Jeanie Buss reportedly fighting family’s plan to sell remaining Lakers stake

Well, apparently the Buss family isn’t quite ready to “exit gracefully” after all. At least not unanimously.

Jeanie Buss is contesting her family’s plan to sell its remaining 17.8 percent stake in the Lakers to the incoming ownership group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, according to Alex Sherman of CNBC.

Sherman reports that Buss objects to the sale for “value reasons” and because she wants to remain the Lakers’ governor.

Her attorney, Adam Streisand, has sent a letter to the other Buss siblings arguing that the family’s remaining stake cannot be sold without Jeanie’s consent because of a 2017 court order, per CNBC.

That’s a significant wrinkle in what appeared earlier Monday to be a done deal.

ESPN’s Shams Charania initially reported that the Buss Family Trust would sell its remaining shares as part of the transaction that will transfer controlling owner Mark Walter’s stake to Kushner and Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation.

The family even issued a statement saying it had decided “as a family” to sell.

But ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne subsequently reported, citing multiple sources, that Jeanie did not vote in favor of the sale, contradicting an earlier report that all six Buss siblings had approved it.

There’s more. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reports that Lakers vice president of finance Joe McCormack called an emergency meeting of the siblings last week to discuss creating a new family trust that would prevent the remaining shares from being sold for four years.

The meeting occurred one day before news broke that Walter had agreed to sell his controlling stake.

Why does all of this matter beyond the family drama? Jeanie’s future with the Lakers may depend on it.

NBA guidelines require a controlling owner/governor to own at least 15 percent of a franchise. If the Buss family’s entire 17.8 percent stake is sold, Jeanie would no longer qualify to remain governor.

So what looked like the Buss family’s final goodbye to the Lakers earlier Monday suddenly looks considerably more complicated.

And potentially headed for a fight.