00:00The Los Angeles Lakers are getting new owners. Bob Iger of Disney fame and Joshua Kushner of
00:05Thrive Capital are buying the team for $12.5 billion. They're purchasing a controlling stake
00:11from Mark Walter, who only recently bought that stake. Now, this is a sports story because fans
00:17are hoping that new ownership will breathe new life into a franchise that has underperformed
00:22over the last several years, despite having an all-star lineup. But it's also a political story.
00:26First of all, Mark Walter appears to be under federal investigation. Prosecutors and the
00:32Securities Exchange Commission are looking into the financial arrangements behind his business
00:37empire. That might be one of the reasons he is selling his stake. There's another political story
00:42here, which has to do with the fact that Josh Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, President
00:47Donald Trump's son-in-law. Now, Jared Kushner is a Republican, and Josh Kushner is a Democrat,
00:53quite openly so. But the fact that he's a Democrat didn't shield him from criticism when he bought
00:58a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants baseball club earlier this year. And that protest
01:04kicked off a season of protests that continued when several Giants players declined to wear pride hats
01:09for LGBTQ plus pride month. Joshua Kushner's politics are also pro-Israel, which has progressives
01:17irked lately. Once you could be a Democrat and be very openly pro-Israel, and lately that has been
01:23out of fashion in progressive circles. So far, though, politics have not intruded in the Lakers
01:30deal, and it may just be that fans are so eager to see a change in the team, especially with
01:34the
01:34departure of LeBron James, that they're willing to overlook all political questions. It does suggest
01:39that despite the partisan nature of just about everything, fans might be willing to overlook
01:44political differences if an owner can help a team win, even in California.
