The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the entire basketball world as it was announced that the Buss family had agreed to sell the franchise to Mark Walter, who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, for $10 billion. While that number is a massive one, the fact that the Buss family actually decided to sell, and for it to happen out of nowhere were the more surprising pieces to this story.
Walter was already a minority owner of the Lakers and had first right of refusal if the Buss family chose to sell so him being the person to take over isn’t too much of a shock. But the speed at which things came together is unbelievable, even to some inside the Lakers organization.
According to Dan Woike of The Athletic, people around the NBA, and even some within the Lakers themselves, were shocked at how quickly this all came about:
Let’s get right into the question I’ve been asked most since Jeanie Buss shockingly agreed to sell the Lakers at a $10 billion evaluation to Walter and his partners. And to be clear, people are shocked, including sources inside the organization and inside the NBA, people who thought this day could eventually come but who didn’t think it would happen so quickly.
As was noted, many expected a sale to come at some point as the Lakers simply didn’t have the financial ability to keep up with many of the owners around the league. The Lakers were a family business whereas now it will be ran like an actual business with money being poured into many different departments that should ultimately lead to the Lakers being better overall.
Usually something of this magnitude takes much longer to materialize, but with Walter already being familiar with the team as a minority owner, there were likely discussions being held far in advance about the Lakers being sold. But surprise or not, the Lakers will almost certainly be in a better position moving forward from a financial standpoint.
Lakers sell to Mark Walter could lead to more synergy with the Dodgers
Of course with Walter already being the owner of Los Angeles’ other premier franchise, the Los Angeles Dodgers, there is a belief that there will soon more synergy between the two.
There are already Lakers nights at Dodger Stadium and Dodger nights at the Crypto.com arena, but it is fair to expect even more synergy between them with Walter being in charge of both now.
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