Having overseen a decade-plus of success with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mark Walter is further expanding his business portfolio by purchasing a majority stake of the Los Angeles Lakers from the Buss family.
Walter and Jeanie Buss coming to terms on such an agreement is a landmark shift and represents the start of a new era in Lakers franchise history. That typically brings about sweeping changes throughout the front office, but that doesn’t appear to be the case for the Lakers just yet.
According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, the plan is for Buss to continue running the team moving forward, which Walter is fully supportive of:
In addition, Jeanie Buss will remain the Lakers’ governor and continue to run the team for “at least a number of years,” sources with knowledge of the deal told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. It was guaranteed as part of the agreement that Buss would remain in charge for the foreseeable future, and Walter fully endorsed this plan, according to sources.
Since Buss took over as governor, she regularly made it clear the family had no interest in selling the team their father famously purchased in 1979. Jerry Buss bought the Lakers, Los Angeles Kings and Forum arena from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million.
The Lakers’ 11 NBA titles under the stewardship of the Buss family is the most by any team since 1980.
With Walter taking over as new Lakers owner, the Buss family still has a stake of just over 15%, which allows Jeanie to remain in her position of team governor.
Such an arrangement typically has not worked out for teams in the past, with Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks being the most recent example. When Cuban sold the Mavs, the plan was for him to continue running it, although that quickly changed to the point where he had no say in the organization trading superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers.
But given that Walter originally purchased a minority stake in the Lakers in July 2021, there is a strong relationship with Buss by all accounts.
Dave Roberts endorses Mark Walter as Lakers owner
Dave Roberts is in his 10th season as Dodgers manager, with each of those years coming under Walter and the Guggenheim Baseball ownership group.
“I think it’s a very exciting day for the Lakers, for the city of Los Angeles,” Roberts said. “Speaking as a Dodger employee, he’s very competitive and he’s going to do everything he can to produce a championship-caliber team every single year and make sure the city feels proud about the Lakers and the legacy they’ve already built with the Buss family.”
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