Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - REACTION: Lakers Sold Again In MASSIVE $12.5 Billion Dollar Deal, What Does This Mean For LA?

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne to react to the Lakers’ getting sold in a stunning & record-breaking $12.5 billion dollar deal to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. We break down why this sale happened now, what this means for the future in Los Angeles and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, Ramona. How are you? Hey, Bri. I was wondering what time zone you were in. I know you've been having this fabulous European vacation. BST, British summertime. Joining us from Dallas, Texas, is Van McMan. Howdy, partners.

I'd say you're always on BST, Wendy. That was on the T for you, sir. Ramona, this was a genuine shocker when I heard about, I heard about slightly before you tweeted it while I was on about the 11th hole today. I was quite surprised. I was quite surprised. the Lakers being resold after a little more than a year to a group, I assume it will be a group

because they'll continue to be selling pieces of this as my guess. But to a group with our old boss, Bob Iger, and, you know, just a stunning turn of events, Ramona. How did this story come together and what's your viewpoint of it? I had to take a minute, too, Brian, when I first started getting wind of it. I would say very late last night in Los Angeles. So that would have been Tuesday night, very late Tuesday night. I couldn't even really wrap my head around this.

Like, is this right? You know, like, but I, you know, you got to run those things down, right? We all get tips like that and you run them down. And then I went to bed thinking I was, I was probably right, but I wasn't sure yet. And then I woke up very early and I knew I was right. And then we had to get enough confirmations to go with it. But it was, like, I kind of, he owned the team for less than a year. Like, it was 10 months.

Like, it's just, I understand the business aspect. I mean, let's go back to when Mark Walter first became a public figure to us when he bought the Dodgers. And that purchase was for $2.15 billion. And everybody was like, whoa, that's so much money, right? He just made $2.5 billion in 10 months selling the Lakers. And I don't think that was the initial intention. of buying the shares of the Lakers. I think there was grand plans

with the Walter Group and the Dodgers and the Lakers. I don't even think he was offering this up. The way this came together is, I'm sorry, the way this came together was that Josh Kushner and Bob Iker were one of the bid groups in Las Vegas. And they've been trying to get an expansion team in Vegas. From what I understand,

the bidding on that franchise has gotten close to that $10 billion number or at least where they were in that moment. was around 10. And that's the same price, the valuation, Mark paid Jeannie Bus when he bought her shares of the Lakers. And I think both of them being LA the natives go,

you know, we want to buy legacy brands. Like, why buy something new and start it all new and spend another two or three billion building an arena in Vegas without at least checking with Mark Walter? And I think we should talk about the backstory here, which is that there's been some reports over the last few months. the marks under investigation with the Department of Justice. Everyone involved says denies blanket denial that this had anything to do with it,

but you and I are smart. Tim, you're also here. I mean, I couldn't resist. Yes. Yes, Ramona. Gosh, gosh, that made my summer. I know. I know.

I know. I couldn't. You left one on a T and I didn't swing, so I had to do this one. But. Hall of fun. Hube Collective Hall of Fame, Ramona Shelburne, she's in. You know, we're all very tired so we can be funny like that. I think, I think, look, did he intend to sell the team and flip it?

Like, I mean, he just made a huge business. You know, he just made a lot of money in 10 months. But are Josh and Bob Eiger smart enough to know that somebody who's dealing with a lot of other issues might be receptive to a call like that? yes, and from what I understand this happened over the weekend, it was a short timetable that Mark had to think about this. I want to say a day or two that he had to even think about whether he considered it. I don't think they initially offered 12.5. I think that got to that number of some back and forth. But they were either going to get a yes or a no from Mark and then get

back into the expansion bid, right? They had to have an answer to, hey, before we, before we go in Vegas. Let's make sure that, you know, we can't buy the Lakers instead. They're both from L.A. Josh Kushner, you should all go and do a bunch of research on him. He is the brother of Jared Kushner, but he is a very different man politically. And there's some articles that have been written about that. I can refer you to an Esquire article. You can read that. He's sort of on the record saying I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. They're not politically affiliated. All of this is going to be stuff for us to discuss over the next few months as this is going. But I think there was a giant business opportunity for Mark that came at a time when he's dealing with a lot of other

legal issues that he took. He just took it. You know, it's, it's, there's probably advantages to being liquid here, you know, to get all this money back into the accounts. I, you know, I don't know. I'm speculating on that, but it's, but it's, it's interesting. And that's what everyone in the NBA is wondering and talking about because I certainly think when Mark bought the Lakers from GD. Bus, the intention was to own them for a very long time. Yeah, you don't buy the Lakers to flip them. You know, it's not like a, you know, it's not like a house you buy into a quick remodel and flip. This is the freaking Los Angeles Lakers and it's just crazy.

You see the top two purchase prices of professional sports franchises. This broke the record that Mark Walter set less than a year ago. ago. And it's just a, and look, I get a 25% profit by $2.5 billion. That's more than Tillman Fertita paid for the Rock. It's not that long ago. Yeah. Well, I get that. Hold on. Hold, let's just, let's just stop right now. Let's talk about things that we know, things that we believe. Let's start with things that we know, okay? We know that Mark Walter is under investigation by the SEC. We are not insurance law specialists.

We are not assistant U.S. District attorneys. We are not investigators. But he is under investigation. We know this. We know that he is under investigation because there is a suspicion that he might have put too much of his insurance company's money into his. his other businesses, which are referred to as affiliated companies. Essentially, it's, you know, you're allowed to take some money out of your left pocket and put it into your right. But there's regulation on insurance companies and there's suspicion that maybe not all of the rules were followed.

From what I understand that, there's state law issues versus federal law issues, but we don't understand that. So we're not going to go into that. We know that Mark Walter didn't want to buy the Lakers for one year. It was a stepped process where he and his partners bought 27% of the Lakers in 2021. And they gave Jeannie Bus a five-year transition window to remain as the governor, where after that they would do that. You don't do that if you're planning on flipping it. Okay.

So we know that that that's a factor. Okay. I also want to say a couple other things. He bought the team. He bought, he owned 27% and now they own Ramona about 77%. Is that correct? I think that's right. The bus family owns 17 or 18.

And Patrick Shunshan owns about 7%. We don't know unless you do. Rossi owns a little too, yeah. Yeah. We don't know unless you do how much a percentage they're selling. I believe they're buying all of Mark's shares. Okay. It's not, he didn't actually make $2 billion because he didn't pay $10 billion for the team.

But I'm not going to get into all that. It has to do with valuations. There's potentially reasons why he would want to get liquidity for his businesses. Again, this is not a financial podcast. And there's also reasons why he would want to potentially be able to show the SEC that he made an investment that returned a big profit for his insurance business. All of those things are true. Here's something else that is true. Josh Kushner is a minority owner of the Miami Heat and previously was a minority. the owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, and therefore has been approved to have that by the NBA. He has been vetted on some level by the NBA and approved by the NBA to own pieces of two different teams. In fact, he will have to sell his share of the Miami Heat, which, by the way, the Heat don't sell shares very often. That's a very closely held team. That's neither here nor there. He will have to sell the shares of Miami Heat before he can buy the Lakers. That potentially

could take some time as a side note. Now, I want to point to something. Now, Bob Eiger has been a long, long-time, close business associate with the NBA and its owners and top officials. As the CEO of Disney, he was part of the negotiations that have renewed multiple times to be the rights. This is our company at ESPN. We carry the NBA. Bob Eiger has sat at negotiating tables with Adam Silver for years. There's obviously a relationship there. Also, Kushner and Iger and their group were raising money to make this Vegas team.

I don't know how much money Josh Kushner has. I don't know how much money Bob Iger has. There's estimations out there. They're going to have to have other partners here. But they didn't just put this ownership group together in three days. They've been putting it together for months, if not years, to prepare to bid for Las Vegas. And so there was this ready made. And by the way, this is one thing that Mark Walter did.

If Mark Walter, you know, came to the point where he understood he had to sell the Lakers, it's not a bad time to sell a high asset when you've got all these ownership, potential ownership groups who've been working for a long time to put money together. That's part of the reason why it happened so fast. Now, Ramona, I want to refer to a quote that Bob Eager told the California Post. California Post. Sorry, it's a new publication. He gave an interview to Kobe Price.

the Lakers Beat writer for the California Post. And I want to read this sentence carefully, assuming that Bob chose these words carefully. Okay? He said, we were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas. And while that happened, it was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his stake in the Lakers. A lot is in that sentence. I don't want to assume that that is like the ironclad sentence. But Ramona makes it sound like somebody came to them.

Okay. I can speculate who that somebody was, but I'm not going to. Okay. This is a different version than I have heard. I know. So I don't want to say that that's inaccurate or anything. And I don't want you to either. Right.

This is why we as reporters. you know, we, I don't, I'm never afraid to say I don't know yet, right? We have to find this part out. But I, the sense I got is these are very well-connected guys and they're very bright. And everybody in the league has been talking about what's going on with Mark Walter for the past month or so. I think there's been a Bloomberg story and a Wall Street Journal story. I've been digging on it. I think that's partially how.

I found out about this is, you know, you're just kind of digging into things and calling the kinds of people who help you understand things like this. And so they're smart enough to know that what's in the background matters. Okay. So did somebody push them? Did somebody tell them? I don't know. That's not what I've heard so far. But we shall see. There's more to come here. Yes. Well, so what Bloomberg reported again, this is Bloomberg's end of the business, not my R end of the business. What Bloomberg reported was in the last couple of weeks since this investigation went public that Mark Walter has been looking to take businesses that he moved his insurance money into and unwind them. So he can get the money that he gave from his insurance company out of them. Now, I do not want to make an assumption. as to why he's doing that, but he's been reportedly investigated for maybe not 100% following all the laws, putting his money into affiliated companies. And now he's trying to take money out of the affiliated companies and put him back to insurance. You can decide what you want to decide on how that goes. But I will say this. I'm not surprised it was $12 billion, Ramona, because in all honesty, I think the Lakers sold for less than they could have gotten on the open market. a year ago. And I think a big reason they sold for less was because Jeannie Bus made the deal where

she was able to stay governor for five years. I don't disagree with you. I think also you have to remember, Mark had first right to refusal. Right. But they had to agree on the price. Yeah, but it was the only deal that she could, like he, that he was the only person she could deal with. Like, anybody else, if she would have put him up for sale, anybody else, let's say somebody else wants to bid 15, Mark could have then had the right to say, well, I'll bid 15. Like, he, you know, I agree. I agree. But they were incentivized to work together because Walter's group was incentivized to work with Jeannie. Right.

More Hoop Collective podcast after this. I think you have also reported that Jeannie will remain as the governor. I have not reported that. That was something that Iger said to Kobe. And I have not confirmed that. Iger's quote left. There was definitely a hedge in that quote. you know, great respect for Jeannie, I think, and it was Jeannie and the family,

and we're going to do everything we can to honor the agreement that Mark had with her. But things could change. You know, there was a hedge in that quote. So I don't, what I've been told is for now, this is business as usual with the Lakers. They've hired all these new people. They just, you know, completely redid the team. Luca Donchitz is looking up going, wow, I thought it was strange in Dallas. Yeah, well, McMahon, so Luca gives this quote, which is savvy.

He's very smart to come out with the quote. By the way, Lucas, ultimately all that matters is what he does on the court. But Luca's management of his public profile since he's become a Laker has been excellent, largely. Well, Lucas's priority or prioritizing of that has changed because he got slapped in the faced by the harsh realities of MBA business if you don't take an active approach in managing these kind of situations and forming partnerships with ownership and front office and so on and so forth. And his business manager, Ramona knows you well, Laura Best-Sager, same business manager.

I think Luca is allowing her to be more proactive and more aggressive. Well, whatever is happening with Luca, his manager. management of situations and even how he got out in front at times of the unfortunate battle he's having over the custody of his children. He has been, anyway, I don't want to get into that, but, you know, inviting his team to Slovenia, the moves he's made investing in the community in Los Angeles. I just think Luka's everything, team Luka is operating well. Ultimately, player Luka has to win.

But one of the things he says in this, he makes a lot of. a statement. And he says, being a Laker means everything to me. As an aside, an excellent opening line for the Laker fans who have gotten their heads a little bit on a swivel right now. I know it's very basic, but words matter

and this is beautifully constructed. I'm excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to L.A. Okay, we have got check marks across the board. I'm thrilled about being a Laker just in case anybody is like, oh my God, what does Luca think about all this thing? I want to play basketball.

I'm so excited because, you know, he was injured and, you know, everything. Great. Bring a championship. You know, the thing that fans want to hear, whether they're in Washington or L.A. or Siberia, is they want a championship. Beautiful, beautiful, first sentence. Great A. Period.

I've gotten used to big changes over these last few years. Okay. This is him saying. Okay. How many times we're going to sell? Is LeBron going to be on the team? No. Okay.

Fine. You know, so like, this is him acknowledging. Forget that, dude. Big change is Cuban sold new ownership. He got backstab traded in the middle of the night. Jeannie Bus sold or the bus family sold. Now Mark Walter. I mean, it's just like, this is his fifth ownership group.

Can we just go wait? Brian, you like to do what we know versus what we think. Okay. So what we, let's just do the timeline, all right? February 2025, Luca gets blindsided. the middle of the night trade. Okay. May, when he's just getting to know Laker fans and Laker ownership,

Jeannie Bus sells the controlling interest to Mark Walter. He goes to like the Backstreet Boys concert with Mark Walter and the team. Remember that? Like, okay, everything's cool. Everybody's wearing white. Everybody's wearing white. They are at the sphere together, except LeBron wasn't there. He was busy.

He had other things going on that summer. But they, he's kind of getting. good with the new guy. He signs the extension in August. Okay, we're re-upping. And then the sale goes, okay, the sale goes through in October. But let's back up a little bit because in the reporting on Mark Walter and the DOJ investigation, the first investigation seems to have started in September of last year. Okay. And that's, I think it was either Bloomberg or the journal. So apologies to whoever had that first, but it was one of those two. September of last year. And, The sale to Mark Walter is approved in October.

So did the NBA, were they fully apprised of what was going on behind the scenes when they approved this sale? I don't know that answer. That's something we all have to go look into and find out. But from what I understand, it was a fairly quick closing. I mean, he just wired $6 billion. Like, he just had it and he wired it. As one does. And he already, again, he'd already been, as a 27% owner, him.

this group had already been approved. Obviously, they had to show that they had the money. They had to have a signed sales agreement. So, you know, like, look, I will, something, something had happened, though, because it went public and your actions over words, Ramona, the actions of Mark Walter are a man who looks like he's in trouble and is trying to sell a bunch of stuff to unwind his trouble position. And the other thing that the Wall Street Journal reported on this, investigation started a course of. Going to the Wall Street Journal with the internal whistleblower, which is never good, of course. Anyway, I want to get back.

But I'm not past, frankly McMahon. You're saying he's had five owners in less than three years. Wow. That's incredible. But let me finish. Four, right? Cuban. No.

Cuban, Dumont, the bus, Walter, Pugner-Iger. This would be his fifth ownership. group in a pretty quick span. Wow. That's crazy. I mean, this is Chris Paul trade level of like, oh my God, like shifting sand beneath your feet. Well, the thing is, well, I'll have them to finish this. But I know, okay, I've gotten used to big changes over the last few years, but I know no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get work, do we get to work building something special and out of lay together. I don't even know these guys. I haven't met these guys, but it's an iconic franchise. Bob Eiger said to the California

Post that this came together in three days, and I believe them, because they were all in on trying to buy Vegas. Now, one of the big questions, Ramona, is the thing that was exciting Laker fans is they watched Walter and his partners and his leadership, some of whom were also going to be leading the Lakers, right? Yeah. They watched him modernized the Dodgers. Not only inject a bunch of money into the Dodgers, and we all know that you can't spend money in NBA like you can in baseball. But there was this excitement that the Lakers were sort of a mom-and-pop operation,

and Rob Polinkas talked about this, that money was going to be injected into the Laker franchise. They were going to modernize, and that this was going to potentially hopefully go down the Dodgers path. now I have no idea what what Josh and Bob have planned or what they're financially going to be able to do by buying at this level. And it's going to be a little unsettling. I mean, I'm sure. I mean, Bob Eiger knows the NBA as well as anybody. Josh Kushner has, again, been a part of the league.

Like these are not people who are naive, but, you know, this is the different level of pocket that has come. coming in. Yeah. Okay, they've hired a lot of new people. They've hired analytics guys. They've hired scouts. They've hired marketing people. They've hired business executives. They've hired the whole business operations. Yeah. So Andrew Friedman was advising Rob Polinka, Farhan Zaidi, who was the GM of the Dodgers once. Then he was a Giants GM. Now he's back. He's the special advisor for Mark Walter, he's been very involved with Rob Polinka and the whole front office there and the hiring. All of these things have been set in motion. Like, when you say actions over words, all of their actions were of an ownership group that was taking over for the long haul.

They signed guys to four-year deals. They sign, this team they put together on Luca, this is a team that is built to stay together, right? They don't have a lot of flexibility now after giving up the two draft picks for Walker Kessler. Quentin Grimes got a four-year deal. Sandra Malmoukellish-Feele got a four-year deal. It's really, I'm getting good at it now. I've really worked on that one. We have to say it all the time, so I got it.

I just have to get that nailed, right? Four-year deal for some role players, and that's a lot. And the idea is they wanted that group to grow together. Well, if you pay $12 billion, $12.5 billion, I love that I just forget the half, because like it's $500 million. It's a lot of money. Didn't the bucks sell for that once, not too long ago? Just to be clear.

They're paying the valuation of $12. The valuation. I hate to be a stickler on this. You're right. Okay. So, because if you really think about it, we can get really technical. But Mark bought 26% at a $5 billion valuation, then he bought the rest of it at a $10 billion valuation.

So he's actually done better. It's like, just think of it like a stock, okay? If you bought the stock at five and then it goes up to 10, the first shares you bought really are worth a lot more now. Okay? And then the ones at 10 are worth a lot. Okay. That's right.

Yeah. Okay. Let's put it this way. It was a very good investment buying into Lakers for Mark Walter and his group. And probably, probably, I don't know, but probably terribly disappointing that he's got to sell them. Yeah. And I let's work on our wording here because I don't think we know that he had to sell them. I don't think we know yet that he wanted to sell them.

Fair enough. think we know that he did sell them. Does that make sense? Like I, you know, this is all, let's put it this way. Let's put it. It seems like a forehead and you're fine. I would be stunned. I don't know. I would be stunned if this was ever viewed as a flip. Stunned. I don't think it was ever viewed as a flip. I would say I don't think it's incorrect to conclude that two very smart businessmen saw another business. who's dealing with some legal issues and took the opportunity to pounce. This is what guys like that do all the time. But they did not get it as a distressed asset.

They did not get a discount price. Right, right, without question. Okay, so now, so we have a lot of questions that are unanswered. Yep. And we're just not going to know today. but I will say this. At the end of the day, these are people who are well respected within the NBA community.

This is not Tom Dundon. Tom Dundan may end up being a better owner than these two. What do I know? I can't see the future. But there's a lot of owners who know these guys and like them. And as long as they can demonstrate they can bring the money, they will be approved. Okay.

Well, he just made everyone a lot richer too. And he's, Iger negotiated a lot of deals to send a lot of money to the owners over the years. Yeah. And let's also bring up one name. I think it's an important name to bring up. Okay. Chris Paul is a very good friend of Bob Igers. He just recently retired. So he's available. I know he has some production company designs that he's done. I think he's got the world as his oyster. He can do whatever he wants. But if I'm Bob Iger, I think one of my first calls is to Chris. Paul and is asking it how he would like to be involved, if he would like to be involved, et cetera. But I certainly think that's a name to watch as we go forward. That is one of the first names that I thought of because of the relationship that they have. And, you know, I don't know what the role would be.

But I think if you ask Chris Paul, I don't think he would lack confidence in his ability to contribute to or lead an organization in a management. role. You know, the NBA bubble was basically put together by Chris Paul and Bob Eiger going on walks in the Hollywood Hills during COVID. Yeah. You know, they put it together. They talk about a partnership, you know, they would then they would call Adam Silver while they were walking and yeah and talk about it. It's a very fun HOOP collective exclusive for you here, Brian. All right. We love it. Josh Kushner is married to a supermodel close, right? And a couple of years ago, I think she is a bright woman who wants to have a career beyond being a model.

And I think she is really bright. You know, she has a whole background in business as well. She befriended Willow Bay, who is the wife of Bob Eager. And I think they've had a close friendship for several years. And as the wives get close, sometimes the husbands become friends too. And when Bob Eiger retired from Disney the first time, he worked at Thrive Capital. He was an advisor there. They were doing deals.

And then when he retired from Disney for good, I guess the second time, he became very involved in what is the new fund, Thrive Eternal, which is this fund that's now involved in the sports franchises, which is supposed to kind of value iconic brands. That's what they pitched this fund as. This is checkmark. This is an iconic brand. Yeah.

Without question. I thought you would like that. I thought you would like that. Listen. Yeah, well, I think because people, you know, this is not a political podcast. We don't do that. People hear the name Kushner. They get, you know, their father, this is just surface level here. I'm not trying to do an in-depth thing. Their father, Charles Kushner, was involved in real estate and made a lot of money. Jared Kushner has his own operations and political standings. Josh Kushner has a separate business. and I'm sure there's connections. I'm not trying to whatever, but Thrive Capital is his business. He has been an investor in a whole bunch of companies that have gone public and he's worth $5 billion.

Yeah. You know, so whatever that's worth to you. Bob Eager was at one time planning or thinking about running for president as a Democrat. Well, and let's go back with Bob Eiger. Okay. I got to know him. A, he was all of our bosses, but I got to know him because he would sit center court at Clipper Games. And we just, would go up and talk to him. He was a big fan. That's how he got to be friends with Chris Paul. And Chris kind of sought him out as a mentor. They've developed a genuine friendship and mentorship over the years. But Bob also tried to bring the NFL to Los Angeles about a decade ago. He was involved in a

project done in Carson. It was going to be the Chargers and the Raiders down there. They kind of got out maneuvered by your guy, Jerry Jones, and Stan Cronkey. And then they built the Rams and Chargers ended up building SoFi Stadium, which is the jewel of a stadium now in Los Angeles, but there was talk of Bob Iger as an NFL commissioner. I mean, he's been talked about in many big roles over the years. Yes, he's been looking for his sports act for a long time. And he's just found it. That's a pretty amazing thing.

You know, I wonder what he would say, especially if he was off the record, I wonder what he would say if you're going to own the Los Angeles Lakers. I don't even know, I don't even think he would have believed it. Well, the funny thing is, he's a Clippers fan. He's also a Knicks fan. He's also, yes. Let's use the words there. This reminds me of like Tony Ressler, who's the owner of the Atlanta Hawks. I was talking to Tony and his son who's involved with the Hawks.

And Tony's lived in L.A. for decades. His son was born and raised a Laker fan, grew up on the Kobe Lakers. Of course, they were Laker fans. Then they bought the Hawks. And then they became Hawks fans, okay? but actually at, you know, because everybody's saying, you know, because he does have a relationship with JJ Reddick because he was a clipper fan, and JJ was a clipper for all those years.

When I talked to Bob, here's my name drop Ramona. I know you do it all the time. When I talked to Bob Eiger before game one of the finals in San Antonio, he was talking about how he had been a New York Knicks season ticket holder for like years and years and years on end. Even though he lived in L.A., He had Nick's season tickets back when he worked in New York. So if you're going to say, and he's from New York, so if you're going to say that he was a Clippers fan,

you might as well say he's a Knicks fan too. And he was very excited about the Knicks reaching the finals and, you know, in that. So whatever. He was telling me about how he had season tickets for all these years. And so, and I said, you know, I said, Bob, do you see what these are going for? these next season tickets. I was like, if I were you, I'd sell game three. He's like, hell no, you'd all long have been waiting to go to a finals game at the guard.

More hoop collective podcast after this. All right. Now, with all that going on, a tweet comes out, whatever post comes out. It was in the afternoon here in Scotland. I don't know what time it came out in the U.S. A statement from Excel basketball. Oh. Now, Jeff Schwartz is one of the top three.

I don't want to get into all this stuff. CAA, Rich Paul, WME, whatever. He's one of the top agents in all of sports. He represents clients across the board, football players. His company is worth billions of dollars because it does all kinds of other deals. Excel is his company. It makes a statement from Jeff Schwartz.

I want to tell you, Jeff Schwartz is almost never quoted ever, all right? He is an extremely powerful, extremely distinguished, extremely respected guy who moves through his actions, not his words, and doesn't seek the spotlight is, you know, a power broker, old school style, okay? They put out a statement from him, which I can't ever remember Excel putting out a statement from Judge Schwartz. Okay? Quote, incredible. The Lakers sell for $12 billion, yet teams won't spend on older vets because of current CBA rules. Thank you, Union, end quote. Ramona, I was so stunned at this quote that I tried to determine whether or not it was actually from the correct account.

And then I just text Jeff and said, just to be clear, this is 2026, deep fakes, what have you? Did you actually say this? I know it was from his company account, but I just wanted to be sure. And he said, yes. And, you know, he said, frankly, he's been upset for a while about this. All right, I'm not going to say anymore because I'm not missing with Jeff Schwartz. But Ramona, this is incredible Thunderbolt from Jeff Schwartz basically saying,

now Jeff Schwartz represents dozens of players. But one of the players he's represented for several years is Russell Westbrook, who retired officially with a heartfelt video that was obviously went along to a lot of planning in this video. It's him going through a house or, you know, a building or different rooms. Was it a museum? Okay. It's a museum of his career. Different rooms of his career, different phases. And then he goes into the last room and it's unfinished.

You know, that represents his future. It's narrated by Michael B. Jordan. Yeah. That's a good get. So I don't know when they're planning on announcing this, but they decided to announce it today, the same day Lakers sold for $12 billion. But just the fact that an agent would come out of this caliber and say this publicly is another indication of something else going on in the league. Yeah. I mean.

You know what? The reason there wasn't a market for Russ was not related to price. was the minimum and had been. And I don't want to, like, throw any kind of shade at Russ, but he's a very stubborn, headstrong guy who, you know, there's a reason why he bounced around the league at the end. He didn't want to adapt to roles or evolve in his career. And so I, Schwartz's tweet, if that was, like,

a way of complaining about the lack of market for Russ, Like, I'm sorry, I don't buy that. Well, this is what I'm going to say that. Let me just, I'm not looking to get into a match and get involved with the union versus the agents versus the players are guaranteed 51% of the basketball revenue. You know, for every $100 that is made in basketball related income, the players get 51 cents. they hold some of their salaries back in escrow to make sure that it all works out. Some years, the players get all of their money back plus more to equal it out. Some years they have to give some of their money back.

The salaries are not definitely the way the teams are making decisions. And the way certain things are getting squeezed, the second apron is operating like a hard salary cap, which is what any union doesn't want. Right. But salaries, as you said, McMahon, salary is not at, overall salaries are not actually decreasing. Victor Wenbanyama is taking less.

Jalen Brunson is taking less. They are making those decisions based on these rules to try to help their teams. But the overall amount of money going to the players is growing every year. And because of the $77 billion media rights deal, which Bob Iger incidentally put a big chunk into with our company, do it Disney. will continue to grow significantly. I just want to say that so that I don't,

so I present a more well-rounded thing. And Tim Duncan took less and Darnivitsky took less and that was a whole different CBA. It's like the numbers are bigger now, but it's not things that haven't changed in terms of, like it's not some, oh my gosh, a player took less to benefit his team.

It's not some revolutionary concept. Correct. I do not want to get bogged down in that, though, Ramona. I just think it was amazing that Jeff Schwartz made that comment. I want to acknowledge that Russell Westbrook will be a first ballot hall of famer. Yes. Redefined the triple double. MVP, one of the greatest natural athletes I've ever seen.

One of the most entertaining players and personalities that certainly we've covered. And I was going to say, Russ was a first ballot hall of famer before he ever left Oklahoma City. If you just take the OKC portion of his career, it's first ballot hall of thing. Yes, that's true. He, look, he was in an era where social media very largely defined the NBA. Russell Westbrook contributed a lot to it with his, he helped make the red carpet or whatever we call the entrance walk. He redefined that. He had one of the most remarkable all-time shade moments walking in the red carpet when he wore the photographer's vest.

Oh, after when he, when they've came out of a year. I never forget to see Jenkins' Cupcake story. I mean, all-timer. And, yes, and also was, you know, a complicated player. And again, I think the complications clouded the end of his career. And like there's a reason, and Ramona, you wrote the story about his time in Denver, which went great for about a half a season. and then his welcome got worn out real quick.

And then basically said, Russ, if you pick up your player option, we're not going to bring you back. A lot of that stuff is his refusal to evolve, his refusal to adapt and all that stuff. He never, there are a few superstars who adapt to different roles throughout the course of their career.

Vince Carter is one who did and played a long time because of it. Russ, very proudly refused to adapt. But that doesn't, and you can say, hey, good for him for doing it his way, or you can criticize. Well, it depends on your viewpoint. None of it diminishes what he did in Oklahoma City,

where he's, he's, Shaggillis Alexander's probably surpassed him at this point and delivered championship. As great as Kevin Drane is, Russell Westbrook is going to be considered no less than the second best player in franchise history. Well, he's kind of a yin-yang, right? He's a yin-yang.

He brings balance to the force. The season that he had where he averaged a triple-double in the wake of Durant's departure was one of the most amazing tour-to-four seasons in modern NBA history and totally engaged everybody won over so many fans. You've talked many times, McMahon, about being there the night in Denver where he clinched. We were both there, Tim. Oh, you were there. You were there too. Tim's interactions with Westbrook in that locker room, I got to tell you, that was one of my favorite things to just be a spectator for. Like, Russ didn't like the media, okay? That's not a secret. But Tim could take it. He could give it. Russ appreciated that. Like, he loves sparring with Tim McMahon, like going back. I've never seen any games like that. There's many players who have been like that over the decades. I'll tell you a quick story about that trip. I took that whole trip. And it was when he was on the verge of breaking the triple double record. And I took it because our former colleague, Royce Young, had some unfortunate family circumstance.

So they needed me to fill in for him. And his trip started in Memphis. And Russ, off the top of my head, I want to say he ended up with 45 points, 13 assists, and nine rebounds. But he had one of many, many, many, just unbelievable. will clutch closes where he scored. He had a clutch flurry of scoring, brought him back, incredible, incredible comeback win. But he was a rebound short of the triple double.

Maybe it was in his sister, whatever it was. And so he does his media. And I didn't know Russ real well at the time, but I went up to him after his scrum broke up. And I said, hey, Russ, you know, I'm going to be on this trip. Just want to let you know you'll be seeing me on the duration of his trip, blah, blah, blah. And he said, okay, cool. I said, and John Reed, who's standing right next to me,

he's one of the Thunder PR guys. I said, John Reed said that we could sit down for an hour in Phoenix. I said, I'm just messed with him, man. And so at least temporarily Russ Lichten because of that moment. Now, during the year in Houston, we had some ups and downs. I tried, though, in Denver, he came up to me. Actually, we're in Minnesota. It was early in his year in Denver.

I was at a shootaround in Minnesota. And I'm just sitting there. And Russ, very loudly across the gym, says, Hey, Tim. I heard you've been talking. Anyway, so we had a long conversation about some of our podcasts and things that we said. And, you know, he felt like we were attacking his character.

And my thing was, hey, us saying that you refuse to adapt and evolve as not an attack in her character. And we had like a 15-minute discussion about like why he felt the way he did about he shouldn't have to adapt. He shouldn't have to change his game. You know, they're not asking, you know, another Hall of Fame point guard who was in the league at the time, who may or may not have been interested in the podcast to change his game. Why did Russ have to change? Why did he have to go stand in the corner?

All those, you know, we had a 15-minute conversation. It was really interesting. And at the end, I said, Russ, would you ever be willing to talk about that on the record? I wanted to do a story. He said, well, not the size of time's right. So the rest of the season, every time I saw him, I tried to convince him the time was right. I never did. Okay.

So that season with the thunder is iconic. Yang and Yang. Yeah. He gets traded to the Lakers, and that season with the Lakers was not. Season and a half. Well, there was a Washington Wizards, you know, in between that, yeah. Rockets and Wizards, yes.

Yeah, right. I mean, there's all that. Right, he was good for the Wizards. By the way, he was good. He was good at the playoffs, right? Like, you know, they haven't made the playoffs a lot. He put up some incredible numbers for the Rockets. It was this weird, like, he went there because Hardin wanted him there.

He wanted a team with Hardin, and then the chemistry was weird. That's the year also that Dan Tony, in large part to benefit Russ, said, screw it. We're not going to play a center, period. They traded Capella. They cut this young big name Isaiah Hartnstein, by the way, at the time. PJ Tucker, 6'5 played center for him. And they won a lot of games, and Russ put up some incredible numbers. And then asked for a trade after the season, and they shipped him to,

Washington where he put up great numbers for the wizards. But then he wanted to win a championship and the whole Lakers thing did not result in a championship. It was complicated. It obviously did not work. So, and, you know, the, you know, whatever, I don't want to go into it. He had a great career and he goes into retirement with a lot of people's respect and millions of fans.

And that number zero will be up in the rafters, I assume, at some point this season, Oklahoma City. Yeah, they put out a very, a very heartfelt statement from Sam Presti in the thumb right after to have them. Ramona, thank you so much for your time and your insight and you're reporting. This is a big news break. I don't know where this one ranks in your career, but this one, this tweet. One of those in the Sterling ones, like that, you know.

Yeah, I don't know where this tweets. In terms of hands shaking before you push send. Yeah, let me take a look at this exact moment where this tweet is at Because this one, this will be a big one. Let's see. Oh, we're at 15 million views right now. In less than 10 hours. So that's a lot.

Thank you for taking time. I know it's been a tiring day. Yeah, it's okay. We're just getting started, right, Brian? It seems like there's a lot more. for us to report on on this story. I agree. I agree. It's actually, in all honesty, like, obviously it's, it's a little bit fraught. And there's, you know, some whiff of, you know, possible controversy. We don't know for sure. Um, but I think the Lakers are going to end up being just

fine with this. Like, it's, it, there's, there's going to be some transition and stuff. But I don't think this is a bad day for the Lakers. That doesn't mean that it was, you know, this is not, you know, this is not moving out an owner who was negative. Like, he was sort of We didn't have a rating. He's, you know, but we'll see. I'll put it this way. If all the things that Mark Walter owned that he is going to sell for three days in three days, even the Dodgers, even his F1 team, even his insurance companies or whatever,

I'll bet only one of them could go up 20% in value and be sold in three days. And because think how long it took to sell the Dodgers the last time, God. But it's actually an indication of how strong the Lakers and their brand are that this could happen in this way. It may not feel like that at this moment, but that's true. All right, thank you to our producers, especially to Jackson, who has been producing this from O'Hare Airport as we deal with this. Jackson, we are paroled. Thank you to Miles. Thank you to Mark. Thank you to all of our producers. Thank you to McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective. We'll talk you soon.

Adios amigos.