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One of the most famous families in basketball is about to exit stage left.
After 46 years and 11 championships, the Buss family is selling its majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation.
It is one of the most stunning sales in the history of sports not only for the gargantuan price, but for the people behind it.
The Buss family has never been absentee owners.
Dr. Jerry Buss was so essential to running the Lakers that HBO literally made a TV show about him.
Several of his children have held significant roles not just in the business, but in basketball operations, and Jeanie Buss has been the team’s governor since her father died in 2013.
Everything that has happened to the Lakers for nearly the past half-century has revolved around this family in some meaningful way.
Jeanie Buss will reportedly retain her governorship of the team, but we do not yet know what exactly that will entail.
It’s hard to believe Walter would spend $10 billion on a team he isn’t going to control.
This sale is going to change quite a bit in Los Angeles, so let’s talk about who stands to benefit and who loses out in the biggest franchise sale in NBA history.
We like to apply credit and blame for a team’s success or failures to superstars, but more often than not, those stars are at the mercy of their front offices.
Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant won the Buss family 10 championships, but most of their teams were built by Jerry West, the greatest general manager in NBA history.
The 11th and final Buss championship came from LeBron James.
Sure enough, he wasn’t drafted by a team that had a West-esque executive at the helm, so he had to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to get to one.
He started winning championships when he linked up with Pat Riley in Miami.
Think about the front office Dončić is coming from in Dallas.
Forget for a moment that it was dumb enough to trade him in the first place.
When Nico Harrison took over in 2021, the Mavericks had Kristaps Porziņģis and Jalen Brunson flanking Dončić. They lost both essentially for nothing. Dončić’s prime, at that point, was not in good hands.
Well, now the person shaping the organization as Dončić hits his theoretical peak will be Walter.
No, he will not be making the basketball decisions, but his track record with the Dodgers speaks for itself.
They haven’t missed the playoffs since his first season owning the team.
They’ve made the World Series four times, won it twice and have won more than 60% of their games.
He’s going to put the right people in place to lead this team into the future.
That’s no guarantee of anything, of course, but it’s a good sign for Dončić’s hopes of competing for titles in Los Angeles.
