The Lakers have lost to the Celtics in Finals, to injuries in Aprils and to their own front office in more than one summer. They have not, until this week, been served papers by the people who own them.

The five Buss siblings who want to sell the family's remaining shares in the team formally filed their case against Jeanie Buss, the acting governor, according to ESPN. Five on one side. One sister on the other, holding the title that decides who speaks for the franchise when the shares move.

That title is the whole fight. A governor sits at the league's table and votes. Shareholders who want out have to get through the person who sits in that chair, and in this case the person in that chair is the one they are suing. The siblings did not take the trophy case from her. They went after the door.

Los Angeles is the second-biggest market in American sport, and the Lakers are the one name in it that still sells arenas, jerseys and broadcast windows in Hong Kong at 10am on a Tuesday. Whoever ends up holding the remaining family shares will be buying that reach, and the courtroom now sets the price of admission. Nothing in the reporting so far puts a number on it, and the number is the part every owner in the league will read first.

Manchester City offer the cautionary cousin. An independent commission found them guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules, and they have launched an appeal. Different sport, different court, same lesson: when ownership and rulebook collide, the scoreboard is the last thing anyone checks.

The Lakers open a season knowing the building has a second tenant now. Its name is Case.