By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The Los Angeles Lakers have spent the past 14 months proving that even one of the NBA’s most tradition-bound franchises can change at breakneck speed.
Mark Walter’s stunning agreement to sell the Lakers to former Walt Disney chief Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner for a reported $12.5 billion valuation marks the second change in controlling ownership, following the end of the Buss family’s decades-long stewardship last October.
For a franchise synonymous with stability, tracing a lineage from George Mikan through Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant to LeBron James, the agreement marks the latest chapter in a period of uncharacteristic upheaval.
The Buss family, which had controlled the Lakers since 1979, agreed in June 2025 to sell a controlling interest to Walter at a then-record $10 billion valuation. Walter’s purchase closed in late October, bringing to an end an era in which the family became synonymous with one of professional sports’ most recognizable brands.
Now Walter, the controlling owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, is set to hand the Lakers to another high-profile ownership group led by Iger and Kushner, co-founder and managing partner of Thrive Eternal, a new investment strategy launched by his venture capital firm Thrive Capital.
The proposed sale underscores the extraordinary rise in the value of elite sports properties — and the particular appeal of a franchise whose profile stretches well beyond basketball.
The boardroom disruption has come alongside a reshaping of the Lakers’ on-court identity.
DONCIC’S TEAM
In February 2025, the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in one of the most surprising trades in recent NBA history, sending Anthony Davis the other way. The move gave Los Angeles a global star expected to anchor the franchise’s next era.
But the arrival of Doncic did not preserve the team’s previous order for long.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and the driving force behind the Lakers’ 2020 championship, informed the team in late June that he would continue his career elsewhere after eight seasons in Los Angeles.
Last month the 41-year-old signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, closing a chapter that included one title, a return to championship contention and the arrival of his son Bronny James as a teammate.
For the Lakers, James’ departure put an unmistakable stamp on the transition already underway. The organization that had spent years balancing the demands of a present built around James with a future centered on Doncic now has no choice but to embrace the 27-year-old.
That change is familiar territory for the Lakers, whose history has been defined as much by reinvention as by star power. The franchise moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960, built Showtime around Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, found a new dynasty with Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, then returned to the summit behind James and Davis.
Yet the concentration of recent change is striking, and the new owners will inherit a franchise with a global following, a record-setting valuation and a centerpiece in Doncic.
They will also inherit the expectations that come with the Lakers’ name: not simply to remain relevant, but to compete for championships.
In Los Angeles, however, relevance has rarely been the problem.
The Lakers have long occupied the center of the NBA’s attention. Through another ownership change, a franchise-altering trade and the exit of one of basketball’s greatest players, they have shown they have no intention of leaving it.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
