{"id":143454,"date":"2025-06-19T16:04:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T20:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=143454"},"modified":"2025-06-19T16:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T20:04:25","slug":"lakers-sale-saved-them-from-imminent-financial-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/19\/lakers-sale-saved-them-from-imminent-financial-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Sale Saved Them From ‘Imminent’ Financial Troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 The Buss family has reached an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> to billionaire investor Mark Walter. ESPN reports that the sale values the Lakers at approximately $10 billion\u2014the highest valuation in U.S. professional sports history.<\/p>\n

Lakers Sale Saved Them From ‘Imminent’ Financial Troubles<\/h2>\n

The Buss family will retain a minority stake of just over 15%, while Jeanie Buss will continue to serve as team governor \u201cfor at least a number of years,\u201d according<\/a> to sources close to ESPN\u2019s Ramona Shelburne. Walter fully endorsed her continued leadership as part of the deal.<\/p>\n

Walter, CEO of TWG Global, has held a stake in the Lakers since 2021. That year, he purchased Phil Anschutz\u2019s 26% share and secured the right of first refusal on the majority ownership. His business portfolio already includes stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Chelsea FC, and multiple racing teams through TWG Motorsports.<\/p>\n

A Once-Golden Dynasty, Now House Poor<\/h3>\n

The Lakers sale represents more than a changing of hands. It is, in many ways, a rescue operation. For years, analysts described the Lakers as \u201chouse poor.\u201d On ESPN\u2019s Hoop Collective<\/em>, Tim Bontemps explained<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s a massive thing for basketball fans, for the NBA, because for a long time the Lakers… you [Windhorst] have, I have, described them in the past as house poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIt means you own something but you don\u2019t have a lot of actual cash. And the Lakers are a really weird team in modern sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike most major franchises, the Lakers were the sole asset of the Buss family. \u201cThey are not, say, Steve Ballmer, who has all these other businesses,\u201d Bontemps added. \u201cFor the Buss family, the Lakers have been the stars, the sun and the moon for them on every front.\u201d<\/p>\n

This singular reliance has limited the team\u2019s ability to operate like its peers. Despite their global brand, the Lakers often lacked the infrastructure and financial agility of other big-market teams.<\/p>\n

Walter\u2019s Winning Blueprint<\/h3>\n

Walter\u2019s track record gives the Lakers hope. His ownership group turned the Dodgers from underachievers into a perennial contender. The Dodgers have won more than 60% of their games under his leadership. In a survey last year, the Athletic<\/em> surveyed 40 executives and coaches from the four main American Sports leagues. The Dodgers were voted the second best front office behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

And how did he do it? \u201cBy hiring the best for the job in leadership roles,\u201d notes<\/a> one league insider.<\/p>\n

That same approach now comes to Los Angeles\u2019 premier basketball team. The Lakers sale opens the door to bigger budgets and deeper investments\u2014into scouting, analytics, coaching, and eventually, perhaps, team-owned infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A Legacy of Glory, a Future of Uncertainty<\/h3>\n
\"Lakers
Jun 3, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; The Los Angeles Lakers 2019-2020 NBA Championship banner at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, the Lakers have won 11 titles\u2014the most in that span by any NBA team. When Buss passed in 2013, ownership passed to his six children. A 2017 legal battle made Jeanie Buss the controlling owner, but the underlying financial structure remained fragile.<\/p>\n

While the team landed LeBron James<\/a> in 2018 and won a championship in 2020, its overall performance over the past 15 years has wavered. New ownership brings promise.<\/p>\n

Tim MacMahon summarized<\/a> it well: \u201cThey had been the preeminent mom-and-pop shop.\u201d He cautioned that spending freely isn\u2019t always a fix, citing Matt Ishbia and the Phoenix Suns<\/a>. Still, he acknowledged that now, the luxury tax won\u2019t be as much of a concern for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

TV Deals, Arena Woes, and the Second Apron<\/h3>\n

In today\u2019s NBA, national TV revenues are shared equally. But local TV deals and arena revenue make the difference. The Lakers have the league\u2019s largest local deal with Spectrum but do not own Crypto.com Arena. That limits their earnings from concessions and naming rights.<\/p>\n

Brian Windhorst noted<\/a> that the Lakers’ local deal once paid them in a single week what the small-market Grizzlies earned over an entire season. \u201cAt some point,\u201d Bontemps warned, \u201cpaying an exorbitant number even for Lakers games… that\u2019s going to run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWhenever that did run out, the Lakers weren\u2019t going to be in a position to keep up with everyone else. But now, that\u2019s irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Lakers sale, that future crisis has been averted.<\/p>\n

A Second Chance at Sustained Success<\/h3>\n

The Lakers still must follow the NBA\u2019s new second-apron rules. But they now have the means to invest in long-term success. That includes building out a stronger basketball operations staff, owning their own facility, and improving player support systems.<\/p>\n

For decades, the Lakers were royalty in name but not always in practice. The Lakers sale gives them a path to reclaim both.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Buss family has reached an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to billionaire investor Mark Walter. ESPN reports that the sale values the Lakers at approximately $10 billion\u2014the highest valuation in U.S. professional sports history. Lakers Sale Saved Them From ‘Imminent’ Financial Troubles The Buss family will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":145639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,26,3],"tags":[49759,49449,49926,757,49619,49675,2681],"class_list":["post-143454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-news","tag-brian-windhorst","tag-crypto-com-arena","tag-front-office","tag-jeanie-buss","tag-team-ownership","tag-tim-bontemps","tag-tim-macmahon"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145642,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143454\/revisions\/145642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}