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Buss family sale of Lakers signals a new dawn for the franchise — and NBA ownership
The Buss dynasty has reigned over the NBA since 1979, when Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers in what has proved to be one of the shrewdest deals in sports history. Since then, the Lakers have won 11 NBA championships, employed several of the league's most valuable and iconic players, and become the NBA's most glamorous franchise, a magnet for ritz and success.
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It was bound to end at some point, but that future seemed far away. Wednesday, however, it struck like a thunderbolt. Jeanie Buss, the daughter of the family patriarch, will sell the Lakers to Mark Walter, a prominent financier, in a shocking deal that values the franchise at $10 billion. It is the largest sale in sports history, a number with the kind of sticker shock to match the franchise it involves.
The sale, when it goes through, will not only end to the Buss family's hold on the Lakers, but might turn the page on a new era for the league.
The NBA has long been run by voluble owners, including Buss, but the last half-decade has brought enormous change. One third of the league has taken on new ownership since 2019. In a matter of months, the Boston Celtics and Lakers have been sold, each setting new records and sending two of the NBA's historic teams into new hands. The small-scale style of ownership seems to be on its way out and no longer feasible. Their replacements have come in with audacious plans and ever-wealthier backgrounds, ready to spend to contend.
Walter, if his time running the Los Angeles Dodgers is any indication, may be the apotheosis of this model, even if it will have to wait. He will not take over immediately after the sale is final. The Buss family trust, which currently owns a little more than 60 percent of the franchise, will still own 18 percent when the deal goes through, according to a source briefed on the sale, and Jeanie Buss will continue to serve as the team's governor. That matter has been written into the agreement, the source said.
'This cannot be Mark Cuban,' they added, referring to the Dallas Mavericks former owner who wrongly expected to maintain a key role in the team's decision-making tree. 'She will continue to run the team for a significant number of years after the deal closes.'
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The Buss family's control over the team, unlike other estates, was not permanent. The trust says that the team would not pass down to the next generation and would end with Jerry's six children. Now, they have chosen when it will sunset, and taken a hefty profit on the $67.5 million investment their father made. Walter, a minority owner for the last four years, bought a right of first negotiation when he acquired his share in 2021, then made the family an offer they couldn't pass on.
For all the Lakers' success under Buss and, in recent years, with Jeanie in control, the franchise was still flawed. The Lakers sometimes felt as if they were backed by a manifest destiny more than ruthless competence. They fell into a half-decade swoon as Kobe Bryant's career ended and through the first year of LeBron James' tenure in Hollywood. They were not known as one of the league's most aggressive investors into front office and coaching talent. Their basketball operations department lagged behind in size and spending behind small-market franchises like the Oklahoma City Thunder. They have not waged an all-out war against the league with the benefits of the economic inequality that being in L.A. has brought them.
When Walter takes over, that could be different. It is what he has done in Major League Baseball, where the Dodgers have shown that the best part about being rich is acting like it.
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The Dodgers have won 100 games in five of the last seven complete seasons and two World Series trophies (2020, 2024). They are seen as the best organization in baseball, with its best front office. They have invested in development and innovation and, yes, talent, and found the right way to marry it all together.
This season, the Dodgers will spend $476 million on player salary and luxury-tax payments combined. While that may not be possible in the NBA, where the new collective bargaining agreement is meant to suffocate its biggest spenders with punitive tax payments and roster-building restrictions, the Dodgers have not been cowed by the limits MLB has tried to set on them. They signed Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million contract but structured it so they only pay him $2 million a season.
The money they deploy toward the roster is only part of their success. The Dodgers hired the best general manager in baseball away from another team. They recognize there is only a salary cap on players and nowhere else in the organization.
'A key difference between baseball and basketball is that you can't simply outspend everyone on payroll the way the Dodgers do,' an NBA executive said. 'But what most people overlook is how much the Dodgers invest beyond just players. They spend at an elite level on infrastructure: front office talent, analytics and player development. Each area is essentially run by a GM-level executive, enabling them to retain top-tier personnel across the board.'
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Under Walter, the Lakers could become the best of both worlds, combining a small-market ingenuity with big-market largesse and press the advantages they already have. At a time when the local TV market is in flux, the Lakers have one of the best local broadcast contracts in sports. While other contenders scramble for stars, the Lakers traded for Luka Dončić under the cover of darkness. One thing that could get in the way of a decade of Thunder dominance is if an organization began to operate like Oklahoma City while playing in the second-largest market in the country that has also been a main attraction for the NBA's biggest stars.
'I think (Mark Walter) does everything he can to provide resources, support,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'He wants to win. He feels that the fans, the city deserves that. I think that's never lost. It's more challenging us always to, how do we become better and not complacent or stagnant to continue to say competitive with the market and the competition to win not only now but for as far as we can see out.'
The Lakers have always had swagger, now they could have a systemic approach to go along with it.
How Walter changes the Lakers remains to be seen, but it could continue to help change the NBA, too. He is soon to join a new cast of owners who have not eased their way into the league. Phoenix's Mat Ishbia has discarded any concerns about going above the second apron. Ryan Smith has dreams of turning Utah into one of the country's sports hubs. Joe Tsai's Brooklyn Nets signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in his first year in control. Steve Ballmer, now a veteran, has paid for a sprawling front office for the LA Clippers.
It is no coincidence, either. Valuations have skyrocketed for NBA teams over the last 15 years and the people who have bought them have come in with immense wealth and perhaps even larger aspirations.
Sports teams may still be public trusts, but they are no longer just toys for the uber-wealthy. Every franchise is a multi-billion dollar business, and the people who own them are coming in from finance and tech, and turning the organizations they've bought to mirror the companies they run.
Walter could make the Lakers a part of that arms race. He has already shown how he can in another sport. In Los Angeles, his purchase signals the end of one era and the dawn of another. After 45 years of Buss control, the Lakers might never be the same again.
Fabian Ardaya contributed to this report.
(Photo of Jeanie Buss: Will Navarro /NBAE via Getty Images)
