Lakers Set To Be Sold At Historic $10 Billion Valuation: Report

After the single-most winning run by a sports ownership group, the Buss family is reportedly selling the majority share of the Los Angeles Lakers, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. With a valuation of $10 billion, it will be the biggest sale in American sports history.

Mark Walter, CEO of TWD Global, will purchase their share of the team for the historic amount.  The Buss family will retain a small stake in the team, and current Lakers governor Jeanie Buss will remain in her role going forward.

Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Jack Kent Cook in 1979 for $67.5 million. After he died in 2013, the Buss Family Trust officially took ownership of the team, in which his daughter, Jeanie, has been in the leading role since.

Per Charania, Walter has previous experience in sports ownership, which includes a majority share of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as shares in the Los Angeles Sparks and other sports enterprises.

Buss Family Leading Lakers To Historic Success

When Buss originally bought the team, his purchase included both the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the Los Angeles Forum as well. The Lakers already had a history of winning titles, becoming champions five times from 1949 to 1954 during their time in Minneapolis. Before Buss in LA, they went to the Finals nine times from 1959 to 1972, winning in the last year after seven series losses to the Boston Celtics.

In Buss’ first season owning the team, the Lakers selected Magic Johnson in the 1979 draft. He,  paired alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, led them to the championship in that first 1980 season. They did so again in 1982, 1985, 1986, and 1988.

They made eight Finals appearances in Buss’ first 11 years owning the team. The ‘Showtime Lakers’, a term coined by Buss himself, marked a shift in the NBA that helped dramatically raise the value of professional basketball teams.

Less than a decade later, Los Angeles had a title-winning rebirth. Led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Byrant, they won three straight championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Bryant then guided Los Angeles to titles in 2009 and 2010, capping off their 16th NBA Championship and Buss’ 10th while owning the franchise.

When Buss passed in 2013, Jeanie became the team’s governor, with a group called the Buss Family Trust officially owning the franchise. After 10 ringless years, LeBron James led the Lakers to their latest Finals win in the 2020 season. Now, as the Buss family prepares to sell their majority share of the team, the 11 titles won with the Lakers are the most by a single ownership group or family in NBA history.

Lakers Going Forward

Even before they announced the sale, the Lakers were at the forefront of a new era, trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic in what was called ‘the most shocking trade in NBA history.’ With a 40-year-old James inching closer to retirement, they landed a franchise superstar in Doncic to lead them going forward.

Walter, the incoming majority owner, initially bought a minority share of the team in 2021. He is the majority owner and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a purchase made in 2012.  According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Walter’s investment with the Lakers gave him priority to buy if the Buss family ever decided to sell their share of the team.

“Walter earned the first right of refusal if the Buss family ever decided to sell their 66 percent stake when he purchased Phil Anschutz’s 26 percent stake in 2021,” Shelburne wrote on X. “In other words, this has been positioned to go this way. There are a lot of ties between the Lakers and Dodgers already.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most famous franchises in professional sports, and their historic $10 billion sale is a reminder of that. The Buss family transformed the Lakers from a successful franchise into a global brand and now stands to earn more than 100 times what Dr. Buss originally invested.