Well, there is at least a little bit of normalcy around Lakers ownership on Thursday.
There has been lots of talk about Mark Walter, Jeanie Buss and her siblings and Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, but there are others in the mix as well. Patrick Soon-Shiong owns 4% of the team, purchased back in 2010 from Magic Johnson, and Ed Roski Jr. owns 3%, purchased in 1998.
While there hasn’t been anything from the latter about potentially selling his shares, the former’s attorney spoke to Dave McMenamin of ESPN on Thursday and reaffirmed he would retain his stake in the franchise.
“Dr. Patrick is absolutely not selling his minority share of the Lakers,” Chuck “Tiger” Kenworthy, the Soon-Shiong family attorney, told ESPN on Thursday. “Bob Iger and Josh Kushner are good friends, and we will be joining them as supportive, active and engaged partners once they close the transaction with Mr. Walter. We are extremely excited about the Lakers’ future and look forward to many more championship years.”
First, there’s no way we can move forward without acknowledging the name Chuck “Tiger” Kenworthy. The blessing and curse of being referred to as that is no matter what you’re quoted as saying, no one is going to look at it and will just focus on the name.
But if we take that away, there’s more to dive into.
Tiger — there’s no way I’m calling him anything else — also spoke to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times and provided an even more revealing quote (emphasis added).
“We love the Lakers,” Kenworthy told The Times. “We believe in the Lakers. We believe in the future of the Lakers and the championship years they are going to have. And we believe they are still undervalued.“
It brings up an interesting hypothetical. If the Lakers were theoretically placed on the open market, would they net more than $12.5 billion in a sale? The biggest hurdle in this scenario would be finding buyers with enough money, but it doesn’t feel like much of an exaggeration to say they would be sold for more than that figure.
More specific to this scenario, finding someone to buy a smaller percentage of the team is easier and could lead to a higher valuation. If Soon-Shiong wanted to sell his 4% stake, the $12.5 billion valuation would see him net $500 million. It feels likely he could net more than that.
Regardless, as pointed out by McMenamin, Soon-Shiong is not short on finances anyway.
Known for his innovative cancer research and treatment, Soon-Shiong is also a successful businessman and surgeon, with a net worth north of $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
When you have that much money, you can afford to hang onto your $500 million investment and status symbol that is a small percentage of the Lakers.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRudeor on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
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