Between Mark Walter selling the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner and the Buss family’s predictable in-fighting over whether to join them, there has been a constant stream of information and rumors that’s hard to stay on top of.
In lieu of multiple stories, here’s a roundup of the latest information and updates on Walter, the sale and the Buss family.
Expected hiring freeze
More often than not, when a company is sold, there is a hiring freeze during the transition. That appears likely to be the case here as well.
On Tuesday, Dan Woike of The Athletic reported that the expectation around the league is that the Lakers are not going to make any front office hires until Iger and Kushner take over.
According to a pair of league sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the Lakers’ internal operations, there is a belief around the NBA that the team cannot complete the buildout of its basketball operations department until the ownership situation is resolved. After laying out a vision for a pair of assistant general managers, with one focused on analytics and one focused on player scouting, the team has yet to make any inroads in pro scouting. With preseason games set to start in a little more than a month, filling a staff and getting everyone accustomed to a system was already going to be difficult. Now it feels like a distant hope more than a reality.
The biggest impact will be the second assistant GM that was never hired. The team hired Rohan Ramadas as one of the assistant general managers with his role focusing on the stats and analytics aspect. The other general manager was supposed to focus on scouting and development.
One of the next questions, then, would be whether the team ever hires for that position. Those moves were made by Walter and likely with the insight from those in the Dodgers front office working with the Lakers.
Will Iger and Kushner have that same vision?
Walter fire sale?
Speaking of Walter, it looks like selling the Lakers was only the start.
Roughly around the time the news of the Buss family moving on came out, there was also a report from Liam Twomey, Simon Johnson and Matt Slater of The Athletic revealing that Walter looks set to sell his stake in English soccer team Chelsea.
Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are in talks to sell their shares in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital.
Buyout talks between the parties have been explored at various times in the two years since The Athletic detailed a breakdown in relations between Boehly and Clearlake, who partnered in the BlueCo consortium which purchased Chelsea for £2.3billion from the sanctioned Roman Abramovich in June 2022.
It sure seems like the federal investigation into Walter is finding legitimate issues because Walter is making the moves of someone trying to avoid legal issues.
What could be interesting here is that Walter has apparently made it clear he’s going to have his finances “fixed” by the end of the year. That will be largely dependent on the Lakers being sold. If Jeanie is still fighting her family and holding up the sale, then things could get really dicey.
Explaining Jeanie’s stance
While it might seem like she’s grasping at straws — and she probably is — Jeanie does have at least an argument for why she feels like she has the final say.
In an appearance on ESPN LA, Dave McMenamin broke down Jeanie’s stance and her siblings’ stance.
“The question is where will the legal precedent lie. In 2017, there was basically documentation that Ramona Shelburne has actually shared in the last couple hours on her Instagram account that, in order for there to be a sale, three of the six trustees have to agree — the three trustees, being Jeanie Buss, Janie Buss and Joey Buss. I believe I got that right.
Now, fast forward eight years later, though, when the team was sold to Mark Walter, all six siblings signed off on what’s referred to as a tag-along provision which would be, if the team is sold by Walter, we are going to have the ability to attach our shares to the sale to the new owner if the new owner is interested at that valuation.
Now, I’m sure everyone involved with that agreement back in 2025 in their wildest dreams didn’t think that Mark Walter would be selling the team 10 months. The siblings that voted yes on the sale — five out of six, everybody but Jeanie Buss, according to sources — they all believe that that should be the precedent that stands considering they all just agreed to it 10 months ago.”
It does feel like the siblings have the stronger case here, but I say that as someone with zero legal expertise who also didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either.
The hope here is that this situation is handled quickly, whatever the conclusion may be. Ideally, that conclusion also involves being done with the Buss family and their constant drama.
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