This offseason, it became increasingly clear that the Lakers and Dodgers were morphing into one brain trust. As more and more front office executives jumped from the baseball team to the purple and gold, it was clear that Walter envisioned a very collaborative approach between the two teams.
And then, in seemingly the snap of a finger, plans changed.
There are obviously lots of questions that will come with the sale to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, but little has been discussed about what becomes of the Lakers’ front office now. Will the multiple people who moved on opt to go back to the Dodgers? Will the team continue its plans for renovating the practice facility?
In a recent interview with Stephen A. Smith, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN discussed the team’s plans for the coming months.
Here’s a transcript of Ramona’s comments:
“They were in the process of ‘Dodgerizing’ the Lakers. All of the brains and all of the apparatus that had been installed with the Dodgers to make them the most successful franchise in baseball the last few years was being implemented with the Lakers…Until this goes through, that’s still going on, right? Like everyone who’s been hired, everyone who’s been put in place here, they’re still going to keep doing what they’re doing. So it doesn’t mean anything in the beginning here, but I think your question about Iger and Kushner about now running a team like the Lakers, I think it catapults it into the next stratosphere.”
To a certain extent, this makes sense. There will still be a number of months before the sale is finalized, so things have to keep running until then.
But don’t expect much more crossover between the two LA staples anymore. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there weren’t many — or any — hires at all until new ownership comes in. Generally in these situations, there’s a hiring freeze when someone new is coming in.
Will a ripple effect of that be that the Lakers don’t end up hiring a second assistant general manager for multiple more months? Will they hire one at all now with new owners?
It’s a laundry list of questions that I’m sure Walter put a great deal of thought into before selling the team.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
