NBA Insider Says Lakers 'Can Finally Be Run Like a Real Business' After $10B Sale
NBA insiders are eyeing improvements from the Los Angeles Lakers' management and their spending habits following the team's reported sale by the Buss family.
"This is a good move. The Lakers can finally be run like a real business," a league insider told ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Dave McMenamin.
Bontemps and McMenamin noted that the source "has frequent interactions with the franchise."
ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Thursday that the Buss family was selling majority ownership in the Lakers to Mark Walter for a valuation of approximately $10 billion.
Jeanie Buss, the team's controlling owner since 2017, will remain the Lakers governor and control the team for "at least a number of years," according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.
The Buss family has owned the Lakers since 1979. Jeanie initially took over the Lakers after her father, longtime Lakers owner Jerry Buss, died in 2013.
The majority stake in the team will now go to Walter, who is CEO and chairman of holding company TWG Global.
Walter and TWG Global already hold controlling stakes in sports franchises including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Chelsea F.C. and the Professional Women's Hockey League.
The sale of the Lakers follows a larger trend of NBA teams changing hands. One-third of NBA franchises have changed ownership since 2019, per The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov.
The 2023 sale of the Dallas Mavericks, for example, put the team in the hands of the owners of the casino and resort company Las Vegas Sands.
Unlike the Mavericks' or Lakers' new owners, the Buss family operated exclusively on the revenue generated by their team, according to Bontemps and McMenamin.
"Most of these owners now, this is a part of their portfolio," one NBA executive told Bontemps and McMenamin. "It's not the only thing in their portfolio."
Another executive told Bontemps and McMenamin: "It makes sense. With the way the league is going, I don't think they could afford to be in this business. It just costs too much day-to-day."
Other sources speculated to Bontemps and McMenamin that the Lakers' new owners will now be able to spend more money across the board.
"It will be interesting to see if the Lakers can become what everyone thinks they have been, which is this cash cow, spend money at all costs, do whatever it takes to win," one source told Bontemps and McMenamin. "The Yankees and Lakers have always been put in the same class, but it's not the same. I've never worked in baseball, but they're not the Yankees."
The Lakers famously offered free agent Alex Caruso a three-year, $21 million deal in 2021 and cited their hopes of lowering their luxury tax bill when pitching Caruso the offer, per The Athletic's Bill Oram.
Caruso ultimately signed for four years and $37 million with the Chicago Bulls.
Fans will hope the ownership change means the Lakers will not be similarly underbidding on free agents in the future. The franchise is currently projected to be $4.3 million below the first luxury tax apron for the 2025-26 season, per Spotrac.
After building the World Series-winning Dodgers through a historic payroll and sky-high tax penalties, the Lakers' new owners could potentially consider exceeding that apron in order to build around Luka Dončić going forward.
