Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - EMERGENCY POD: REPORT -- Buss Family to Sell Majority Stake In Lakers to Mark Walter for 10 Billion Dollars!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to a special bonus episode of Locked-on Lakers for a Wednesday, shocker across the NBA. The bus family is selling their portion of the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter and the Guggenheim Group for $10 billion. So much to unpack. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers,

Starting point is 00:00:43 your first listen of every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind paywall. Of course, Locked-on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers, Andy, all of whom are wondering if they could have scraped together enough cash to make a bid, had Mark Walter not had rights of first refusal when it came time to buy the bus family's portion of the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:01:06 That happened, Andy, on Wednesday. This is something that has been, I guess, discussed, what the exit strategy for the bus family would be. At some point, if nothing else, if not this year, this month, this day, the idea that at some point, this is something we'll talk about in this show and over the course of a full-length show coming up later,

Starting point is 00:01:31 just the idea that the bus family remaining the principal owners of this team in 2025, in the landscape of modern sports team ownership, was simply not tenable anymore. Yeah, it was getting a lot harder to say the very least. Mark Walter already owned, I believe, 20% of the team and had, as I mentioned, right of first refusal to purchase the rest should the bus family decide to put their stake up, I believe it was 66% of the team. And that is what happened.

Starting point is 00:02:05 Wednesday the deal is not yet finalized as is being reported the athletic is actually reporting that the the sale could reach as much as 12 billion dollars in value but given how the line of succession here was fairly well understood and fairly well known you would expect that the vast majority of this is settled otherwise the news wouldn't be getting out. So the bus family selling to the, to Mark Walter, owner of the Dodgers, should mention that if you don't, if you miss that part. This is a massive, massive development, not just for the Lakers, obviously, but across the NBA.

Starting point is 00:02:58 This is huge. I mean, the Lakers, this set a record, whether it ends up $10 billion, $12,000. billion dollars. This was the highest sale of any North American U.S., however you want to phrase it, sports team in history. Like this is as big of a sale as we've ever seen. And I imagine, unless the Yankees or the Cowboys go on sale anytime soon, this is a record that is going to hold. Because those are the only two teams in sports that you could even picture an ownership change happening, as teams like the Warriors, the Celtics, they've all gone through recent ownership changes, and those are not about to change anytime soon.

Starting point is 00:03:42 There's a record that it's going to hold for a while. There are massive implications from this sale, whether you're talking about culturally within the team, whether you're talking about different ways that the money will, I think we both feel positively affect this team moving forward. Some of the things that the bus family, whether you think they're going to. were unwilling, unable a little bit of both to dedicate towards this team financially. That is not going to be a problem with Mark Walter and the Guggenheim money that he has and the stakes that he has and all these different teams and just the type of wealth that we are

Starting point is 00:04:26 now talking about at the head of, you know, that's now financing the Lakers. this is a massive sea change. I mean, to put this in perspective, the Buss family has owned this team since 1979. Like Dr. Buss bought this team heading into Magic Johnson's rookie season. Pretty solid return on that initial $67 million investment that wasn't even just for the Lakers, which in and of itself to go from $67 million to,

Starting point is 00:05:02 10 to 12 billion would be, again, a nice return. That also included the Kings, the Forum, and a ranch. So again, solid purchase for the bus family there, time to hire a good capital gains attorney. But I think, you know, the issue, the big question here is what this. And I just have Linda do it? Maybe. Good. The big question here, though, is how this affects the Lakers and how they're going to

Starting point is 00:05:32 operate because Jeannie Bus is going to continue to be the governor of the team going forward. How long that lasts is something perhaps we'll talk about in tonight show. The Mark Cuban example in Dallas could be a pretty good template here. So maybe we'll hold that for a second. But for the time being, Jeannie Bus is going to remain the governor of the team and all this. And the Lakers obviously can't suddenly just start handing out gigantic show haystops. deferred contracts and spending $500 million and all this because there are rules about how the NBA operates.

Starting point is 00:06:10 But I think the biggest, there are two places that my reaction initially was you'll see a huge difference. The first is infrastructure where the Lakers, while they have historically spent on payroll, I don't think they've really, you know, they always spend a lot of money on players, maybe not as much as you want, whatever. But historically, they've spent a lot there. they have not spent money as much as you would think a team like the Lakers would in other places. Or should.

Starting point is 00:06:38 You should get the wood, should. Assistant coaches, front office, training staff, scouting. All these other things are things that the Lakers have traditionally not spent as much money on. They have had small brain trusts and things like that. Some of that is culture, but the culture can be impacted whether consciously or unconsciously by either not wanting to or not being able to spend certain amounts of money. So you can justify, well, we just like a small culture, but really you're at least somewhat affected by your finances.

Starting point is 00:07:10 And the second is going to be the way the team is run. Like how the Dodgers have a way of doing things. Andrew Friedman, for example, is not technically not the GM of that team. He's like the president of whatever. And there's a different guy who's a GM. And they have a, they have this collaborative structure and architecture. that I think that it will eventually be replicated with the Lakers, whether that includes Rob Polinka in the short or long term.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Short term, yes, long term remains to be seen. But it is going to be different. The days, five years from now say this, the Lakers will not have like a three-person basketball ops department. Well, this is something I will make this prediction right now because I feel confident saying it. If Rob Polinka is not willing moving forward to be, be more of a collaborator with more people around him that if they are not at, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:08 his true equal level are pretty close. He will not be long for this job. I'm willing to make that prediction right now. So, um, because I mean, frankly, there's always been, I think, an accurate perception that if the Lakers wanted to do better than Rob Polinka, they could. I'm not saying that he's the worst exec in the league. I'm not saying that he's the worst exact in the league. saying that he's the worst person running basketball ops in the NBA. But we've both been pretty candid in our opinion that that Jeannie Bus could do better than Rob Polinka. A lot of ways should do better or at the very least should have more people around Rob Polinka

Starting point is 00:08:47 with an actual voice. And Rob has been very successful at continually consolidating and shielding his power. I would be stunned if that remains a constant moving forward. Yeah, I just, you know, you talk about this notion of can they do better? It's not the polinkas the worst, it's can you do better? And, you know, the Dodgers, I think the ethic of the Dodgers now is we have the best of whatever. Whoever the best person is for job, A, B, and C, we got that guy. You know, you quibble with it.

Starting point is 00:09:24 Do you think Bruce Bochie is a better manager than Dave Roberts, whatever might be? but like Andrew Friedman was the best at what he did when he was in Tampa. The Dodgers took him. You know, they have collected different players across, I'm sorry, different executives to fill in this brain trust around Friedman, you know, guys come in and out of the front office generally because they're too talented to stay in a lower level position with the Dodgers. But I just, I feel like that sort of thing is going to become much,

Starting point is 00:09:57 more common where you see the the the the lakers improving on their infrastructure by going and finding the people perceived to be the best um in in the NBA world it's not going to happen right away and they're going to make mistakes and they'll hire the wrong guy sometimes for this or that or whatever look the Dodgers ownership and Andrew Friedman they've made mistakes before yeah I mean and it's and it's not going to again it's not going to operate two words for you glass and now that's not working out well It's one of these things where the way it looks won't look like the Dodgers because the Dodgers have the luxury of being able to spend both creatively and infinitely.

Starting point is 00:10:49 And the Lakers just obvious, the NBA just offers far less optionality in both of those categories. Although it should be noted. And again, we're going to get into more of this in a full-length show later tonight. There are more restrictions in the way you can spend more obstacles because of the CBA and it being a cap league as opposed to baseball. But there may be more of a willingness to go further into tax thresholds to pay more money. And that does matter. It matters. There could be seasons in which they're willing to spend the extra, you know, where they you make this trade and it's going to cost you an extra 14 or 15, 17, 17, 22, 25 million or whatever.

Starting point is 00:11:33 I'm just saying like there are certain things that you just, you can't change the second apron rules just because you're rich. You can't defer money like they have for Shohei just because I will say it's time for them to lift these oppressive second apron rules that are keeping my man Mark Walter down. I'm tired of living under this regime. I don't think it's fair. Um, Vila Walter.

Starting point is 00:11:58 But I do think what you'll have is just a change in style, a pretty drastic change in style. And look, the track record, we'll see if it translates, but the track record for the Guggenheim folks and Mark Walter in baseball is strong. Yes. Very, very strong. And if nothing, it just puts the, it puts the Lakers on significantly better financial footing going forward at a time, like you say, when the family ownership model, the individual ownership model is getting harder and harder to sustain unless you are a Steve Balmer, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:38 one of these types guys. You cannot compete anymore as billionaires partially on paper, which is the way the Lakers have been. You know, I mean, the bus family, they are clearly rich people. We're not trying to, not trying to pretend otherwise, but there can even be level to being a billionaire. And the bus family, they're just not the right type of billionaires anymore. Yeah, it's a burden I would like to have placed on me once somebody calling me the wrong kind of billionaire.

Starting point is 00:13:08 But we'll see. Anyway, plenty more, as Andy said, we'll do a full-length show for Thursday. But in the meantime, Andy, before we go, we do want to let people know that today's episode is brought to you by Oli-pop. Olipop, it's a new kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda, but one something that supports their health.

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - EMERGENCY POD: REPORT -- Buss Family to Sell Majority Stake In Lakers to Mark Walter for 10 Billion Dollars!

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