In 1979, Jerry Buss bought the Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke. The deal was not just a basketball team. For $67.5 million, Buss also got the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the Forum in Inglewood, where both teams played.

His family would hold a majority of the Lakers for the next 46 years, the longest-running ownership in the league.

1. 1979Jerry Buss buys the Lakers, the Kings and the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke
2. Feb. 18, 2013Jerry Buss dies. His daughter Jeanie Buss takes over as the team's controlling owner
3. 2017A Los Angeles court order requires the family trust's co-trustees to keep Jeanie Buss as controlling owner
4. June 2025The family agrees to sell a majority stake to Mark Walter

The Lakers won their first title under Buss in his first season, with a rookie named Magic Johnson. Showtime followed, then Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, then Kobe and Pau Gasol, then LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the 2020 bubble.

The franchise has 17 championships. Eleven of them came with a Buss in charge.

1. 1980 · 1982Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar win two of the first three seasons
2. 1985 · 1987 · 1988Showtime, including the first Finals win over Boston in franchise history in 1985
3. 2000 · 2001 · 2002Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant win three straight
4. 2009 · 2010Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol go back to back
5. 2020LeBron James and Anthony Davis win in the bubble, the first title of the Jeanie Buss era

Mark Walter, the Dodgers’ controlling owner, bought his first 27% of the Lakers in 2021 at a $5 billion valuation. In June 2025, he agreed to buy control from the Buss family at $10 billion, then a record for any team sale.

The NBA’s Board of Governors approved it unanimously on Oct. 30, 2025. The family kept 17.82% of the team, and Jeanie Buss was guaranteed at least five more years as governor.

Ten months after the board vote, Walter was selling. Josh Kushner, the founder of Thrive Capital, and Bob Iger, the former Disney chief executive, made an offer at $12.5 billion, 25% more than Walter had paid 14 months earlier. They wanted an answer within 24 hours.

1. Aug. 7, 2026Kushner and Iger call a financial industry contact close to Walter
2. Aug. 9A friend asks Walter, on a ranch with spotty phone service, if he would sell. He says the Lakers are not for sale. Then Kushner calls with the $12.5 billion number
3. Aug. 11Back at his Florida estate, Walter agrees to sell to Kushner and Iger, 72 hours after the idea first reached him
4. Oct. 29Walter and Kushner meet at Walter's Florida home and settle every remaining term

The new deal reopened the Buss family’s split. In August, five of Jeanie Buss’s siblings, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse, voted to sell the trust’s remaining 17.82% to Kushner and Iger. Jeanie cast the only vote against.

NBA rules require a team governor’s family to own at least 15% of the team, so selling the stake would end her role. She has asked a Los Angeles court to block the sale, citing the 2017 order, and to remove Joey and Janie as co-trustees.

1. Aug. 17Five siblings vote to sell the trust's 17.82%
2. Late AugustJeanie Buss petitions Los Angeles Superior Court to block the sale
3. Oct. 7The five siblings file their formal opposition, calling her petition baseless
4. Dec. 8Hearing date, moved from Nov. 5

NBA control sales, valuation in billions of dollars

The math of paying for it: Kushner and Iger have offered minority stakes of $250 million to $300 million. At $12.5 billion, $250 million buys 2% of the team. NBA rules cap a private equity firm at 20%, about $2.5 billion here, and Kushner must personally hold at least 15%, about $1.9 billion.

Months from agreement to board approval