Lakers sold at $12.5 billion valuation: NBA execs, agents react
FIVE GAMES INTO final season, possession of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise changed hands for the primary time in practically 5 a long time. On Oct. 30, 2025, the NBA’s board of governors accepted the sale of the Buss household’s controlling stake within the staff at a report $10 billion valuation to businessman and Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor Mark Walter.
It was a unanimous vote and celebrated as a watershed second within the sport. The league’s glamour franchise had graduated from the mom-and-pop operation it had been since Dr. Jerry Buss bought the staff in 1979 and left it to his children and entered into the deep-pocketed world crammed with tech giants, personal fairness companies and commodity brokers with a confirmed winner in Walter as their information.
Walter, whose TWG Global group had owned 26% of the staff since 2021, was welcomed with open arms. Not solely had been his Dodgers on their strategy to back-to-back World Series titles — giving the Lakers a glimpse of what they may obtain along with his assets — however he demonstrated a reverence for the previous, vowing to maintain Jeanie Buss as appearing governor for at least 5 extra years.
“On behalf of Lakers fans everywhere,” Buss stated in a press release, launched shortly after the BOG assembly ratified the sale, “I am beyond excited about what our future has in store.”
That future ending up lasting lower than 10 months.
Walter sold his interest in the Lakers on Wednesday morning to enterprise capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation, sources advised ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
“Talk about a curveball,” one agent who has had shoppers on the Lakers roster inside the final 5 years advised ESPN.
“Josh and Bob obviously are very successful, but it’s a big equity check,” one member of a Western Conference staff’s possession group advised ESPN. “Just curious how the deal is structured.”
The deal will nonetheless have to be accepted by the league and the opposite house owners, but it surely’s price noting that Iger and NBA commissioner Adam Silver have identified one another for years.
The two labored carefully through the years in negotiating the league’s tv rights offers with ESPN (Disney is its majority proprietor) and had been praised for his or her partnership in restarting the 2019-20 season with a “bubble” hosted on Disney properties in Orlando, Florida, after a four-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Bob and Adam are close,” one league workplace supply advised ESPN. “They’re not just business close. They’re vacation-together close.”
Still, the concept Iger would lead a gaggle to purchase the NBA’s marquee franchise wasn’t on anybody’s radar.
“The news shocked all of us,” one other agent, who at the moment has a consumer on L.A.’s roster, advised ESPN.
For a franchise that has carried out its greatest to boring the shock receptors of its fanbase within the final decade by making the sudden an everyday prevalence — Magic Johnson’s abrupt resignation in 2019 and the Luka Doncic commerce instantly come to thoughts — this nonetheless registered excessive on the size.
“People don’t buy teams and turn around and sell them,” an Eastern Conference government advised ESPN. ” So there are obviously other factors driving this decision outside of just the mere fact that somebody showed up to pay $12.5 billion. Those factors have to be well outside of basketball.”
ESPN spoke to greater than a dozen sources from across the league to attempt to make sense of the Lakers’ franchise flip and what the sale might imply for the staff and for the NBA at giant.
Why is Walter promoting now?
Shortly after the sale was introduced, Walter issued a press release to ESPN:
“Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life — an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family,” the assertion learn, partially.
It was extraordinary on varied ranges, mainly that Walter was capable of flip a $2.5 billion revenue in simply 14 months from the time he agreed to buy the staff in June 2025 to the sale this week.
Based on the timing and the big revenue Walter made, a number of sources marvel what, if any, impression the continuing federal investigation into his firm, TWG Global, had on his determination to promote.
The Wall Street Journal reported final month that Walter was topic to a federal probe, which alleged his firm had not disclosed $16 billion in loans funneled to Walter’s insurance coverage agency, Delaware Life.
The Wall Street Journal additionally reported that Walter has been conscious of the SEC probe since at least September and already had an digital gadget seized as a part of the search, so promoting to Kushner and Iger might be motivated by the need to liquidate his prize asset, not simply the chance to take action.
“It’s the ultimate trophy,” one outstanding NBA agent advised ESPN. “This isn’t like a building or a complex. Like, these are the L.A. Lakers. I almost laugh that he says, ‘It was an honor and a privilege to own the Lakers.’ Like, you didn’t own the Lakers! You rented them. You made a great business decision.”
What does this imply for the Lakers’ present management?
Shortly after the sale was reported, one longtime NBA government needed to understand how the Lakers can be run below Iger and Kushner.
“The questions I’d ask all center around the Buss / [Rob] Pelinka roles moving forward,” the manager stated to ESPN.
One of these questions was shortly addressed by Iger. In an interview with the California Post on Wednesday afternoon, Iger stated Buss would stay in her put up for now.
“We have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie,” Iger stated. “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.”
Another longtime agent, who at the moment has a consumer on the Lakers, advised ESPN he believes Iger’s assertion bodes nicely for Pelinka, who in 2025 signed a multiyear extension with the franchise. “As long as Jeanie’s in a good position, I think Rob is in a good position,” the agent stated.
But one other agent latched on to the conditional concession by Iger.
“I am curious to see how it goes the next six months,” the agent stated to ESPN. “You assume Rob has six months to see how the season goes.”
Over the course of final season, Pelinka labored carefully with a number of Dodgers entrance workplace members — president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman; Dodgers particular adviser Farhan Zaidi; and Dodgers government vp and chief advertising and marketing officer Lon Rosen, who was named the Lakers’ new president of enterprise operations in February.
The Dodgers, at 73-48, as soon as once more have one of many prime information in MLB as they struggle for a three-peat. The worth of Friedman and Zaidi is established with the baseball staff, even when Iger and Kushner might need no use for them with the basketball staff.
Meanwhile, in projecting what a brand new Lakers entrance workplace might finally seem like, a number of sources across the league recommended to ESPN that not too long ago retired Chris Paul might have a job.
Paul and Iger turned shut whereas the purpose guard performed for the Clippers and Iger was a season-ticket holder.
Their relationship has solely strengthened through the years, sources stated, with Iger internet hosting a e book launch occasion at his home in 2023 for Paul’s memoir, “Sixty-One,” and Paul visiting Iger at his Disney workplace in Burbank, California, in March to help his pal when he cleared out his belongings to shut out a 52-year run with the corporate.
How about Luka Doncic?
Iger and Kushner are buying a franchise that has 17 championships and is now led by Doncic, a 27-year-old celebrity who remains to be trying to find his first.
Doncic was not consulted in regards to the sale, sources advised ESPN, however he plans to have a videoconference name with Iger and Kushner subsequent week from Slovenia as he prepares to host his teammates for a minicamp in his house nation.
Doncic provided his quick ideas on the information with a put up on X on Wednesday morning.
Being a Laker means all the things to me, and I’m excited to get again on the courtroom and produce a championship to LA. I’ve gotten used to large adjustments over these previous couple of years, however I do know that it doesn’t matter what, there isn’t any restrict to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look ahead to…
— Luka Dončić (@lukadoncic) August 12, 2026
Pivoting to new bosses is nothing new for the six-time All-Star.
“The only constant in life is change,” a supply near Doncic advised ESPN. “He’s had five [team owners] now.”
Indeed, the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic’s former staff, had been sold by Mark Cuban to Patrick Dumont and the Adelson family not lengthy earlier than he was traded to L.A. And since he arrived with the Lakers, the franchise’s deed has handed fingers from Buss to Walter and now to Iger and Kushner.
Another supply near Doncic advised ESPN that Doncic’s adaptability to work below a rotating forged of householders above him is just not essentially a novel trait amongst NBA stars who more and more change groups — whether or not by way of free company or trades.
“I don’t think this type of thing is really noticeable to the players,” the supply stated. “They got their team, they got their coach, they got their GM. They meet as a group. So, it’s not like the owners really are peering in on things. You just assume that the owners have the funding and the desire to win. And I think that’s pretty much what all the players care about — whether it’s Walter or Iger or Kushner or whomever else. ‘Are you going to give us the resources to win?'”
Beyond the basketball, the sale’s report valuation can solely assist Doncic’s enterprise dealings because the face of the franchise.
“It’s certainly clear as well that the value of the Lakers brand, including in his new era, is unmatched,” a supply near Doncic advised ESPN. “I think going from $10 billion to $12.5 billion [proves it].”
While Doncic was already being positioned because the staff’s future from the second he was acquired in February 2025, that perch was solidified final month when LeBron James left to finally signal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
ESPN requested a supply near James if the sale had gone by way of sooner whether or not it might have had any affect on James wanting to remain in L.A.
“Maybe,” the supply stated. “But that’s tough to answer. Communication could have been better [with Iger and Kushner, compared to with Walter]. Just a different relationship. But the basketball piece was the most important, so maybe not from that standpoint.”
Could this impression growth?
Iger and Kushner had been pursuing possession of the league’s future NBA franchise in Las Vegas — certainly one of two cities, together with Seattle, anticipated to develop the league’s groups from 30 to 32 by way of growth within the coming years — when the Lakers alternative prompted a change in plans.
“We were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas,” Iger advised the California Post. “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.”
One league workplace supply additionally advised ESPN that the NBA is prioritizing a Vegas sale earlier than a Seattle sale to lock in a premium franchise price that may set a precedent of what the NBA expects going ahead.
While there are nonetheless a number of teams within the working for Las Vegas, even with Iger and Kushner out, it stays to be seen if any sale shall be accepted at the following BOG assembly.
“We’ll see what happens in September,” the supply stated. “If they took a vote today, it wouldn’t pass. … It’s all about the [fee price].”
Furthermore, a number of sources advised ESPN that Silver and lots of the league’s house owners nonetheless view NBA Europe — a 16-team league set to launch in October 2027 that also has to finalize which cities it is going to compete in — as a much bigger precedence.
Meaning that even when Iger and Kushner had ended up profitable the Vegas bid, there would’ve been a considerable wait in contrast with the Lakers situation they landed.
This sale ends Walter’s unremarkable tenure as Lakers proprietor, one which included the staff hiking season-ticket prices, laying off a group of long-term employees and cramming in a second row of courtside seats whereas profitable one playoff sequence. But he was a bridge to this new possession group, one which has deep ties to the league.
How this all goes for the Lakers remains to be to be decided. But the Walter period was undoubtedly a win for the NBA.
“Any numbers like $12.5 billion for a team are good for owners of an NBA team,” the exec from an Eastern Conference staff advised ESPN. “Look, the NBA continues to grow in value as an asset. The teams continue to grow because the business is performing really well. It’s probably better, with the new players that have come in and the parity in the league, it’s probably a better product than we’ve ever had. … So, there’s a ton of interest in the sport. I think that’s now reflected in the value.”
