How the Lakers sale came to be + Can expansion talks heat up? | NBA Today

How the Lakers sale came to be + Can expansion talks heat up? | NBA Today

the NBA’s marquee franchise is changing hands reported by our own Sham Shiranya on Wednesday afternoon the Bus family is entering into an agreement to sell the majority ownership stake of the Lakers to Mark Walter with a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion now the Lakers they have the best win percentage most playoff wins and most championships since Jerry Bus bought the team that was in 1979 a month before drafting Magic Johnson the Lakers they’ve won 11 titles in that time between the Showtime Lakers and you get Shaq and Kobe’s partnership LeBron and Anthony Davis and now the new face one of them of the franchise is weighing in Luca Donic he reacted on social media saying quote “The Lakers are an amazing organization i’m looking forward to meeting Mark and excited about the future i’m also grateful to Jeanie and the Bus family for welcoming me to Los Angeles and I’m happy that Jeanie will continue to be involved.” He says “I look forward to working with both of them to win championships.” We know that is music to Lakers fans ears shams it feels like this kind of happened lickety split under the the cloak of night almost how exactly did this deal come together 10 billion you say it Malikica 10 billion reasons why i mean that’s the encapsulating reason as to why this sale happened because we thought listen Genie bus Jerry bus the bus brothers the bus family we thought this team would be in LA with the bus under family under control forever but it is changing hands because Mark Walter came with 10 billion dollar valuation I’m told Genie Bus drove the sale process uh really negotiated the deal with Mark Walter and you think about it it’s going to eventually be 500 $600 million per sibling and there was a vote process that I’m told they got a majority vote between the six siblings to sell the franchise but it wasn’t unanimous from my understanding um and so that that is an interesting wrinkle as well and this is how it’s going to work right now genie bus going to remain governor for a period of time but Mark Walters coming in $10 billion valuation usually when someone’s going to come in at that valuation they’re going to eventually uh want to have some level of an impact yeah it’s hard to say no when someone comes in with $10 billion the way that Mark Walter did here what does this mean for the league going forward Brian because I think at the Boston Celtics and this is already upping the ante from that sale well I think two big things first off it means that the Lakers are about to join the modern era while they have had incredible success and their brand is enormous they ran as a family operation in a league that is run by tech billionaires and hedge fund billionaires and they run their NBA teams that way and they invest in the infrastructure of their teams the Lakers were behind in that regard and they are going to I’m sure get great investment there and we know this because Mark Walter and his group did this exact same thing with the Dodgers when he brought them out of a family operation into the modern era and they have become a juggernaut the second thing for the league is I think we’re going to now see real uh momentum towards expansion the price of the Celtics the price of the Lakers adam Silver already said that it’s going to be a topic on the board of governors meeting coming up in July in Las Vegas the value that they could give for expansion has been ex explosive inflated and the the you know the other owners are going to want to get in on this and so I think we’re going to see some movement in that direction with the new benchmark being set you know jumping forward on what Brian was saying i talked to a high level person NBA today and they said it’s leaning towards perhaps expansion coming soon this summer but it’s not a no-brainer you know when the owners come in all the numbers going to come in with them right and that league’s doing good they’re about to do the Europe thing uh they’re making money with NBA Africa which had better attendance uh China they’re making a bunch of money in China so when you look at it all these owners look at it do you want to share a piece of the pie now right it’s like dominoes it’s all good money money good money so they’ll sit back and look at it cuz what it comes to you go from 130th to 132nd long term so you’re cutting more a piece of the pie so yeah there’s a expectation probably about a $6 billion for whatever that team comes in but long term is that worth the squeeze for the expansion and the teams and that’s going to be the question that the owners are going to be asking each other that the league is going to be asking the owners in the more immediate future ud as a player how are you looking at this relationship with with owners with deep pockets frankly coming into the glamour franchise of the NBA i mean just let me know everything for sale for the right price if you got if you come in with the right number and you know like they said you make them offer they can’t refuse but as a player you look at the Lakers organization and what they’ve been able to accomplish you got to be excited because what this guy has come in and done with the Dodgers and you look at that organization and how they’ve been able to basically dominate baseball the last couple years and sign all the players they want and get all the best guys so salary cap in the same way but yes this is true but he has a he has a method he has a motto and he’s been able to succeed on that level and also look at it that Jenny Bus if I’m not mistaken the buses keep about 15 to 17% she’s going to still governor so you still have your hands in the pot you still get to be around you still get to scratch your itch um and you walk away with a whole lot of damn money so I see it’s a win-win for those people i I think that the question that comes to mind Shams Brian is does this have any impact we hear from Luca Donic saying “I’m ready to win championships on the future of LeBron James of Luca with this organization.” Well Luca gets to put his you know his words to to paper if he wants because starting on August 2nd he can extend his contract he has one guaranteed year left he has a player option after that but he could be a free agent in 2026 the day they traded for him they knew that they had to try to make the environment a place where he would want to extend his contract in August he could extend for up to four years and 229 million there’s some reasons why he might only go three years but they need to get Luca locked in and to be honest with you with where the Lakers are as an organization and with this new ownership I can’t imagine there’d be a better place for him to be than Los Angeles and I would expect him to sign but until it’s signed it’s not signed players like Luka Don LeBron James what they want from ownership is aggressiveness people willing to spend and Mark Walter in his time with the Dodgers and in my research on him over the last 24 hours talking to people both the MLB world the NBA world is that he’s an owner that is very aggressive that he is very passionate about his teams and so I think any star player would love to have that as an owner i know that my sister Jeanie would have only considered selling the Lakers to someone she knows and trusts would carry on the bus legacy started by her father Dr bus now she can comfortably pass the baton to Mark Walter whom she has a real friendship and trust with so Ramona Shelburn is joining us now and I think everyone Ramona caught this was caught off guard by surprise a little bit by this sale you have been in the trenches working alongside Dave McMinnon Tim Bontm Sham Shiranya on the details of this story how did this come together well this started in 2021 when Mark Walter bought a minority share of the Los Angeles Lakers it’s about 26 and change percent right closer to 27 and the most important part of that deal was that he got the first right of refusal if they ever chose to sell the team now what I think is interesting about this one is they weren’t looking to sell the team mark has just been trying to buy more of the Bus family shares since he bought that minority stake and Jeannie Bus I think was not necessarily looking to sell but the offer just kept getting more and more compelling and you have to understand she is the she is the governor of the of the Lakers but she also manages that family trust she has a responsibility a fiduciary responsibility to everyone else in that family so when somebody says to you “We’ll make you this Godfather $10 billion offer.” You got to bring it to everyone you can’t sit on that and be like “Yeah I’m not really sure i don’t.” You got to bring it to everyone it’s not just her decision and so they brought it to the rest of the family they had a they had a vote of the six siblings it was the votes came in yesterday it was a majority vote i don’t know the exact numbers but it was a majority i didn’t hear the word unanimous and I know that one of the majority was Jeannie Bus okay so Jeanie Bus said that this is going to be the best decision for the the family and the best decision for the Los Angeles Lakers i have deep admiration in Jeannie Bus for many many reasons but she has sort of continued to put the Los Angeles Lakers organization in the best position that she can and part of that organization the Los Angeles organization Chana is the Sparks and you played for the Sparks for several years what What do you think this means what are you hearing from players and the like of what this means for the entire sort of LA family yeah I know this ownership group very well and you mentioned the tent pole being 2020 2021 and around that time I was in Los Angeles and I do one acknowledge that this is a game changer because I’ve been able to see when I was in LA how they have invested in the Dodgers and that has yielded the greatest results especially when it comes to investing in resources for teams to win and now that trickles down to other areas like the Lakers which is awesome and then secondly the first thing that comes to mind is that competitive mindset is absolutely there this is an ownership group that understands that this is a championship city Los Angeles and that is the standard and I believe being able to figure out more ways to create resources to support the players to support the teams to support the front office that’s what you’re getting and also you get the succession right like Genie’s still involved and I think that to me is tremendous how exactly is that going to look because I think at the Dallas Maverick sale and Mark Cuban said he was going to be involved mark Cuban is a close friend and confidant of Genie Bus maybe she got some advice on how this could go differently yeah so typically the NBA has a rule that if you are the go if you are the control owner you are also the governor um it seems like the NBA is willing to make some adjustments here because that’s what Rick Rusebach is trying to do with the Celtics it may this sale may have been predicated not just on the price but on the NBA more willing to leave a governor in place and by the way I think this is a potentially perfect situation because Jeannie Bus ran this franchise extremely well she just ran it without the incredibly deep pockets that other owner other teams have nobody questions the decision she makes they just questioned how deep the pockets were now she’s going to potentially have deep pockets and all the experience to run it and one thing I’ll say Ramona you mentioned about them selling 27% in 2021 that share was purchased at five billion which was an all-time record for valuation by the way right from Phil anes AEG in five years the Lakers value doubled I mean what does that say about where things are you want to know why they said yes because it doubled in just five years the idea of a doubling again I don’t think that’s possible but I guess anything’s possible you last word on this I mean I love it what can you say wrong about that I mean you you give it to a guy who’s proing that he’s going to win he puts winning first you keep you keep a part of it you still get to be in the fo you still get to rub elbows with a team you still get to have an impact and you still get to cash out yep cha-ching [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

NBA Today’s Malika Andrews, Shams Charania, Brian Windhorst, Marc J. Spears, Chiney Ogwumike, Ramona Shelburne and Udonis Haslem discuss the Buss family selling the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation and how the sale could impact talks for expansion this summer.

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