Jeanie Buss. Image via: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanie Buss will remain governor of the Los Angeles Lakers even as the franchise changes hands again, this time in a record $12.5 billion sale from Mark Walter to an ownership group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. The deal, reported Wednesday, comes just over a year after Walter bought the team from the Buss family for $10 billion. Three business days is a fast turnaround for a $12.5 billion transaction involving one of the NBA’s flagship franchises, and Iger doesn’t sound like someone still catching his breath from it. He’s spoken with Buss, and he’s spoken with head coach JJ Redick, a relationship that dates back to Redick’s years with the Clippers from 2013 to 2017, when Iger held Clippers season tickets. He and Kushner went from pursuing an expansion team in Las Vegas to owning the Lakers in roughly 72 hours, and he said as much when asked what comes next, that no concrete plans exist yet beyond honoring what’s already in place.
“We have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they’ve contributed to this franchise,” Iger said. “We were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas,” Iger said. “Grateful, appreciative, excited to own something that’s as iconic as the LA Lakers,” Iger said.
“And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie. If things change, they’ll change, but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization. Iger and Kushner weren’t shopping for the Lakers. They were chasing a different opportunity entirely, an ownership stake in the NBA’s potential expansion franchise in Las Vegas, when Walter’s willingness to sell reached them last weekend. “And while that happened, it was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his stake in the Lakers. And we immediately decided that given the value of the franchise and the iconic nature of the team, that we would be really smart to pursue it. The deal came together in three days. “Josh and I are avid NBA fans. And to have an opportunity to own not just any NBA team, but the LA Lakers is…it’s extraordinary from a life experience perspective and business perspective. It’s still sinking in. We’re very excited. Iger has already made two calls that matter. One call he hasn’t made yet stands out, Luka Doncic, the franchise’s current star and the player any new ownership group needs on board. Iger isn’t pretending to have the Lakers’ future mapped out.