The Los Angeles Lakers made headlines this week when it was reported that — for the second time in less than 18 months — the franchise is being sold. Mark Walter bought a majority stake in the team last year for a $10 billion valuation, and is now selling his shares to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation.
It’s not confirmed if the resale has anything to do with the ongoing investigation surrounding Walter, but Iger and Kushner will be taking over in short order. Of course, any sale has to be approved by the Board of Governors and commissioner Adam Silver. However, that shouldn’t be a problem with the reported relationship between Iger and Silver, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
The deal will still need to be approved by the league and the other owners, but it’s worth noting that Iger and NBA commissioner Adam Silver have known each other for years.
The two worked closely over the years in negotiating the league’s television rights deals with ESPN (Disney is its majority owner) and were praised for their partnership in restarting the 2019-20 season with a “bubble” hosted on Disney properties in Orlando, Florida, after a four-month hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Bob and Adam are close,” one league office source told ESPN. “They’re not just business close. They’re vacation-together close.”
Silver and Iger, at the very least, have a great working relationship given how much the NBA and Disney/ESPN have collaborated over the years of Silver’s tenure. It’s even possible that their relationship is why Iger is buying the Lakers after previously expressing interest in a Las Vegas expansion team.
Having the commissioner and a prospective owner be friends is a good sign that the sale of the team will go smoothly, but it remains to be seen just how quickly power will change hands.
Bob Iger: it’s premature to speculate on plans
While Iger and Kushner are buying the team from Walter and figure to take over at some point in the near future, they don’t yet have specific plans on what they want to do with the team. Iger spoke about this, saying it’s too early for fans to wonder, as they haven’t yet figured anything out.
It makes sense for the pair to take some time to evaluate how the Lakers are currently operating and see how they want to proceed from there as they don’t have any history of running a team of their own.
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