Bob Iger has some explaining to do.
The former Walt Disney power player is now the pending co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers after he and business partner Josh Kushner agreed on Wednesday to a $12.5 billion purchase of the franchise from controlling owner Mark Walter.
Lakers fans surely have a wide range of thoughts regarding the transfer of their beloved team’s ownership for the second time in 14 months. But they can all likely agree on this: Iger’s previously stated NBA loyalties — in the context of his Lakers ownership — stink.
Iger is a Clippers fan. And a Knicks fan. And rooting for the Lakers is “not in my DNA.”
This is all according to Iger, who made the revelations to none other than JJ Redick during an appearance on Redick’s “Old Man and the Three” podcast. This was in 2021, three years before Redick became the head coach of the Lakers.
“I’m a Clippers fan,” Iger said. “Having moved from New York to Los Angeles back in 2000 and being a big NBA fan, I needed a team to root for. And in my youth, the Lakers were a big rival of the Knicks, the team I grew up rooting for.
“So I couldn’t root for the Lakers very easily. It just was not in my DNA. So I decided to adopt the Clippers, which was actually a good thing because their seats were a lot cheaper than the Lakers.”
Moving past the comedy of a man who just committed his share of $12.5 billion to buy an NBA franchise worrying about the cost of tickets, this is not going to go over well in Los Angeles. At least among the overwhelming portion of Angelenos who pull for the Lakers and not the Clippers.
Iger, indeed, is (was?) a Clippers fan and very publicly so. Photo archives show Iger in his courtside Clippers seats alongside the likes of team owner Steve Ballmer, Clippers great Chris Paul and Billy Crystal, the only Clippers fan more famous than him.
Bob Iger, seen here in 2019 enjoying a Clippers game with noted Clippers superfan Billy Crystal.
(Allen Berezovsky via Getty Images)
Being a Clippers fan, of course, is not a crime, though one can make the case that it demonstrates questionable judgment. But in almost any walk of life, it’s a decision that demands no judgment of said fan.
This, unfortunately for Iger, is not one of those walks of life. Iger’s Clippers fandom matters here. And he’s going to have to address it one way or another with the fans of the team that he is soon to own.
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