The Los Angeles Lakers, a family-run business since Jerry Buss purchased the franchise in 1979, will be sold to Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter and TWG Global, according to multiple people briefed on the deal.
The deal is expected to occur with the Lakers’ valuation being about $10 billion — a record for a professional sports franchise.
Walter will now lead the city’s two premier professional sports teams.
Control of the Lakers went into a family trust after Buss died in 2013, with daughter Jeanie Buss operating as the team’s governor. The structure of the trust meant the majority of Buss’ six children — Johnny, Jim, Jeanie, Janie, Joey and Jesse — would need to agree for a sale to occur.
Read more:Plaschke: Lakers had a great ride with Buss family, but Dodgers owner will give team new life
The Lakers didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The structure of the family trust, according to people familiar with it, doesn’t allow for ownership to pass down to heirs after death, meaning the split among the siblings would go from being shared six ways down to five and so on.
The sale was viewed as a massive surprise in NBA circles.
Jerry Buss bought the Lakers for $67.5 million in 1979 in a deal that included the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum in Inglewood. Buss sold the Kings to Bruce McNall in 1988.
Since Buss’ death in 2013, the family has dealt with a fair amount of tumult, including Jeanie Buss removing her brother Jim from his position as executive vice president of basketball operations in 2017. Shortly after, brothers Jim and Johnny attempted to rebuild the team’s board of directors without their sister. The situation was quickly resolved with Jeanie Buss cemented as the head of the organization after the takeover attempt failed.
Jeanie Buss reportedly will remain governor under the terms of the sale, representing TWG in league meetings. Controlling governors need to own at least 15% of the franchise to serve. The Buss family owned 66%.
The sale will end family-run control of the Lakers, who have achieved incredible success — 11 NBA championships earned by some of the league’s most iconic figures, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James — under Buss and his children’s leadership.
“I know that my sister Jeanie would have only considered selling the Lakers organization to someone she knows and trusts would carry on the Buss legacy, started by her father Dr. Buss. Now she can comfortably pass the baton to Mark Walter, with whom she has a real friendship and can trust,” Magic Johnson wrote in a post on X.
“She’s witnessed him build a winning team with the Dodgers and knows that Mark will do right by the Lakers team, organization, and fans! Both are extremely intelligent, visionaries, great leaders, and have positively impacted the greater Los Angeles community! I love both my sister @JeanieBuss and my business partner Mark Walter.”
In March, Bill Chisholm purchased the Boston Celtics from Wyc Grousbeck for $6.1 billion. Mark Cuban sold his control of the Dallas Mavericks late in 2023 for $3.5 billion.
And earlier that year, Marc Lasry sold the Milwaukee Bucks for $3.5 billion. Grousbeck and Cuban were two of Jeanie Buss’ closest confidantes among league ownership. At the end of 2022, Mat Ishbia bought the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion.
Walter and Todd Boehly became the Lakers’ largest minority shareholders in 2021 when they bought 27% of the franchise — a stake previously held by Phil Anschutz.
“The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most successful and admired franchises in sports history,” Walter said in a news release at the time. “I have watched the organization grow under Jeanie’s leadership and couldn’t be more excited to partner with her and the entire management team. I am committed to supporting the franchise’s iconic status by continuing to bring together culture, community and entertainment to Lakers’ fans.”
Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is also a minority owner of the Lakers.
Walter was a relatively anonymous billionaire with extensive holdings in the insurance industry in 2012, when Johnson and Stan Kasten were the marquee partners in the purchase of of the Dodgers for $2 billion, then the largest price paid for a Major League Baseball team.
Critics scoffed at the purchase price, but Walter and Boehly then negotiated a record $8.35-billion local television deal with Time Warner Cable. Sportico this year valued the Dodgers at $7.73 billion and estimated that they generated $1 billion in revenue last year, highlighted by the global economic boost they gained from signing Shohei Ohtani to a record $700-million contract.
The Dodgers also won the World Series last year, their second championship and fourth World Series appearance in the last eight years.
After buying the Dodgers, Walter and Boehly explored buying AEG, the entertainment giant that owns the Kings and Crypto.com Arena. Walter subsequently bought the Sparks, invested in the Lakers and launched a professional women’s hockey league in which the championship trophy is called the Walter Cup.
If the Dodgers’ purchase is any indication, Walter might not make an immediate flurry of changes with the Lakers. After he bought the Dodgers, he retained general manager Ned Colletti through the 2014 season before replacing him with Andrew Friedman.
The beloved O’Malley family sold the Dodgers before the turn of the century, saying the economics of professional sports had exploded beyond the means of families with no other significant source of income.
Under Walter, the Dodgers have not only raised their payroll to record levels but invested heavily in areas that they believe help deliver a winner, from a vaunted analytics department to dietitians for their major and minor league players and expanded clubhouses with the latest in hydrotherapy. The owners also have invested more than $500 million into renovating Dodger Stadium, adding modern amenities to a 63-year-old ballpark.
Since Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, the team has had 13 winning seasons, four World Series appearances and two titles. The Lakers, in that span, have had six winning seasons, two trips to the conference finals and won a title in 2020.
Read more:Q&A: Dave Roberts says Mark Walter will help make Lakers a perennial title contender
The Lakers are entering a critical moment in the franchise’s history. James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has a $53-million player option that he needs to either accept or decline by June 29. If he declines, he’d be an unrestricted free agent.
The team also is trying to sign Luka Doncic, whom it acquired in a shocking trade last February, to a massive contract extension functionally making him the future face of the franchise. He’s eligible to sign an extension on Aug. 2.
Times staff writer Jack Harris contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
