Lakers minority owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong not selling 4% stake
As the fight over what will happen to the Buss family's stake in the Los Angeles Lakers begins in the wake of Mark Walter's shocking sale of his majority ownership of the franchise to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, one of the team's minority owners, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, has no plans to sell his part of the team.
"Dr. Patrick is absolutely not selling his minority share of the Lakers," Chuck "Tiger" Kenworthy, the Soon-Shiong family attorney, told ESPN on Thursday. "Bob Iger and Josh Kushner are good friends, and we will be joining them as supportive, active and engaged partners once they close the transaction with Mr. Walter. We are extremely excited about the Lakers' future and look forward to many more championship years."
Dr. Soon-Shiong, 74, bought into the team in 2010, purchasing a 4% stake from iconic Lakers star Magic Johnson. Known for his innovative cancer research and treatment, Dr. Soon-Shiong is also a successful businessman and surgeon, with a net worth north of $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The six Buss siblings still own a collective 17.8% of the team after selling their majority share to Walter in a deal that was ratified by the NBA board of governors in October.
Five of the siblings voted to sell their remaining portion of the team to Iger and Kusher at the $12.5 billion franchise valuation they paid to Walter.
"Johnny, Jimmy, Janie, Joey and Jesse have made the decision to sell the family's remaining stake, and we remain united in that decision," the five siblings said in a statement provided to ESPN's Shams Charania. "We intend to move forward thoughtfully, respectfully and through the appropriate process."
There was a tag-along provision included in the previous sale to Walter, sources told ESPN, that would allow the siblings to roll their shares into any subsequent sale of the team by Walter at the new valuation.
Jeanie Buss, the Lakers current acting governor, was the lone holdout and is contesting her siblings' plans to sell.
Buss' lawyer, Adam Streisand, is contending that a court ruled in 2017 that no sale of the Buss family's shares of the team could be "effectuated without approval by the co-trustees, i.e. Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss."
Before the sale to Walter, there were four Buss family members still working for the team: Jeanie as governor; Janie as Lakers Youth Foundation administrator; Joey as alternate governor and vice president of research and development; Jesse as Lakers assistant general manager.
After the sale, only Jeanie continued to hold her post, with Walter agreeing to keep her on for at least five years.
Iger told the California Post that he intended to honor that agreement with Buss but, he added, "If something changes, then it changes."
If the Buss siblings do sell their part of the team, leaving Jeanie with just under 3% ownership, she would need to acquire an additional 12% of the team in order to hold the requisite 15% to serve as acting governor under the NBA guidelines.
Buss would be interested in doing so, The Athletic reported Wednesday, however that number could be difficult to reach without Iger and Kushner -- or some of her siblings -- selling her back a part of the team.
With Dr. Soon-Shiong's 4% off the market, the only other minority owner Buss could target in that scenario would be Ed Roski Jr., who owns approximately 3% of the Lakers.
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Shams Charania contributed to this report.br/]
