Lakers Majority Ownership Changing Hands

The iconic L.A. Lakers basketball franchise will soon be under new ownership.

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Buss family is entering an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Lakers in a record-breaking deal. Jeanie Buss will continue to serve in her role as Governor after the sale, and the Buss family will reportedly retain over 15% of minority ownership.

The L.A. Lakers were founded in 1946, and have won the second-most championships in NBA history. They won 11 of their 17 NBA titles under the ownership of the Buss family.

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The Buss family is selling the iconic franchise to LA Dodgers lead owner Mark Walter.

Walter, who is the CEO and Chairmain of diversified holding company TWG Global, is also an investor in Chelsea FC and has interests in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, the Billie Jean Cup, the Cadillac Formula 1 team and more. He has been a minority stakeholder in the Lakers since 2021. Forbes has valued his net worth at $6.1 billion.

According to Charania, the deal will be worth approximately $10 billion US — the largest sale of a professional sports franchise in history. Jerry Buss, who originally bought the Lakers back in 1979, spent $67.5 million to acquire the franchise, passing it along to his children following his death in 2013.

The Boston Celtics, arguably the NBA’s second-most iconic franchise, sold recently for $6.1 billion while Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks sold for $3.5 billion.

The Lakers acquired perennial superstar Luka Dončić to play alongside LeBron James, forming the most star-studded backcourt in the NBA – fitting for the most-valuable franchise in the league. James is widely considered to be one of the greatest (if not the greatest) basketball players of all time.

So why would the Buss family, who have owned the Lakers for 45 years, now decide to sell?

Like I said, Jeanie Buss and the Buss family seemed poised to keep this team forever. […] For the family to now sell for 10 billion dollars, it’s an astronomical figure, and it’s something that will, of course, is now going to set an immensely high bar. They’re the largest sold franchise in sports history – in the world. That includes soccer teams (football teams abroad), NBA teams, MLB teams – anything.