The ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the biggest stories in sports as of late with Mark Walter selling his majority shares of the franchise to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, and the Buss siblings trying to do the same with their minority shares with Jeanie Buss fighting that legally.
Even other minority owners of the Lakers have had to come out and say they aren’t selling their shares, but there is one person tried to be amongst that group in former Lakers player Metta Sandiford-Artest. The former champion revealed in an interview with Melissa Rohlin of the California Post that he tried to buy in when Walter purchased the team:
“I sent the email the next day, I tried to get in at $100 [million], and they didn’t let me in,” Sandiford-Artest told the California Post. “But I wish he had let me in. That would’ve been great to have a former Laker as an owner, especially with the Buss family gone. It would’ve been great to have a Laker, a champion like Metta World Peace.”
Having a former player involved in ownership would have been nice, especially one as beloved as Artest, who played a crucial role on that 2010 championship team. A big reason why he wanted to purchase a small stake is because he knew the value of the Lakers would rise rapidly:
“Once it sold, the next day I tried to buy in for 1%,” Sandiford-Artest told The Post. “I knew it was going to [go up in value]. I knew it. I said the Lakers are going to be valued at $14 [billion]. I thought it was going to be a $14 billion value within like 18 months.”
Artest wasn’t far off as the valuation Iger and Kushner purchased the Lakers for was $12.5 billion, which was an increase of $2.5 billion in just one year. But despite his best efforts, he was denied:
“They didn’t respond, and then they were like no,” Sandiford-Artest told The Post. “The reason why I tried to is I knew the value was going to go up, so I missed out. I was kind of bummed about it. You have a former player who wants to put in $100 [million].”
Even though he was unsuccessful, it is great to see Artest trying to get involved in sports on a higher level. Perhaps there is another team he will be able to buy into at some point and get a taste of sports ownership.
Mark Walter’s TWG Global explains decision to sell Lakers
There remains plenty of questions surrounding Walter’s decision to sell his majority stake in the Lakers and his company TWG Global recently released a statement explaining why he did.
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