Жерри Бассын гэрээслэлээр үлдээсэн Лос Анжелес Лэйкерс багийн эзэмшлийн хувьцааг борлуулах асуудал үр хүүхдүүдийнх нь дунд томоохон хагарал үүсгэж, шүүхийн маргаан дагуулах төлөвтэй байна.
Басс гэр бүлийн зургаан хүүхдийн тав нь гэр бүлийн итгэмжлэлд үлдсэн Лос Анжелес Лэйкерс багийн 17.8 хувийн хувьцааг зарах хүсэлтэй байгаа бол Жинни Басс багийн удирдлагыг хадгалан үлдэхийн тулд уг худалдааг зогсоохыг зорьж байна. Жинни 2017 оны шүүхийн шийдвэр болон итгэмжлэлийн заалтууд нь түүнийг багийн засаглалыг хамгаалах эрх зүйн үндэслэлтэй гэж үзэж байгаа юм.
Жерри Басс хүүхдүүдээ багийг хамтран эзэмшиж, Жинниг гол удирдагч байхаар төлөвлөж байсан ч багийн үнэлгээ 12 тэрбум ам.доллараас давсан нь гэр бүлийн гишүүдийн хооронд үл ойлголцол үүсгэхэд хүргэв. Түүний байгуулсан гэрээслэлийн нөхцөл нь хүүхдүүдийн нэг нь нас барсан тохиолдолд хувьцааг нь үлдсэн ах дүүст нь хуваарилах заалттай байсан нь ах дүүсийн хооронд хувьцаагаа зарж бэлэн мөнгөөр авах сонирхлыг өдөөжээ.
Одоогийн байдлаар Жинни Басс 2030 он хүртэл багийн захирагчаар ажиллах гэрээтэй байгаа ч ах дүүсийн зөрчил нь Лос Анжелес Лэйкерс багийг эзэмшлийн хувьд тогтворгүй байдалд оруулж байна. Энэхүү маргаан нь зөвхөн хөрөнгө мөнгөний асуудал бус, эцгийнх нь байгуулсан өв соёлыг хэрхэн авч үлдэх тухай гэр бүлийн дотоод хагарал болоод байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Jerry Buss wanted his children to run the Lakers after he was gone. How sad he would be to see what his prized possession has done to the people he cherished.
The Lakers were supposed to be the bond that kept the Buss family connected after his passing. Instead, it’s the wedge splitting them apart.
Five siblings against one. Public accusations. Old wounds made new. Attorneys on both sides profiting off the dysfunction.
It is a real-life “Succession” playing out in Hollywood; the Roy family, cloaked in purple and gold, six heirs to a kingdom fighting over the throne. It is messy and uncomfortable … and it’s impossible to look away.
It’s tempting to dismiss any sympathy for a family bickering over billions. Nobody here is going hungry. Nobody is wondering if the mortgage check will clear this month. That isn’t the tragedy.
The tragedy is that a father planned for every legal and financial threat to his life’s work except the one that mattered most: what it might do to his children.
Five of the six Buss siblings want to sell the family trust’s remaining 17.8 percent stake, while Jeanie wants to preserve enough ownership to remain the Lakers’ governor. She believes the trust’s language and a 2017 court order give her the legal protection to block the sale. Ultimately, the courts will likely decide the winner.
Jerry did the best he could, planning for a future he knew he ultimately couldn’t control. He built a succession plan in three layers: collective family ownership, Jeanie as the ultimate authority and operational roles for the other children.
He divided ownership equally without dividing authority equally. All six children had the same economic interest and a voice in major ownership decisions, but Jerry didn’t intend for all six to run the Lakers simultaneously. Jeanie was the designated controlling owner.
It’s easy to see how such a structure could eventually breed resentment among those who weren’t selected. Moreover, he couldn’t have predicted how franchise values have soared over the past decade.
Jerry Buss, flanked by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (left) and Bob McAdoo, holds the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 1985 after the Lakers defeated the Celtics in Game 6 to win the NBA title. (George Tiedemann / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
If Jerry made one error in the language of his trust, it was perhaps the clause that upon each child’s passing, their shares in the Lakers were dispersed among the remaining siblings. It essentially created a last-man-standing, “Game of Thrones” power structure.
The intent was likely to keep ownership from getting fragmented across potential spouses, grandchildren and subsequent generations. Instead, it has created a perverse incentive for the siblings to sell. Cash out now, enjoy your wealth and leave your inheritance to those of your own choosing. Die while the shares remain in the trust and your siblings get everything.
By structuring the trust the way he did, Jerry incentivized the very sale he was trying so carefully to prevent. He could transfer the stock. He could establish trusts. He could create a succession plan.
He couldn’t make six adult children want the same things forever. That’s the part of inheritance no estate attorney can solve.
You can leave your children a fortune. You cannot bequeath the devotion to what created it. You cannot put family harmony into a trust. You cannot guarantee that siblings will agree about Dad’s wishes 10 or 20 years after he’s gone.
And you most certainly cannot predict what happens when the family business Dad wanted everyone to preserve becomes worth more than $12 billion. The numbers have grown so enormous that sentimentality comes with a staggering price.
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For five of the Buss siblings, selling the remaining stake can be viewed as the logical conclusion of a process that began when the family surrendered control of the Lakers last year. They can take their money and move forward with lives that no longer revolve around the franchise.
For Jeanie, it doesn’t seem nearly that simple.
Her five siblings can sell and walk away. Jeanie may view walking away as losing something that can’t be replaced by any amount deposited into a bank account.
The Lakers aren’t merely what she owns. They seem to be her identity.
She was 19 when her father put her in charge of his professional tennis team. She later ran the Forum and spent decades working within the family businesses before ultimately assuming control of the Lakers.
She is 64 now. Her entire adult life has been attached to her father’s sports empire and, ultimately, to the Lakers. All of that raises a question that is impossible for any of us to answer but appears increasingly unavoidable: Does Jeanie Buss know who Jeanie Buss is without the Los Angeles Lakers?
Is that really what we’re watching at this point?
Her agreement allows her to remain Lakers governor through 2030.
Eventually, Jeanie will have to find a life without the Lakers. For now, she is clinging to what remains of the only life she has ever known.
There could be another option. If Jeanie is determined enough to remain, she could theoretically seek financing to buy out her siblings herself. At today’s valuation, doing so could require her to raise close to $2 billion while still leaving her with enough equity to remain governor.
Imagine the irony.
Jerry left the Lakers to six children because he wanted them to own the franchise together. His plan could ultimately conclude with one child borrowing a fortune to buy out the other five.
Perhaps that’s why this resonates beyond simply another fight among America’s 1 percent.
Families battle over inheritances every day. Siblings argue about what Mom wanted done with the house or what Dad intended for the business. Old resentments surface. One child believes another was favored. Someone wants to sell. Someone else refuses.
The Buss family is having an ordinary family dispute on an extraordinarily large stage. They’re having it over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jerry lived an extraordinary version of the American Dream. He made a fortune, bought a basketball team and transformed it into an empire. He wanted to turn his personal success into generational success.
He succeeded. Maybe too much.
Buss built a basketball dynasty. He created wealth his children could never exhaust. He constructed a franchise that will remain relevant long after his death.
The one thing he couldn’t preserve was the family he wanted to inherit it.
— Sam Amick contributed to this report.
