After yet another sale, it appears it’ll be more of the same for the Lakers

When the NBA officially approved the $10 billion sale of the Lakers to a group led by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter in October 2025, it was supposed to signal an end to the mom-and-pop shop era of a franchise once owned by the Buss family.

We figured the purchase would send an influx of financial resources into scouting and analyses that could better help the Lakers compete on par with their status as one of the league’s premier franchises. After all, the Lakers have, with the exception of one championship, largely been poorly run since the 2013 death of Dr. Jerry Buss.

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Only, Walter’s deal kept Jeanie Buss as the team’s lead governor for another five years, and Buss kept her hand-picked general manager, Rob Pelinka, in place, too. So, no changes to a leadership structure that has largely failed to build around its stars.

It could be easily argued Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka hasn’t been very good at his job.

(Luke Hales via Getty Images)

Now that Josh Kushner and Bob Iger have reportedly agreed to purchase the Lakers from Walter for an American sports franchise record valuation of $12.5 billion — less than a year after the team’s most recent record sale was completed — is it time to officially clean house? Apparently not.

Iger told the California Post that he and Kushner have “every intention” to honor Walter’s agreement to keep Buss as governor for five years. “If things change, they’ll change,” he added, “but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.”

Let’s run through Buss’ and Pelinka’s track record that’s earned “enormous respect and appreciation.”

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As the Buss family was embroiled in a legal battle over controlling rights to the team, the Lakers had their first big chance to spend once Kobe Bryant’s contract came off the books, and they couldn’t even secure a free-agency meeting with Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016. That’s how sad of a state the Lakers were in in a post-Bryant era.

Instead, the Lakers spent on Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, setting…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/after-yet-another-sale-it-appears-itll-be-more-of-the-same-for-the-lakers-183030332.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-08-12 18:30:00

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