Maybe Bob Iger and Josh Kushner didn’t overpay for the Lakers after all?

In June 2025, the Buss family agreed to sell majority ownership of the Lakers to Mark Walter at a valuation of roughly $10 billion. Less than one year after he was officially confirmed by the NBA’s board of governors, Walter sold his share of the Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation.

The sale raised plenty of questions at the time, some of which have since been answered. There was at least one outstanding question, though: Did the value of the Lakers really increase by $2.5 billion in only one year?

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As it turns out, the answer to that question indeed may be yes.

On Friday, Sportico put out its latest batch of NBA franchise valuations. The Lakers landed at exactly $12.5 billion, which put them behind only the Golden State Warriors ($14.5 billion) and New York Knicks ($12.8 billion). For now, those three are the only NBA teams worth at least $10 billion, although the upcoming Las Vegas expansion team figures to change that.

It might seem like a no-brainer that the Lakers are valued at $12.5 billion since they were just sold at a $12 billion valuation. But the notable takeaway from Sportico’s latest projections is how much valuations are on the rise across the entire NBA, not just L.A. Each of the 10 most valuable teams jumped by at least 20% year-over-year.

That’s particularly noteworthy given what happened amidst the Lakers’ latest sale. While Walter, Iger, Kushner and the Buss family have dominated the headlines, minority owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns 4% of the team, isn’t going anywhere.

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Chuck “Tiger” Kenworthy, the Soon-Shiong family attorney, told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times that Soon-Shiong believes “they are still undervalued.” To that point, Iger and Kushner have been telling prospective investors that the Lakers could be worth $30 billion within the next decade, according to Jessica Toonkel and Mark Maurer of the Wall Street Journal. That projection is built on the assumption that “TV and streaming rights double in value,” Toonkel and Maurer added.

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Publish date : 2026-10-12 15:24:00

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