Jeanie Buss accuses her siblings of 'cloak and dagger' tactics in the Lakers fight

Jeanie Buss says her siblings have been running a "cloak and dagger" campaign against her, and she wants a judge to stop them from selling the family's last shares of the Los Angeles Lakers.

In a filing this week reviewed by ESPN's Baxter Holmes, Buss's lawyers argued that her brothers and sister are jealous their father, Jerry Buss, picked her to run the team. "The conflicts that ensued after Dr. Buss's death were sadly inevitable, and no doubt intensified given that Dr. Buss chose his daughter over four sons to be his successor," the filing says. It calls the dispute a "classic succession parable."

The money is enormous. Mark Walter bought a majority stake in the Lakers from the Buss family in 2025 at a $10 billion valuation. The family kept 17.82%, just above the NBA's 15% minimum for keeping control, along with go-along rights. In August, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Johnny, Jim, Janie, Joey and Jesse Buss voted to use those rights to sell to the Bob Iger and Josh Kushner group, which is buying the team from Walter at a $12.5 billion valuation. Each sibling stands to make another $371 million if the family sells everything.

A full sale would end Jeanie's run as governor. She argues that a 2017 court order requires co-trustees Janie and Joey to always vote to keep her as controlling owner. She wants the court to remove them as co-trustees, hold them in contempt, find Jim, Johnny and Jesse liable for aiding a violation of that order, and make them cover her legal costs.

The filing also accuses the siblings of sharing their votes with the media before telling her, calling it a "false flag operation." In an Oct. 16 filing, the siblings said the opposite: that Jeanie's position puts her personal interest in staying controlling owner ahead of rights the trust gave every beneficiary.

Nobody in this fight is broke, and nobody is doing it for Lakers fans. The siblings want $371 million each, and Jeanie wants to keep the most powerful title in the franchise. Sources told ESPN the two sides have had settlement talks, and a deal is still the cleanest way out.

What's next: The hearing is set for Dec. 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court. If there's no settlement before then, a judge decides whether a 2017 promise outranks a 2025 sale contract.