There are a lot of questions surrounding the ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, Mark Walter has agreed to sell his majority shares of the franchise to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, while five of the six Buss siblings are also looking to sell their remaining shares to Iger and Kushner, with Jeanie Buss contesting that move.
There are other minority owners of the Lakers as well and one of them is Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a businessman and surgeon who is known for his work in cancer research and treatment. With so many looking to move on from the Lakers, there are some wondering whether other minority owners of the team would look to do the same. But that won’t be the case for Soon-Shiong, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“Dr. Patrick is absolutely not selling his minority share of the Lakers,” Chuck “Tiger” Kenworthy, the Soon-Shiong family attorney, told ESPN on Thursday. “Bob Iger and Josh Kushner are good friends, and we will be joining them as supportive, active and engaged partners once they close the transaction with Mr. Walter. We are extremely excited about the Lakers’ future and look forward to many more championship years.”
This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons, with perhaps the biggest being what it may mean for Jeanie’s fight to remain Lakers governor. NBA rules dictate that at least 15% ownership stake in the team is necessary for someone to operate as governor. Jeanie no longer has that with the Buss family choosing to move on, but one route she could potentially explore is purchasing the other minority shares of the team.
Soon-Shiong choosing to keep his shares of the Lakers makes that process much more difficult for Jeanie to complete. If she is unable to regain that ownership stake in the team, she would be forced out of the Lakers governor position, something she clearly does not want to do. There are sure to be many legal battles between the Buss family in the coming months, but as it stands Jeanie will have a hard time getting those share with Soon-Shiong wanting to stay.
Robert Horry doesn’t believe Lakers players care about ownership drama
One of the concerns for the Lakers as the season nears is how all of the ownership drama could potentially affect the on-court product. But Robert Horry doesn’t believe the players even care about everything going on.
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