The sale of any team is subject to approval by the NBA Board of Governors with at least 23 of the 30 owners needing to vote positively in order for the sale to go through. With the Board of Governors meetings taking place this week, many believed the recent sale of the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger would undergo a vote, but that seems unlikely.
According to Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal, the sale from Walter to Kushner and Iger is not expected to be voted on at this week’s meetings:
As for the Lakers, sources do not expect the proposed $12.5B sale from Walter to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger to be voted on this week.
There remains some drama surrounding the Lakers’ sale and the Buss family. How quickly this sale came together, and Walter’s pending investigation for potential financial improprieties have led to many questions. Additionally, Jeanie Buss’ five siblings have voted to sell their remaining minority shares to Kushner and Iger, but Jeanie is pushing back. Giving up those shares would force her out as Lakers’ governor as NBA Rules dictate at least 15% ownership to operate in that capacity.
As it stands now, with the sale not yet being official, and likely not being voted on in these meetings, Jeanie is expected to be in attendance and operating as Lakers governor for the time being. Though, depending on how things play out, this could potentially be her final NBA Board of Governors meetings.
The talk about the Lakers, and the L.A. Clippers, are sure to be the dominating topics to the public, but the NBA has multiple other things on their agenda that affect the entire league and it is believed that those will be the primary focus of these upcoming meetings. Things such as potential expansion and NBA Europe are expected to be discussed, as well as local television deals.
Lakers announce hiring of Eric Amsler as new assistant GM
There was a belief that with so much uncertainty surrounding the Lakers at the ownership level there was something of a hiring freeze for high-ranking positions within the organization. But that turned out not to be the case as the Lakers announced the hiring of former Miami Heat executive Eric Amsler as the team’s new assistant GM of player personnel, as well as Keith D’Amelio as their new director of integrated performance systems.
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