As another Lakers era begins, can new owners reclaim glory days?

There was a deep exhale. 

Now there’s…a giant shrug?

What’s to become of the Lakers? Who knows.

The darlings of the NBA, who have won 17 championships, have undergone two stunning ownership changes in the last 14 months after being owned by the Buss family for 47 years.

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The Buss family sold the Lakers to Mark Walter in Oct. 2025 for a $10 billion valuation. And on Wednesday, news broke that Walter is selling the team to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner, who has a minority stake in the Miami Heat and is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, who’s President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. 

It’s dizzying. It’s stunning. And it raises a lot of questions. 

Mark Walters sits courtside during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 118-116 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images North America) Getty Images

Under Walter, we knew what was going to happen. The Lakers were going to become a well-oiled machine. After Walter and Guggenheim Baseball Management took over ownership of the Dodgers in 2012, they’ve won three World Series championships. 

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The Lakers had already begun making drastic changes. 

They revamped their front office. They wanted to be on the cutting edge of data and analytics for the draft and free agency. They were building a biomechanics lab, new movement labs and a recovery lab. 

Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka called it “a full rebuild and retool” in May after Los Angeles was swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Under Walter, the NBA hired Dodgers chief marketing officer Lon Rosen as president of business operations. Dodgers executives Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi were acting as Lakers advisors. 

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They had one of the top braintrusts in sports backing them. They had the deep pockets and the seemingly limitless resources of Walter and Co. behind them. They had the playbook for success.

Uncertainty faces Lakers 

Now what?

Who are Iger and Kushner? 

“We’re fans,” Iger told Khobi Price of the California Post….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/another-lakers-era-begins-owners-225039321.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-12 22:50:00

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