The Los Angeles Lakers' ownership saga continues with perhaps no real end in sight. Five of the six Buss siblings -- other than Jeanie Buss, the team's governor -- recently elected to sell their collective 17.8% share of the franchise to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, both of whom recently agreed to buy Mark Walter's majority stake in the franchise. Buss is determined to fight her siblings in order to hold on to a sliver of the Lakers and maintain her role as governor.
This is more than enough to make those within the organization feel gloomy about the upcoming NBA season. But in a recent article for The Athletic, beat writer Dan Woike wrote that there is optimism about where the franchise is headed under its incoming owners.
"The pending changes
— Iger and Kushner’s groups are in their 'diligence' phase of the purchase — have certainly caused some anxiety for employees bracing for another ownership change.
"... Still, multiple sources in different departments expressed optimism about the direction of the franchise under Iger and Kushner. Some felt the [Los Angeles] Dodgers’ impact on the Lakers was pushing too hard toward analytics and doing so with an arrogance that turned off some people in basketball operations and the locker room. Those people weren’t upset to see a pathway for new management to come in, even if it’s a bit of a mystery and doesn’t have the track record of the Dodgers’ success."
Ever since Walter, who also owns the Dodgers, bought his majority share last October, the Lakers have been building out their front office and hiring multiple people to fill specific roles. They have also been modeling their operations after the Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions.
Fans had expressed hope and even excitement as a result, following years of the franchise allegedly being run like a mom-and-pop business when the Buss family was its primary owner.
Kushner is the co-founder of Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm, as well as the co-founder of health insurance company Oscar Health. Iger had been the CEO of the Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020, and he had a second stint in that role starting in November 2022 until March of this year.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Report: Lakers sources have expressed optimism about incoming owners
