Less than a year after Mark Walter officially took majority ownership of the Lakers, the franchise is now being sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion.
This sale is not only a shock, but comes with many questions. One very important one that needs to be answered is: what happens to former Lakers majority owner and current governor Jeanie Buss?
When Walter took over the team, the understanding was that Jeanie would remain as governor for at least five years. However, just one season as the Lakers’
owner, Walter is gone. Will the new ownership group honor previous agreements?
Well, we have gotten an answer fairly quickly.
Iger, in an exclusive interview in the California Post written by Khobi Price, stated that Jeanie will remain on as the team’s governor.
Iger told the Post he and Kushner intend to honor the agreement made between Walter and Buss.
“We have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they’ve contributed to this franchise,” Iger said. “And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie. If things change, they’ll change, but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.”
It certainly sounds like Jeanie won’t be leaving her position with the franchise anytime soon. However, Iger did leave himself some leeway by saying, “If things change, they’ll change.”
Transitions of power in the NBA can be tricky.
When Mark Cuban sold the Mavericks, he believed he would continue to have control of the basketball operations and clearly that didn’t happen.
However, so far, Iger has made it crystal clear Jeanie is in the same job and will remain in it until further notice. If Iger does honor the agreement, then she will remain the team’s governor for at least another four seasons.
Plenty more changes will be coming to the Lakers with another new ownership group at the top, but at least there will be some stability in the front office with Jeanie running things.
We’ll see if Iger also gives Lakers President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka a similar endorsement.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
