Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Report: Lakers Ownership Issues Are Slowing the Basketball Operations Rebuild

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

It'll be a while before we know if the new ownership group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger will be a net positive or a net negative for the Lakers. We don't know how they'll spend money, or what they'll prioritize.  But what we did know was that ownership upheaval had a chance to completely undermine a buildout of the basketball operations department that was already going a lot slower than Lakers fans had hoped for when the Buss family sold to Mark Walter a year and a half ago. Dan Woike at The Athletic made it clear in a report on Monday that the Lakers, who have already been turned down for a couple front office positions by potential hires, have essentially gone into a hiring freeze.  There's just not any action, whether higher up in the department, or in things like scouting.  So what does that mean?  Well, it's not good. But there is one silver lining — there's only so much the Lakers can do over the next few months, anyway. So if there was ever a time to be hamstrung, this might be it. But the longer this goes on, the more problematic it gets. So what kind of timeline are we looking at?    HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  SEGMENT 1: The Lakers front office is at a standstill.    SEGMENT 2: What does this mean for LA going forward?    SEGMENT 3: How long will all of this take?    Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.   SquareGet up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/NBA ! #squarepod   FanDuelCollege football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited, and this season, FanDuel is giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM    FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Many Lakers fans were worried that the sale of the team would put important front office business on hold. Turns out yet it'll reason to worry. Talk about that. 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 stopping by Locked on Lakers, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky. Plenty to break down on this Tuesday episode.

of Lockdown Lakers. Thanks for everybody for stopping by, whether you're checking out the show live on the YouTube channel or you are subscribing through Apple iTunes or Spotify, wherever we get your podcast. We certainly appreciate you doing that, leaving questions, leaving comments, leaving likes and other things like that to help us help you have a great experience here on the show. We certainly appreciate it. Andy, sometimes it's no fun to be right. You and I have talked at length about our big concerns with. the sale of the Lakers the second time, this time to the Kushner-Iger group, that it would put already slow-moving events in the front office, trying to staff up the front office, get that

basketball operation built out, maybe hire a scout, all that kind of stuff that normal teams have. We were worried that this second sale might put some of those things on hold or slow them down. And unfortunately, as fun as it is to be right, that apparently seems to be the case. Yeah, there's a piece out from Dan Wojke over at the Athletic does a great job covering the team front of the show that takes a look at sort of the state of the franchise right now, like inside the building in El Segundo and what the vibes are during this period of ownership flux, the bus sibling battle going on, Jeannie taking the five siblings to court, all of that stuff.

We're not sure when the actual sale of the team is going to become official, though if I had to guess, based on both common sense and also the general coverage of the league, everyone involved is going to try to make this thing sooner rather than later. And I think it tremendously helps that Adam Silver has a relationship with Bob Eiger along these lines when it comes to vetting and also based on some of the recent purchases and sales of the team. I'm not even sure the vetting process is that difficult. No, sooner rather than later, though, it's I think important people understand. Like this big part of because in part this happens. So it could take it. These things take a minute

anyway. They have to be done, voted on at the meetings and all that kind of stuff. So it's like the next one, whenever that is and all of it. This could take a minute longer just because because it happens so quickly and came together so quickly that, you know, they're, I think probably earlier in the process for this just on the deal framework and getting the, you know, the paperwork drawn up between Walter and Kushner-Iger, that, you know, as fast as I can, I agree with you. I do worry, though, that this could take a minute. I mean, these things always take a minute.

I just think it'll be a quicker minute than maybe some other past sales. Again, I think between the fact, I think between the fact that, you know, Kushner has already been vetted before as a minority owner, Bob Eiger and Adam Silver have that relationship. I question at times just how picky the league is when it comes to the money they're taking in to begin with. That's a different topic for a different day. but regardless, I, guys, guys, are either one of you under FBI investigation? Huh? Are you? Tell us now.

I mean, look, I guess progress now they'll think to ask. Right. Is the SEC poking around with you guys? I mean, again, I've maintained, and I believe this to be the case, nobody involved when it came to voting on this sale had any idea that Bob I, I mean, excuse me, that Mark Walter was under investigation. including, I think, the bus family. But regardless.

I'm just, I'm not as optimistic as you are that this will get this will happen on the fast side of, you know, I mean, it depends on, you know, the fast side of a normal sale like timeline. I think it could be a little slower. I'm worried it could be slower at least. We'll see. I, again, based on what I think the league wants

and also some of the general coverage and those particulars, I think it could be a little bit faster than normal we shall see. But regardless, things are in flux right now. And Dan's piece breaks down some areas in which the mood inside the building is better than you might expect. And those areas are worth noting. But regardless, as far as the hiring piece of this goes and the filling out of the basketball side of the building goes, it has, I mean, it felt like it was moving slow when it was assumed. that Mark Walter would be owning this team for the next couple of decades,

much less where we are now from this Woikki's piece, quote, the Lakers are still conducting interviews for multiple positions. Sources say a team posting for a video producer was posted, a job posting for a video producer was posted to the sports industry. Job site, teamwork online two weeks ago, but other sources, including high ranking ones, have acknowledged that high end positions, particularly in basketball operations, aren't actively being filled,

while some of the organization pushed back on the notion that the Lakers are in a quote, hiring freeze, multiple sources acknowledged it would be foolish for the organization to make hires of consequence while in this strange moment in history. Noted also, too, that they did hire one of the assistant general managers that Rob Polinka had spoken about during exit interviews, Rohan Ramadas. He is the assistant general manager of strategy and data systems. And according to Wojke's sources, he's made positive early impressions. They've also been turned down by a couple of candidates for the other assistant general manager role. When it changes, it changes from dance piece. But for now, status quo remains.

And, you know, that includes, you know, scouts. That includes, you know, it's the entire operation is really kind of in an area of stasis. Like, we, we talked on Monday show. There could be, because there are three or four teams, five teams, six teams, actually, more than that, about half the league, actually, that at least in theory, have too many players on their roster. There could be an unusual amount of player movement. There's still some players to get signed who you would expect ultimately to end up on NBA rosters and things like that. you would want a scouting department in place to kind of know who you might want to pick off somebody else's roster. We made the comparison to NFL training camps and how there's always, you know,

your 52nd guy, your 53rd guy, 54th guy, you let go, that guy's going to fit in perfectly with what we do. We have our, we know who's going to be cut from those teams. Lakers don't have that infrastructure in place right now. They don't have the kind of scouting department in place right now to know exactly which G-League players would fit their systems, like different, like just, you know, not saying they're ignorant and they don't have any of the information, but they don't have the depth of information because they don't know of bodies. And so like stuff like that, they're definitely operating at a disadvantage. And that doesn't seem like it's going to change anytime soon, which kind of sucks when you think about how consequential. The Lakers' next batch of transactions are going to be both any move to try to fill out that power forward spot that everybody expects them do, whether you look for another backup center, whether you're trying to find the next Austin Reeves or Alex Caruso or all the, these are things that require scouts and require a basketball, a fully stocked basketball department. and they just don't have it.

I'm not surprised. I just think it's it's kind of deeply problematic that they're going to be in this position for a little while and the people who are running things are going to be running it with less help than they might normally have. Yeah, I mean, I am somewhat surprised. I'm not surprised now knowing what we know. I had been surprised and in a lot of ways disappointed.

Both of us had been. I remember we mentioned many times, you know, TikTok guys. Like when you blew out the entire scouting department, including Jesse Bus, the assumption was you knew exactly who'd be replacing him and them. And thus far, the answers seem to be nobody.

And I understand that they don't have, say, the head of that department in-house yet. and they've theoretically or seemingly had difficulty finding that person getting someone to accept the job. I also wonder in retrospect, I've brought this up before, and Waiky's piece reminded me of this, how much of this could be a function of Mark Walter for really the entirety of his time owning this team, being distracted by other things, and that leads to different prioritizations. I mean, truth be told, a lot of, they've done more firings than hirings and a lot more consolidations, some of which are either internal promotions or just guys double dipping from the Dodgers organization.

And, you know, there hasn't been, there has, there has not been as much infrastructure established, even in a relatively short amount of time as I think some people, including myself, that expected or hope for. But like, I understand not having a head of scouting, or I can understand how it could happen, I guess. I feel like if nothing else, you could just find some scouts, bring them in to do some work, have them report to Rob Pemps.

Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of scouts. I mean, it's my general understanding. Scouts often hop from team to team anyway. I have some thoughts on kind of the whole thing. thing, both on why the Lakers may be in the situation they're in,

how Mark Walter handled certain things and how perhaps some of these investigations that obviously, I think, at the very least, he was certainly aware of, may have played into it. Let's break some of those things down next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed,

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Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. So I just want to point out, like, everybody, you know, everybody knows somebody who's got a birthday coming up, an anniversary, a special someone who might need a little bit of a gift, something unusual, perhaps.

Mike Muscala, former Laker, of course, at the centerpiece, simply one of the most god-awful trades in Lakers history, when the Lakers sent out Evita Zubots to the clippers for Mike Muscala. It's just a terrible trade. And Michael Beasley. And Michael Beasley. Oh, I forgot. Yeah.

And Michael Beasley. Mike Muscala is having an estate sale. He's selling his house in Oklahoma City and is selling what appears to be everything. And if you get a chance, look it up and look at some of the items that are being sold by Mike Muscala, former Lakers, great. But it includes, if you want a piece of Lakers history, you, Andy, can bid on Mike Muscala's shower shoes. These are just one pair of Muscala shower shoes. You could get the black pair.

You could get the very fashionable purple and gold pair. Both, as you notice, have his name and number on them. Presumably they are game worn, so to speak. And both of them currently can be had for under 35. So if you know a special somebody who wants an incredible piece of Lakers history, you can get them. Mike Mascala's shower shoes in his estate sale, the only catch is I believe you do need to go pick them up yourself. Honestly, that would be a great gift for a Clipper fan. I mean, there are no Laker fans who would buy that.

It would be an awesome gift for a Clipper fan. It would be a strange gift for anybody, I guess. I mean, I'm sure, of, of, of, of, of, of basketball Akana. Like, wearing somebody else's shoes is odd enough. Would you wear them if you had them? You have big feet. You could get away with wearing Mike Biscala's size 15.

I don't want any reminders of that. Yes. No. Of course not. He's also selling a set of three wicker baskets. And currently, I think you can get them for like six. It's a fascinating. The guy's got a job.

I mean, he's on the son's staff. I mean, I don't know if he's entered some phase where, you know, like he's going metaphysical and he's abandoning all worldly possessions and he's just going to sort of exist with the wind or something. But like, this seems strange. It is. Most of the stuff, though, I can see why he's letting it go. But I am very curious to see what the final bid is on his show.

shower shoes. Again, currently both can be had for under $35. So quite a bargain, it seems to me. So we are talking a lot about what the Lakers are doing from an ownership standpoint. And, you know, it's funny. Like I think to me, this feels like a bunch of things that are all kind of coming together in like the worst way possible. When people think about worst way in terms of people who want action quickly. The Lakers now everything is going to be on hold until the new ownership group is there. Not only the Lakers just not going to be hiring, most people don't want to take the job because they don't know what the new group is going to do.

And so any front office positions from the Lakers become that much less appealing. And this is after, as you noted, a couple prime prospects for some of these assistant GM jobs and other things. people have turned them down, which is another thing that slowed this process down. I'm sure, you know, the people that they hire would have been probably the types of people who say, okay, good, you go get, go fill out the scouting department. Don't do those. Like, those are the kinds of things that the rest of the front office would do. Like, I think, you know, when the Dodgers were purchased by Guggenheim, the first stuff that they did was all the business stuff. They, you know, they worked on that kind of stuff very quickly. Ned Coletti stayed.

the GM for I think most of two years before they switched that up and brought in Friedman and 9,000 other GMs and all that kind of stuff. So I think like the memory people have because he's been around for so long is that all of this happened really quickly. That part of it took a little more time. And I think when he got the Lakers, there was, I think even from Walter's perspective, a lighter touch, which was probably somewhat related to. the deal that he made with Jeannie, like to kind of leave things as they are, which kind of left

Rob in charge of the basketball rebuild and all that kind of stuff. And he certainly, and Rob Polinka certainly did a lot this off season. I mean, regardless of what you think of the decision itself, no, no, no, the normal, yeah, the normal business of stuff got done. It's not like the Lakers didn't do any, like they were completely, they just didn't It's the other stuff that you do like that's next on the to do list. You know, you have your priorities. Like, we have to sign free agents and that's going to take precedence over.

We need to, you know, continue to build out the analytics department. We need to hire these guys. We need to hire those guys. You do the stuff that's the most important that's in front of you. And I think where I definitely agree with you that the, the Walter stuff could have had an impact is just the, you kind of alluded to it at the end of the first segment. the amount of time and attention that Walter was giving to maybe pressure Jeannie and Rob to move it along, I think you could argue perhaps was lower than it would have been had some of this stuff not been going on.

That I think is absolutely a place where the impact of these investigations and stuff could have been impacted what the Lakers were doing. I mean, I can only speak for myself. I have not memory hold how long it took for the Dodgers to start really changing the front office. That was during a period where, you know, you and I had stopped covering the Dodgers for the LA Times. We did a little bit of Dodgers coverage for ESPN.com and more of it for 710 ESPN. But we've just, we've lived in L.A. for a long time and paid close attention. I remember how it happened. I went and looked up.

I mean, again, my timelines, I think are accurate. I went and looked it up. you know, for when they, when they sold the team. I think it took about, I think I'm about broadly correct. No, no, I'm not, I'm not disputing your timeline. I think your timeline's accurate. What I'm saying is I'm not somebody who's from my expectations. I'm not somebody whose memory hold how long the actual process took.

My point was, A, I think some of the reason, or the reason why I thought it might be quicker this time around. A, because I think at least some of the reason the process was slower back then was Mark Walter was still relatively new at this stuff. And there was probably a lot he recognized, I don't know. So I want to learn a lot of stuff before I start taking more definitive action. And now he's got more than a decade plus and other team ownership under his belt where he might be more confident, no more of what to look for, particularly as somebody who had been a minority owner with the Lakers for four years and presumably paying a lot of attention because he had the

contractual right of first refusal. So you would assume that he would be thinking about things that he would do or just made observations. The other primary difference, though, that I thought would lead to quicker action is when Mark Walter bought the Dodgers, they were more of a mess, but they were also a solid team, not great. And they didn't have any stars in their prime that it felt like, okay, like superstars in their prime. We need to capitalize on this now. Now is the time. The Lakers are in that situation where you

have a generational superstar in their prime. And that changes the context a lot, like, especially in a sport like basketball where players directly impact the game as individuals more than players do in baseball. So that to me was the big contextual difference. I think that's fair. I just, I think to me sort of broadly it broadly it followed to me about the same pattern like they moved very quickly on the business side when you know the Lakers like you know there was a lot of talk of like was Walter operating like a guy who thought he was going to have to give away

the team I don't think the answer to that is yes I think no I think he they were moving along with the stuff they knew that they could do quickly that they thought was important in terms of consolidating the two businesses and and aligning you know the the people who do the business stuff. They moved on that pretty quickly. That stuff's easier for them. And there's no question. I just, the, the timing of this just gets to be so problematic. And, you know, the Lakers, I'm not saying it's going to prevent, I mean, quite frankly, it probably helps right now that other than like you need, like they need to find some deep polls from around the college ranks and the G-League and

all this other stuff to find cheap talent to fill out the rot. Like that stuff is super important for them right now. The fact, and you've made this point a few times, the fact that they kind of can't do anything of real consequence for the next three or four or five, six months anyway, probably is a lucky stroke here because they're not in a great position to do big stuff from an ownership standpoint, So the fact that they can't do it from a personnel standpoint either is at least helpful.

There was also, too, some interesting positivity expressed in Dan Wojke's piece as well that could be, depends on how you unpack it, I guess, and wondering who told Dan what, but we'll get into that coming up next. Stockton-Lakers is brought to you by Square and the system, it is powering, so many of the places we already know and love Square. Whether you're running a packed game day spot, a local restaurant or a growing business, Square gives sellers the tools to start their business without making the process more complicated. Square brings payments, inventory, payroll, invoices, and customer insights, plus a whole lot more together in one connected system. So whether you're a one location business or growing into multiple locations, Square gives you the tools to sell,

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Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. So I thought this was interesting, Brian, in terms of the mood in the building right now. as everyone's sort of wondering what happens next. And from Dan's piece, quote, the pending changes, Eiger and Kushner's group are in their diligence phase of the purchase has certainly caused some anxiety for employees bracing for another ownership change.

The last transition from longstanding familial touches of the bus family to a more bottom line driven Walter regime included multiple rounds of layoffs. Still, multiple sources in different departments expressed optimism, about the direction of the franchise under Iger and Kushner. Some felt the Dodgers impact on the Lakers was pushing too hard towards 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 a new management come in, even if it's a bit of a mystery and doesn't have a track record of Dodgers success. So kind of a, if you don't love the devil that you only saw, sort of no at this point. It's not that hard to wrap your arms around at least the concept of the devil you don't know. Yeah. I mean,

the vague acquaintance devil versus the devil you don't know. I mean, it was that I will say I doubt the holdovers from the previous, you know, bus family ownership. I'm sure had mixed feelings about the, the way that Mark Walter, started to do things.

And a lot of people were let go, aside from the people that Jeannie fired. But, you know, there was a great deal of consolidation. Yeah. Part of what they went on the business side. We know people who've been let go. And part of what they wanted to do on the business side was, you know, take these, you know, sponsorship offices and, you know,

business operations and all these other thing. And facility, all these other things and kind of merge them into one giant department because there is a lot of overlap in how that sort of thing works. Like if you can sell sponsorships and stuff like that for the Dodgers, you can probably do something similar for the Lakers and having some degree of synergy between those departments could be useful for selling both, you know, like, you know, packages and all these kinds of things. So you have cross sponsorships between both franchises.

I get all that stuff. But it also means a lot of people lose their jobs. It sucks. And the Lakers, for better or for worse, were a place where people, a lot of people stayed for a very long time. And I think when that happens, people were left over, are rightly, I think, can have mixed feelings about their new bosses. I think, you know, I took some of this with a little bit of a grain of salt just because I always giggle in, like, you know, people in the, you know, people inside the basketball operations department, all five. of them, you know, are, you know, might not have liked certain things. I'm curious as to who inside the locker room, there isn't a locker room yet, are, you know,

is concerned. But like there's also to me a sense of, you know, let's look like we're welcoming. Well, to be fair, it did say different departments. It didn't say different departments of basketball operations. To be fair. Like that could include people on the business side. It said they're doing the pushing to. hard and doing so with arrogance have turned off some people in basketball operations.

No, I meant the part about multiple sources in different departments expressed optimism. No, no, no, no. Direction. Sure. But I'm just think that sure. I just think, you know, there's also. And I think there, look, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic about, you know, the Kushner Eiger ownership group.

Like there's no reason to automate. A lot of people don't like what Kushner does in VC and all that kind of stuff. Okay. But I think what we're learning is, you know, Mark Walter's businesses were opaque and hard to understand and potentially right. You didn't like what he was doing. You just didn't know. You just didn't know. Exactly. And you didn't care because, you know, and he's, I would say he's not a criminal. But like, and I still necessarily know if he is, but like, you know, what they were doing, you was very low key. There was nothing kind of obvious to object to. And they kept winning

titles and, you know, division titles and national league titles and world series titles with the Dodgers. So it was like, cool. This, this, this, this is fine. So a lot of people don't like what Krishna does to make us money. And maybe they weren't fans of Bob Iger's, you know, second stint at Disney. I don't know, like for the Iger files out there. But like, broadly speaking, there's nothing inherently wrong with this ownership group. There's no reason to believe that they're going to be. There's nothing inherently right about them either. We honestly have.

We just don't know. They seem to have the right amount of money. You have a guy in Bob Eager who is. Well, no, they seem to think they can raise the amount of money. We don't actually know. But this is important, though, just in terms of what I was talking about before with the league, I think not necessarily being all that picky. about where the money comes from.

Bob Eiger and Kushner do not have the money by themselves to do this. Correct. And their net worth together is roughly half of the bid, the sales agreement. By them, I mean, I know there are people who've been attempting to dig into a lot of this. There is some degree of shrouded mystery insofar as how they're going to end up coming up with $12.5 billion that I would say given where we are right now, if there are people skeptical about this or cynical about this, I don't blame. Keep in mind, they don't need an entire $12.4 billion.

But like it's, it's because that's the valuation, the total valuation. And that, you know, out of that you subtract the 25% of the team that they won't actually own because of. They're still short though. Right. I mean, it's fair to be skeptical. It's fair. think it is reasonable to assume. You operate under the assumption that they will find the

investors that they need at the levels that they need in the same way that they were going to find the investors that they needed for the $10 billion to buy an expansion team. It's not like they weren't down the road on these sorts of things until, at least until you hear that they're not going to be able to get the investors together. I'm sure they will. Right. That's my point is you can basically assume that they'll have the money to run the team you have a guy in bob iger who i think is i think is very deeply invested in the idea of having sort of a one more big sort of triumphal moment as a prominent player in l.A. has been one to do this for a very long time in terms of ownership of a team and running you know sort of the guy out in front um and i

think is highly motivated to do a very good job in this. I don't know if he will, but like, I don't think this is one of these situations of absentee ownerships. We're going to try to strip it down and all this other stuff. But you're right. Like there's there's no reason to be inherently skeptical that they can't do it. And there's no reason to assume that they're going to be good at it. But if you either didn't love the direction of the Walter thing because of how these change has happened or you just want to express some optimism that the new bosses are going to be good and like hey you know we didn't love everything about like you know we're excited that there's a new sense of direction coming in here i think it's i think that's fair for the people who are

who are there i just i my biggest question is just what are the people inside the building who are responsible for basketball decisions going to do over the course of the season particularly if it looks like, oh, geez, the fall turns into the winner, the winner, and this sale's not done yet. I would be honestly shocked. Based on, again, the importance of getting this thing done for the crown jewel of not just this league, but one of the crown jewels of global sports, the relationships that have already been established, you know, Kushner, as far as having done business or,

having been a minority owner for two different teams in the league, Adam Silver's relationship with Bob Eiger, and what I've taken in of the vetting process, I would be stunned if this started stretching into winter and beyond. Well, I mean, the next league, the next league meeting is going to be in September. In September, it's not going to happen by that. I would be shocked if they had this together by mid-September.

You can call a meeting whenever you need to. I mean, for something like this, you can call a meeting. You're not going to say like, well, everyone's. I think they, I think then happens again around, I think December. I think it happens around the playoffs. Like, there are opportunities to do it. I mean, I feel like if you're talking about, I would feel good if they could get it done by the winner one that usually happens like

around Christmas with the All Star Break or something. I just feel like if you're talking about something like this and everyone feels like their ducks are in a row, you can change a meeting date for something. Oh, for sure. No, I don't, I think they'll. they'll they'll be again they got to get the ducks in the row so we'll see i just it's there's there's um there's just still a lot of moving parts and i think for lakers fans just kind of take it back to where we were at the beginning like for lakers fans who got really excited because of what

we thought was going to happen with the walter era with this you know whether it's you don't like the maybe some people in the basketball operations thought it was too analytic but whatever but it was supposed to be this finally this modernization of the lakers basketball operation and for that to be put on hold at a time now where not only do you have it put on hold we're like man not only can you know rob but like let's shout out to kirk rambas for for just uh not being able you can't get rid of that guy where the front office seems sort of frozen in Amber. Now it seems worse because the guy who does own the team is clearly not able to pay that much attention to it. And the governor is busy suing her family.

Like there's just a lot going on here that feels that it is different than that sense of optimism that we had 15 months ago. I will say this. this truly right now, the stage we're going into, represents the most modernization of the Lakers possible because I know it feels to a lot of Laker fans and I don't blame them like you are becoming just like any other team that is run by a lot of B.C. money and guys that you question how much they are personally attached

to this team in ways that you're not used to because you spent a lot of your time rooting for a team that was run by a family that as dysfunctional as they were, they felt like a personal attachment. And look, more and more sports is growing into this very cold impersonal VC model. And the Lakers are going to become one of those teams. I mean, they were quite literally, for all intents and purposes, flipped after 14 months. And that's pretty shocking for an organization like the Lakers.

As I said before, that doesn't necessarily mean things are going to be bad for the team moving forward. I don't think it's really responsible to have a good or bad feeling. No idea. Right. I mean, truly, no idea what this is going to be like under Iger and Kushner. But in its own right, this is as modernized as the Lakers could become. In that sense, you're exactly right. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 39,000 subscribers, nearly

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