The Los Angeles Lakers are officially majority-owned by Mark Walter, after the sale from the Buss family was approved by the league and finalized at the beginning of the 2025-26 season. That means it’s only a matter of time before Walter begins making structural changes to the Lakers to run them how he sees fit. And part of those changes will be bringing in some of his own people.
Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka are still the two — in name — at the helm of the Lakers basketball operations. They made a major change earlier this week in terminating the contracts of Joey and Jesse Buss, as well as a majority of the scouting department.
Behind the scenes, Walter has also been making some changes of his own, bringing in two familiar faces — L.A. Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi — in as advisors, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman, two key executives with the Los Angeles Dodgers, have begun playing advisory roles with theLos Angeles Lakersas part of the ownership transition from the Buss family to Mark Walter, multiple sources told ESPN.
Zaidi, currently a special adviser to the Dodgers and renowned for his analytics background, is functioning as Walter’s representative in helping with the transition, sources close to the situation said.
Friedman, who currently acts as the president of baseball operations with the Dodgers, has played a lesser role. He mostly consults with Lakers president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka, sources said. Friedman has helped the Dodgers win three of the last six World Series.
When Walter was announced as the buyer of the majority shares of the Lakers, fans were immediately hopeful that the organization would one day operate similarly to the Dodgers. L.A. has won back-to-back World Series, showing a willingness to spend not only at the Major League level, but in all phases to build an extremely strong organizational structure.
That level of elite competency has not necessarily been shown by the Lakers over the last decade-plus, meaning Walter could usher in a new era of Lakers basketball with Luka Doncic at the helm. And bringing in Zaidi and Friedman as advisors is an incredible step towards that. According to recent reports, Friedman had already build a relationship and was consulting with Pelinka going back to the summer. And when Zaidi returned to the Dodgers organization last year, the plan was for him to help Walter with his other sports ventures, which now obviously includes the Lakers.
Those are two of baseball’s best minds when it comes to roster construction, scouting and many of the most important facets in building a sports franchise. It will be interesting to see what type of influence they have on the Lakers, especially considering they still maintain their roles with the Dodgers and that will be their first priority.
Buss family drama continues to rise in Lakers ranks
The Lakers have not played a game since Tuesday and won’t play one again until Sunday. But that certainly hasn’t stopped them from being atop the NBA news cycle. On Thursday, it was announced that the Lakers were parting ways with Jesse and Joey Buss, as well as a majority of the franchise’s scouting team, in a move that appears to be spearheaded by Jeanie Buss with approval from Mark Walter.
It’s yet another saga in the family drama that has been the Buss family in the 12 years since Dr. Jerry Buss passed away. Jeanie notably got her brother Jim fired from his role as Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Lakers, replacing him and Mitch Kupchack with Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson. Pelinka has stayed with the organization ever since and has been the primary basketball decision maker alongside Jeanie.
But it also appears that this firing of Jesse and Joey — who had done remarkable work leading the scouting team over the last decade-plus — was brewing for quite some time, only for Jeanie to pull the trigger on Thursday. In fact, Jeanie and Jesse haven’t been on speaking terms for quite some time now.
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