Los Angeles Lakers Ownership Percentages and History

The Buss Family Trust owns the majority of the NBA franchise with other key members having minor stakes. The Lakers ownership breakdown looks like this:

Since Jerry Buss' demise in 2013, his six children own equal percentages as the proud owners of the LA Lakers with 11% each. As the family owns the majority, they decide how the basketball team runs.

Todd Boehly is famous for being known as the owner of one of the biggest soccer clubs, Chelsea Football Club, and his partner Mark Walter owns the next big majority in the franchise.

Magic Johnson Ownership Percentage Lakers

Magic Johnson ownership of Lakers era started in 1994 when he acquired a 4.5% stake in the LA Lakers. Father figure Jerry Buss offered him the share.

The fee for the purchase of the share is reported to be $10 million and sold his 4.5% share in October 2010 to a Lakers fan who has been a season seat holder for more than two decades.

Although the price at which the share was sold by Johnson has not been disclosed, it is said to be exceeding $27 million since the Lakers were worth $600 million at that point of time.

Los Angeles Lakers owners before Jerry Buss was Jack Kent Cooke who purchased the team in 1965 from Robert Earl Short. 

Jack Kent Cooke

Jack Kent Cooke was the third owner of the Los Angeles Lakers after he purchased the franchise for a whopping $5 million which is equivalent to $48.43 million in 2023.

Cooke was a Canadian-American businessman who moved to the United States in 1960, and since has been known to be the owner of several sports franchises that belong to different sports and leagues.

It was under Cooke that the team moved to The Forum from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and also introduced the current color combination of the team i.e. purple and gold. 

In his 14 years as an owner of the Lakers, the team made seven NBA Finals appearances and emerged victorious in the 1972 NBA Championship which was one of the best teams in NBA history which had Wilt Chamberlain as part of the team.

Cooke also brought in one of the greats of the game to the Lakers in the 1974-75 season as they acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and that period was known as the "building showtime" era.

In the long and rich history of the Los Angeles Lakers, a handful of prominent figures have played a pivotal role in the franchise's success.

The owners of the franchise team in the NBA did not only involve themselves from a business point of view. Actually, they had quite a generous amount of interest in basketball itself.

Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen

Born in Ostrowiec, Poland, Berger moved to the United States in 1913. It was in 1947 that he bought the Detroit Gems along with Morris Chalfen of the National Basketball League (NBL). 

The Gems later moved to Minneapolis and became the Minneapolis Lakers. The two co-owned the team during their stint as owners and in that time period, they won 6 league titles. They won one in the NBL and five in the BAA/NBA and later sold the franchise in 1957.

Robert Earl Short

The former businessman, politician, and lawyer was born in 1917 and started his business empire by investing in business and later expanded into different sectors. One of the sectors that he invested was in sports teams. 

In 1957, he bought the Minneapolis Lakers from the original founders of the team. His first year as owner was one of the lowest for the team as they just managed to win 19 games in that season. 

In the 1960 off-season, Short was responsible for moving the team from Minneapolis to Los Angeles with low attendance being the major reason for the move and were named the Los Angeles Lakers. He later sold the franchise in 1965.

Jerry Buss

Born as Gerald Hatten Buss in 1933, he was a philanthropist, investor, businessman, and chemist. His investment in an apartment building in the 1960s was his first investment and the start of the empire that he built in his lifetime.

After Jack Kent Cooke's stint as the owner of the Lakers, Buss bought the franchise in 1979 along with Cooke's NHL franchise Los Angeles Kings, the Forum (now known as Kia Forum), and a 13,000-acre ranch for $67 million.

Buss was a major contributor to the popularity of the Lakers as well as the NBA. It was under his ownership that they picked Magic Johnson as the #1 overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft and began the "Showtime" era.

Buss has won 10 NBA championships as an owner of the franchise and has been instrumental in making the Lakers one of the most iconic teams in the NBA. He brought in world-class players like Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant and also legendary coaches like Phil Jackson and Pat Riley.

On February 18, 2013, Buss passed away at the age of 80 and always desired for the Buss family to be associated with the team which was passed on to his children.

Buss Family Trust

The present ownership and the legacy of the Lakers has been passed on to the six children of Jerry Buss. His four sons Johnny, Jim, Joey, and Jesse along with two daughters Jeanie and Janie Drexel are all equal owners of the franchise.

The family has taken over the franchise since 2013 and is currently running the team as they are the majority owners and Jeanie Buss is the controlling owner and president of the Lakers. 

Jeanie Marie Buss started her career at the very young age of 19 when she was introduced to the family business as the general manager of the Los Angeles Strings.

She was still majoring in business at the University of Southern California when her father bout the Strings and she was appointed as the GM. She later ventured into Roller Hockey International where she was the owner of the Los Angeles Blades.

Her education and early exposure to the sports franchise world as she was always by her father's side led her to be named as the Executive of the Year during her role as the owner of the Blades.

Jerry Buss had purchased the Forum and later named it Great Western Forum where Jeanie served as the president. During her tenure of four years, she was also assigned the role of the Alternate Governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 1995.

This kick-started her journey and association with the franchise and was soon named the executive vice president of business operations for the Lakers.

Jeanie was always destined to become a leader and her father saw that and had always wanted her to succeed him as the team's governor as well as the representative at NBA Board of Governors meetings. Jerry always wanted Jeanie to handle the team business.

After a long battle with her brother for control of the franchise, she became the controlling owner and president and oversees the entire decision-making process of the Lakers. She is regarded as one of the most influential and powerful women in sports management.

She is key behind the signing of LeBron James in 2018 and the Lakers went on to win the NBA championship in 2020 making her the first female controlling owner to achieve this feat. She has had 5 championship titles in the past but was not an owner back then.

Apart from the Lakers, she also co-owns the Women of Wrestling (WOW) which is a professional women's wrestling promotion founded in 2000. She is also the co-founder of Cincoro Tequila, a premium range of tequila.