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Jeanie Buss discusses her decision to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers while remaining involved in the franchise’s future.

Jeanie Buss had long resisted the idea of selling the Los Angeles Lakers. When she finally agreed, it wasn’t a single factor but a combination of timing, family dynamics and one revealing detail about how the franchise had been structured for decades.

Speaking on Pretty Tough with Maria Sharapova, Jeanie Buss offered her most candid explanation yet for why she agreed to transfer majority ownership of one of the NBA’s most storied franchises to Mark Walter.

“My dad did really a wonderful thing by putting the Laker team in a trust,” Buss said, before describing the unusual structure behind it. “It was actually held in what’s called the last man standing trust, which are illegal in most countries because they cause murder. But the time was right and the buyer was the right one.”

The agreement, first reported in June 2025, values the Lakers at approximately $10 billion — the highest ever for a U.S. professional sports franchise. The Buss family has retained a minority share of just over 15%, while Buss remains the team’s governor and continues running the franchise for the foreseeable future.

Jeanie Buss Lakers Sale Decision Driven by Family Dynamics, Ownership Structure

GettySiblings Jesse Buss (in hat), Johnny Buss, Jeanie Buss, from left, and Ronnie Weinstein, a mediator who often works with the family, are sitting in the front row during a Los Angeles Lakers press conference.

For Buss, the decision ultimately came down to more than business.

“It will always be bittersweet,” she said. “I would like to stay for the next hundred years, but I’m not gonna be around for the next hundred years. So things always have to evolve.”

A major factor was the structure put in place by her father, Jerry Buss, who purchased the team in 1979. Upon his death in 2013, ownership passed into a trust shared among his six children, a setup that led to internal friction over time.

“My siblings all wanting different things, making it very difficult to run the operation the way it needed to be and to compete,” Buss said.

The decision also carried significant financial implications, with the Buss siblings expected to receive between $50 million and $150 million each from the sale, according to ESPN.

That reality — combined with the rising financial demands of competing at the top of the NBA — made a transition increasingly necessary.

Mark Walter Lakers Ownership: Why Jeanie Buss Trusted New Buyer

GettyMark Walters
sits court side during a 118-116 Los Angeles Lakers win over the San Antonio Spurs at Crypto.com Arena on November 05, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Buss emphasized that the identity of the buyer played a decisive role. Walter, CEO of TWG Global and a minority stakeholder in the Lakers since 2021, brings a track record of sustained success across multiple sports properties, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Under Walter’s ownership, the Dodgers have won three World Series titles, including the last two, and have become one of the most consistently dominant franchises in professional sports. They are again considered favorites this season, with a potential three-peat looming — something not accomplished in Major League Baseball since the New York Yankees at the turn of the century.

That level of sustained investment and success stands in contrast to the Lakers’ more uneven results in recent years. Since the death of Jerry Buss in 2013, the franchise has captured only one championship in 2020, while navigating multiple rebuilding phases.

“Our fans know, after watching the success that the LA Dodgers have had, that Mark Walter will continue to want to win,” Buss said. “And I’m staying on to help the transition. And he honors the Buss family legacy, that’s important to him.”

Lakers Sale Impact: Jeanie Buss Staying, Franchise Legacy Remains Priority

The Lakers have been under the Buss family’s control since 1979, a run that has produced 11 championships since 1980 — the most in the NBA over that span. Buss has overseen both rebuilding years and a title run, balancing expectations that come with one of the league’s most prominent franchises.

The sale also marked the end of one of the NBA’s last family-run ownership structures — often described as a “mom-and-pop” model — as the Buss siblings agreed to transfer majority control to Mark Walter.

“My dad asked me to — I like to say my dad had six children, but the Lakers were his baby,” Buss said. “And he wanted me to make sure that the baby thrived.”

Buss believes the transition positions the franchise to meet those expectations moving forward.

“The investment that Mark Walter will make in keeping the Lakers at the top of the NBA, that’s what the Lakers deserve and the Laker fans deserve.”

For Buss, the decision marks not an ending, but an evolution — one shaped by circumstance, guided by trust and aimed at preserving the standard her family built.

“The time was right,” she said, “and the buyer was the right one.”