A viral post on August 18 falsely claimed Shaquille O’Neal had bought all of the Buss family’s shares in the Los Angeles Lakers. He did not.
The claim moved quickly across Facebook, Instagram and Threads after The Box Score PH posted that O’Neal had taken over “all of the Buss family’s shares,” but there was no credible outlet, NBA announcement or Lakers statement to back it up. The rumor landed because Shaq is still one of the most recognizable names in franchise history, and because the team’s ownership structure is already in flux.
The Lakers’ ownership picture changed when the NBA approved Mark Walter’s purchase of a majority interest in October 2025 at a reported $10 billion valuation. The league said the Buss family would retain an ownership interest, and that Jeanie Buss would remain the Lakers’ governor for at least five years. That is why a fresh ownership rumor involving Shaq found an audience so quickly: the family still has a stake, and the rest of the deal is not fully settled.
That unsettled piece is now at the center of a separate fight. The reported on August 17 that Buss is contesting her siblings’ attempt to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, with her attorney arguing the transaction cannot go forward without approval from the trust’s co-trustees. Axios reported that buying those remaining shares could require Kushner and Iger to spend about another $2.2 billion, which explains why the last slice of the family holding still matters.
The viral Shaq claim also ran into a harder problem: no report cited in the coverage identified O’Neal as a buyer at all. That gap matters because his name carries real weight in Lakers history. He joined Los Angeles in 1996, helped deliver three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 through 2002, and won Finals MVP each time after the Orlando Magic made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft.
For now, the ownership story is not about Shaq. It is about whether the Buss family’s remaining stake can be sold, who must approve it, and how much the final portion is actually worth. Until that is resolved, the loudest claim on social media is still just that — a claim.
