The Los Angeles Lakers are in the relatively unprecedented position of undergoing their second ownership change in under 18 months. Bob Iger, the former CEO of Disney, and Josh Kushner, a venture capitalist, made a stunning agreement to purchase Mark Walter’s shares of the Lakers at a valuation of $12.5 billion.
Walter was in the process of updating the Lakers from the small, tight-knit organization they were under the Buss family to something similar to the L.A. Dodgers. However, Walter is the subject of an ongoing legal investigation, possibly leading to this abrupt sale. Iger spoke about taking over the Lakers, and urged fans not to speculate too much on what he plans to do with the team, via Khobi Price of The California Post:
“We’re fans,” Iger said. “We respect the value that’s been created, both on the court and off. Our intention is to build this great franchise from a position of strength in many respects as an organization. We’re smart enough to know what we know and what we don’t know. It’s just premature to speculate at all about what we plan to do, because frankly, we haven’t made any plans yet. Again, we go into this with an appreciation of who the Lakers are. And we just want to build value from today on.”
Iger added: “This is very new.”
It’s clear from this quote that the plan for Iger and Kushner to buy the majority stake in the Lakers was not a long-running plan, but rather something that came together somewhat recently. And since the sale is unlikely to be approved for at least a few months, they don’t necessarily need to have their plans ready right away.
The next few months are a chance for the duo to get a peek into how the team is run currently, and how they might want to adjust or continue that path. Once they take over officially, then it may start to be more clear what they want to do with the purple and gold.
Lakers Rumors: Chris Paul could have front office role
The immediate thought for many on the sale of the Lakers was what does this mean for governor Jeanie Buss and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka. There are no rumors in that category yet, but there have been some rumors about former NBA superstar Chris Paul.
Paul and Iger have a strong relationship, leading many to speculate that Paul could be in line for a job with the Lakers once Iger is officially in charge.
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