Earlier this summer, it was announced that Jeanie and the Buss family had agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter, owner of the L.A. Dodgers. The move came as a shock to many as it seemed as if the Lakers would remain within the Buss family forever.
Walter has a great track record with the Dodgers, turning that franchise into one of the most successful in all of baseball over the past decade and some are anxiously awaiting him to officially take over the Lakers and hopefully see that same level of success.
Any sale of a franchise doesn’t become official until the NBA Board of Governors votes to approve it and the sale of the Lakers is expected to be ratified by the owners in the next few months, via Dave McMenamin and Shams Charania of ESPN:
In June, the Buss family agreed to sell its controlling stake in the team at a $10 billion franchise valuation to Mark Walter, the Los Angeles Dodgers owner and CEO and chairman of TWG Global. The sale is expected to be ratified by the NBA’s board of governors in the coming months, sources told ESPN.
It has been reported that Jeanie Buss will remain in charge of the Lakers’ day-to-day operations for the foreseeable future. In doing this, there won’t be this massive shift and adjustment on the players and staff in the building and they can continue on with business as usual with the 2025-26 season set to get underway.
This change in ownership should bring a lot of positives to the Lakers’ franchise as, quite simply, Walter is capable of infusing a lot of money into the team. Obviously the NBA’s salary cap structure is far different from that of MLB where a salary cap doesn’t exist, but a potential investment into the team’s facilities, staff and research and other departments throughout the franchise can have a massive impact on this franchise overall.
Three-fourths of the NBA’s Board of Governors must vote to approve the sale, but by all accounts that won’t be an issue and this sale of the Lakers will soon become official.
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