment, and the Lakers just sold themselves out from under him for the second time in fourteen months.
The Buss family sold its remaining 17.8% stake in the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, part of a deal valuing the franchise at $12.5 billion. That’s the transaction making headlines. The one that should be making them is what it does to Jeanie Buss. She’s done as governor.
NBA rules require a controlling owner to hold at least 15 percent of a franchise, and this sale drops the Buss family below that line. Jeanie had held the governor title since 2013, when her father’s death put her in charge of the team he built. Losing it now isn’t a demotion so much as arithmetic. Except the arithmetic didn’t have to happen yet.
As part of Mark Walter’s 2025 purchase, Buss negotiated a contractual guarantee to stay governor through at least 2030. Iger, the man who’d just agreed to buy the team, reaffirmed it as recently as Aug. 12, telling reporters “we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie” — then adding the part that mattered more: “If things change, they’ll change.” Five days later, they changed.
The Buss family sold the rest of their stake anyway, walking away from a seat that was already secured. In a statement, the family said: “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles; but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.” Nobody pushed them out of that chair. They stood up first.
This is the second Lakers ownership sale in fourteen months. The family voted to hand majority control to Walter in June 2025 at a then-record $10 billion valuation, and the sale closed that October. Mark Walter’s ten-month flip of the franchise turned out to be the appetizer, not the meal. The Busses cashing out completely was always the real ending.
I’ve hated the Lakers since before I could spell dynasty, and even I didn’t expect the banner-hoarding version of family loyalty to fold this fast.
Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 for $67.5 million and built ten championships on top of it before his death in 2013. The 17.8% stake alone just sold for roughly $2.225 billion — more than thirty times his entire original purchase price, for a sliver of what he built.
LeBron’s exit is still the story getting the primetime specials, but that departure was scheduled. LeBron James leaving the Lakers was circled on a calendar years in advance. Nobody scheduled Rob Pelinka’s inbox going quiet, and the GM’s future is reportedly uncertain pending direction from an ownership group that hasn’t finished introducing itself.
One Lakers-watcher summed up the mood on X after the news broke:
https://twitter.com/TrevorLane/status/2089436681535451305
The reaction online is about LeBron. The deal that actually reshapes the organization happened five days after its own owner made a promise, and nobody outside league circles noticed.
Forty-seven years of ownership, and the family picked cash over the chair.
