Twelve and a half billion, and a record falls
The Los Angeles Lakers have a new owner. Again. Barely a year after the last sale, the most storied name in basketball is switching hands once more. ESPN, with Ramona Shelburne breaking much of it, reports that Josh Kushner and former Disney chief Bob Iger are buying the franchise from Mark Walter for $12.5 billion. No team in American sport has ever sold for that much. The old mark belonged to Walter too, who paid roughly $10 billion for the Buss family’s majority stake last year.
What makes it stranger is where the two buyers came from. Kushner and Iger were deep in the NBA’s Las Vegas expansion talks. Then they turned, walked away from Vegas, and pointed everything at Los Angeles instead.
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The words are polished. The stakes underneath are not.
In a statement to ESPN, Kushner and Iger called it an “honour” to become “custodians” of one of the game’s great franchises, and promised to “build on the foundations” set by Jerry and Jeanie Buss. Walter answered in kind. He called the sale “one of the great honours” of his life and thanked the Buss family, the players and the staff for his stretch running the club.
He is not leaving Los Angeles altogether. The Dodgers stay his. Walter has owned the baseball club since 2012 and won several MLB titles with it over the last few seasons, which tells you plenty about what he expects a franchise to become once it is in his hands.
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