Facts check out — and the story has a twist worth building on: this is Mark Walter *reselling* the Lakers for $12.5bn barely a year after buying them for $10bn. Here’s the article.
Twelve months after Mark Walter paid a then-record $10bn to prise the Los Angeles Lakers from the Buss family, the franchise has changed hands again — this time for $12.5bn (£9.3bn), the most expensive sale of a sports team in American history. And according to figures with knowledge of the talks, the deal that reset the market was struck in a matter of days. Walter has agreed to sell control of the 17-time NBA champions to Josh Kushner, the founder of investment firm Thrive Capital, and Bob Iger, the former chief executive of Disney.
The speed is what stunned executives around the league. A transaction of this magnitude would normally involve months of due diligence, competing bids and drawn-out board vetting. Instead, a pair of buyers who had spent the previous months exploring an expansion team in Las Vegas pivoted, engaged Walter and closed on a handshake before the following week’s business began.
A weekend that rewrote the record book
The $12.5bn valuation eclipses every previous benchmark in North American sport. It comfortably clears the $10bn Walter himself paid in 2025 and dwarfs the sums recently commanded by the Boston Celtics and the NFL’s flagship franchises. For context, Dr Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979 for a reported $67.5m as part of a wider package — a figure that now reads like a rounding error against the price his family’s former asset just fetched.
Kushner and Iger arrive as a combination of new-economy capital and blue-chip entertainment pedigree. Kushner’s Thrive Capital has backed some of the biggest names in technology, while Iger spent more than 15 years turning Disney into a media empire built on Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. In a Los Angeles market where the line between sport and entertainment has all but vanished, the pairing reads as deliberate rather than accidental.
Why Walter sold so soon
The obvious question is why an owner would part with a trophy asset barely a year after acquiring it. The answer is partly arithmetic: a $2.5bn paper gain in twelve months is a return few investments of any kind can match, and franchise values at the top of the NBA have risen faster than almost anyone forecast. Walter, who also controls the Los Angeles Dodgers through Guggenheim Baseball Management, retains one of the most valuable portfolios in American sport regardless.
The sale is not yet a done deal in the formal sense. Like every ownership change, it must be ratified by the NBA’s Board of Governors, which unanimously approved Walter’s own purchase nine months ago. That vote is expected to be a procedural step rather than an obstacle, given the buyers’ financial standing, but it means the on-court hierarchy — from the front office to the roster built around Luka Doncic — operates under a cloud of uncertainty until the paperwork clears.
What it means for the Lakers and the league
For supporters, the immediate concern is continuity. The Lakers are not a distressed asset being flipped for parts; they are a title contender with one of the game’s marquee names on the payroll, and new owners will be judged first and foremost on whether they protect that. Kushner and Iger inherit:
- A roster centred on Luka Doncic, acquired in one of the most dramatic trades in franchise history
- A basketball operations department that will be watching closely for signs of a shake-up
- The commercial machinery of the NBA’s most globally recognised brand alongside the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors
For the wider league, the deal is a signal flare. Two consecutive record sales of the same franchise inside a year suggest the ceiling on NBA valuations is still rising, with implications for expansion fees, media-rights negotiations and every owner now sitting on an asset worth more than they thought. The mooted Las Vegas expansion — the very project that drew Kushner and Iger in — may yet command a price that would have been unthinkable a season ago.
What began as a quiet weekend of conversations has ended with the Lakers, again, at the centre of the sport’s economics. Whether the new owners can match that off-court statement with silverware is the question that will define their tenure. For now, the numbers alone have done the talking.
Sources: [ESPN — Lakers sold at $12.5 billion valuation](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49599895/los-angeles-lakers-sold-125-billion-valuation-nba-execs-agents-reaction-walter-kushner-iger-luka), [ESPN — Kushner, Iger to buy Lakers for $12.5B](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49590362/josh-kushner-bob-iger-buy-lakers-12b), [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lakers-sold-josh-kushner-bob-iger/), [ClutchPoints](https://clutchpoints.com/nba/los-angeles-lakers/lakers-news-mark-walter-sells-franchise-12-billion-amid-legal-troubles)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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