Less than a year after the team was purchased from the Buss family, the Los Angeles Lakers were sold once again. Mark Walter has sold the NBA team to a combination of ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Josh Kushner. Walter departs as owner from the storied franchise, pocketing over $2 billion more than he acquired it for, and sports fans aren't happy for a variety of reasons.
ESPN reported the team was purchased for around $12.5 billion, less than a year after it was purchased from the Buss family for $12 billion. The sale will still require approval from the NBA's Board of Governors before it's official, which will require several weeks of deliberation. In the meantime, NBA fans have a lot to say about this:
- Selling the team to someone like Iger is a terrible decision. - @SpencerR87
- The Lakers are sold to a Kushner in the same week the Yankees get further in bed with private equity. Absolutely awful for fans. -@jsimons_says
- Lakers are about to be shown on ESPN a lot if Bob Iger is becoming a majority owner. - @NFLExcelerated
- This Lakers sale is a shocker. Does it have to do with two companies owned by Mark Walter being investigated for tax fraud? Yes, Walter is making about 2 billion in about 10 months. But the Cowboys/Yankees/Lakers are just so hard to acquire that you don't quickly cash out. - @RealSkipBayless
- Mark Walter is full of crap 💩, only buying Lakers to flip it for a quick 2 Billion dollars profit. - @Little808Dragon
There's a lot to unpack in this, so much so that the only consensus is that people are mad. They're mad that Iger is jumping from Disney into the Lakers, and that there's a loose connection to the President of the United States, given that Josh Kushner is the brother of President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Others are just upset to see the team traded hands so quickly and are wondering what the plan is to improve their favorite team.
I haven't seen NBA fans so ready to pounce on a topic since M. Night Shyamalan posted an AI photo with LeBron James. Ultimately, this is one of those things where there's a lot of chatter and speculation, but ultimately, there's not a ton else to talk about until the ink is dry on the contract and other inquiries into the sale are accounted for.
The NBA season is still months out on the 2026 TV schedule, but it goes without saying that the sale of one of the NBA's most storied franchises would make headlines. It almost has me wondering if Winning Time could get a comeback on HBO, but that's mostly just blind hope on my part because I loved that series.
It's been a pretty tumultuous time for the L.A. Lakers overall, with the team trading hands two times since the franchise acquired Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks. The franchise also said goodbye to living legend LeBron James, but kept his son Bronny on the roster. Regardless of how this whole thing shakes out, it should be an interesting season.
The NBA season kicks off on Tuesday, October 20th. Get hype for the return of basketball, and see how this whole ownership change for the Lakers plays out over the coming weeks.
