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00:00The Los Angeles Lakers, they've changed hands again, and this time the deal came together almost as quickly as it's
00:06done the NBA.
00:07Just nine months after Mark Walter took control of one of sports' most iconic franchises, Bob Iger and Josh Kushner
00:13have agreed to purchase the Lakers in a deal valuing the team at $12.5 billion.
00:18Iger says the deal came together in just three days, and California Post's Lakers beat reporter Kobe Price spoke exclusively
00:24with the former Disney CEO about how it happened,
00:27why he wanted the Lakers, and what could come next.
00:31Kobe joins me now to break down one of the most surprising ownership changes in NBA history.
00:36Kobe, what's good, my guy? Long time no see. How you doing?
00:40Oh, man, you said it right. One of the most surprising ownership changes in sports history.
00:46I mean, I was talking to people around the league about it, and it just unprecedented was a word that
00:52came up.
00:52If I can't recall, 14 months after a green to buy a team, and less than a year after, you
00:58know, the deal was officially finalized in October 2025,
01:01you have another record-breaking sale of an NBA franchise, an iconic NBA franchise of the Lakers.
01:08And it's been almost, it's been over 24 hours at this point, and my head's still kind of spinning trying
01:13to take it in.
01:14Yeah, I was stunned by it.
01:15That's me. How are you?
01:16I'm good, man. I was stunned by it. I know yesterday was a very busy day for you, and I
01:22kind of want to get into it here
01:23because, Kobe, you spoke exclusively with Bob Iger, and I think when I read your piece that you wrote,
01:29the part that jumped out to me was him saying how the $12.5 billion deal came together in just
01:35three days.
01:35So after talking to him, how do you process that and how quickly he said it came about,
01:41and does this feel like something Iger and then Josh Kushner had quietly been positioning themselves for,
01:46or did they just simply look at this and say, hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,
01:50and they just decided they couldn't let it pass?
01:52How do you see how this all went down?
01:55Well, they've definitely been positioning themselves to purchase an NBA franchise for quite some time now.
02:01I mean, you don't just have, what, billions upon billions of dollars just underneath the pillow or in a piggy
02:08bank.
02:08I mean, Bob Iger told me himself that he and Josh Kushner, they were pursuing the potential Las Vegas expansion
02:16team
02:16that the NBA could be announced with them very shortly.
02:19They were pursuing that, and they got Josh Kushner.
02:23He reached out to Mark Walter after getting word that Mark Walter may be interested
02:28or may be willing to sell the Lakers.
02:30And that's a quick conversation that happens.
02:33And then, you know, once the opportunity presented to them, that's when they realized, you know,
02:41or they had an understanding, you know, you could spend, you know,
02:43a very similar amount of money on this Las Vegas expansion franchise.
02:46And, you know, you now have to build an arena.
02:49You have to hire all these staffs.
02:50Like, you have to build a project from the ground up.
02:52Or you can invest the same or similar amount of money into one, again,
02:56one of the most iconic sports franchises, not just in the NBA, but in the entire world.
03:01And you have a team that has Luka Dotsky, you know, it's already right there for you.
03:05You already have the arena agreement.
03:08So that's kind of how it came about.
03:10You know, when you have the opportunity to push the Lakers, for them, it was pretty easy.
03:15And it just happened so quickly because, you know, it was one of those –
03:20it wasn't like when Mark Walter bought the team where there was a succession plan in place.
03:24This was very much, you know, team wasn't so much on the market.
03:27And once you realize, you know, you have maybe that window to negotiate or make an offer, you hop on
03:33it.
03:34Yeah, and they jumped on it pretty quickly.
03:36Three days.
03:36That's just – it's a lot.
03:38I know, three days.
03:39Head around, right?
03:39It's just three days.
03:40I think for a lot of fans and people, even like us in sports media,
03:45I still think that the biggest unanswered question for a lot of people is why Mark Walter would sell the
03:50Lakers,
03:51as you just mentioned, less than a year after taking control.
03:53There's the obvious $2.5 billion increase in valuation right here, Kobe.
03:58But there have also been reports about the federal scrutiny surrounding parts of his business empire.
04:02But just based on your reporting, how much do we actually know about what motivated Walter himself to move this
04:10quickly?
04:11I mean, as of right now, not too much.
04:13I know there's a lot out there in terms of what you're talking about with the federal – excuse me,
04:17federal investigation.
04:18I think it was Bloomberg who reported that Mark Walter could be looking to get some cash, some liquid cash,
04:24to help pay back some of these loans or in conjunction with these loans.
04:29So there's not a whole lot definitive out there in terms of why he looked to sell now outside of
04:35the obvious profit that can be made
04:39once you do sell or flip a team for, I don't know, $2.5 billion valuation.
04:45But at least as of right now, there's not a definitive idea of exactly why Mark Walter, you know, sold
04:50the Lakers.
04:51Again, 14 months after agreeing to buy the team in the first place, in less than a year,
04:55really close to the 10 months after officially becoming the Lakers majority owner.
05:00Yeah, it's still shock.
05:02I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
05:04But we keep hearing when we talk about now the ownership of the team, right?
05:07We keep hearing Iger and Kushner.
05:09But what does that partnership actually look like, Kobe?
05:12Is Bob Iger expected to be the public-facing hands-on owner while Josh Kushner provides more of the financial
05:18muscle?
05:18And then you have the genie bus of it all, right?
05:20With her remaining governor, who's ultimately going to have the strongest voice when a major Laker decision has to be
05:26made?
05:28I mean, so how it was described to me, Bob Iger is going to be the one most heavily involved.
05:35Between him and Josh Kushner, Bob Iger will be the one most heavily involved with the Lakers.
05:40How exactly that looks, you know, they're going to obviously be majority co-owners, but how exactly that looks remains
05:45to be determined.
05:46You know, one of the things that Bob Iger told me while talking with him yesterday was, you know,
05:52it's too early to speculate on plans because they don't truly have a plan right now.
05:56And I actually, you know, I believe that it's because when you, you know, you get, you know, word of
06:02this,
06:03I mean, over the weekend or Friday that, you know, this is a possibility, you know,
06:07I'm not sure how much time you even have to make a plan in terms of, all right, here's going
06:11to be the organizational hierarchy.
06:13Here's how it's going to be, you know, when this decision is made, who's going to make it?
06:16But at least as of right now, it does seem like Bob Iger is going to be the more public
06:19-facing,
06:20the more involved one in terms of the franchise on a day-to-day basis or on a day-to
06:25-day basis.
06:26And then Josh Kushner maybe is a more, you know, more, more of a, I don't want to say backseat
06:31role,
06:32but more, less public-facing.
06:34I think that's also just been his general, I know, to my understanding in his roles.
06:40And then you obviously know, Guinea Bus, Bob Iger told me that the plan, at least as of right now,
06:46is to honor the agreement that Mark Walter and Guinea Bus have for Guinea Bus to remain governor.
06:50You know, that agreement was made last year, it was five years, so there'll be four years left on that
06:55agreement.
06:56And then at least as of right now, like all the other parts of the Lakers organization remain the same.
07:01You know, Rob Palenka remains the president of basketball operations.
07:04Lon Rosen, who was hired to replace Tim Harris not too long ago, you know, I think it was in
07:10February,
07:11he remains the president of business operations.
07:13You know, he was formerly with the Dodgers, with Mark Walter, he came over to the Lakers.
07:18But at least as of right now, the organizational hierarchy below the ownership remains the same.
07:23Now, could that change?
07:24Absolutely.
07:25But as of right now, I would imagine the decision-making in terms of, you know,
07:29basketball decisions, business decisions, would be similar.
07:32And one more thing I want to add to that is,
07:36unlike Mark Walter who had, you know, he had experience with the Dodgers,
07:39he had experience, obviously, owning the Sparks, you know, there isn't a whole lot of experience
07:44in terms of majority ownership between Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for NBA franchise.
07:50Josh Kushner, obviously, he was previously a minority owner of the Grizzlies for a few years.
07:55He sold that ownership to become a minority owner of the Heat, which he'll have to sell
08:00to become a majority owner of the Lakers.
08:02And then Bob Iger, you know, obviously former Disney CEO, he hasn't been a majority owner,
08:06you know, of an NBA franchise.
08:07So there's also going to, I would imagine, in their positions, you know,
08:11Bob Iger told me this, they know what they do know and they know what they don't know, right?
08:16So I would imagine that they'll be leaning on some of the experience, you know,
08:21around them and expertise around them, you know, as they get their footing,
08:25as, you know, the new Lakers co-owners.
08:27Yeah, you would think they need some of the experience that's been there from before
08:30with the franchise and leaning on that, as you mentioned,
08:33just because even for them as new owners, there will be some growing pains.
08:38Laker fans hopefully hope that there isn't too many growing pains,
08:41but there will be some adjustments to them being majority owners here.
08:45Kobe, the timing here is fascinating for me also because this is really the beginning
08:50of the Lakers finally becoming Luka Doncic's franchise with LeBron leaving and all of that.
08:55So when you're spending $12.5 billion to buy the team, does that create an even greater sense of
09:00urgency to build a championship organization around Luka or is it because of the NBA's cap
09:06and apron rules, which have really worked as a hard cap, is the bigger impact of this ownership
09:12change more likely to come through infrastructure, staffing, player development, more than just
09:17simply spending on players because that's just not the way things work right now in the NBA.
09:21What do you think about that?
09:23Well, funny enough, we had a very similar conversation where there's a similar conversation
09:27we had around the Lakers when Mark Bolter bought the team last summer, right?
09:32Like that was the whole, you know, documentation of the Lakers, you know, being able to invest
09:36in the infrastructure, you know, medical, the practice facility, the training facility.
09:41You know, I would imagine until that point, like the Lakers already did some of that,
09:45you know, they, I don't know all the details, but I do know that they were able to get
09:50or start to work on the practice facility, revamping that.
09:53So a lot of these, a lot of things that, you know, you're talking about, you're asking about,
09:56they were already in place in terms of the non-basketball, the non-roster additions,
10:01the non-roster improvements.
10:03But the other thing is, there's not a game plan.
10:05Like we don't have, like at least with Mark Walter, there was a, we had a decade plus
10:09long track record of when Mark Walter owns a franchise, a sports franchise, this is what
10:15he does.
10:16We don't really have that game plan for a Josh Kushner and Bob Iger regime.
10:21So I think a lot of this is going to be just a new ground.
10:24What exactly are their philosophies in terms of the areas to improve?
10:27Like the obvious areas are the non-basketball areas, you know, beefing up the front office,
10:32continuing to beef up the front office.
10:33I'll remind folks that the Lakers still have not hired the second general manager that
10:38Rob Palenka told us back in May.
10:40They were looking to hire, you know, continuing to progress with the infrastructure that they
10:46have been building out.
10:47But again, there's not really a game plan for this.
10:49And the other part of it is that, yes, the agreement came to fruition, you know, very recently.
10:54But as of right now, Mark Walter remains the majority owner.
10:58So the deal is official.
11:00I finalized, you know, has to be approved by the Board of Governors.
11:03Virginia Buster remains the governor.
11:05So at least as of right now, I would imagine it still be business as usual for the Lakers,
11:09even though you do obviously have the looming, you know, new ownership coming in.
11:13Yeah, that's going to be the thing.
11:15And it's going to be interesting with fans because fans are going to want to, they're
11:19going to want to know the plan, but there's no plan right now.
11:21And it's going to take some time for us to see what this new ownership does here.
11:25Last thing for me, Colby, I'm going to try to zoom out a little bit here in what this
11:29means for the NBA because Iger and Kushner, they were preparing to chase a Las Vegas expansion
11:34team.
11:34As you mentioned, they instead paid $12.5 billion for the Lakers, an iconic sports brand just
11:40worldwide.
11:40What does that number and the fact that the same franchise changed hands again so quickly
11:46due to the NBA's expansion conversation?
11:49Does it reset what a Las Vegas or Seattle franchise could cost and maybe even change the
11:55leagues thinking about what it wants from its next generation of owners?
11:58How do you think this impacts the NBA at large?
12:02I mean, from the expansion fee standpoint, I know there are points that have been out
12:06there that maybe it was going to be around $6 million-ish in terms of expansion fee, but
12:10after a sale like this, it's hard to imagine that it would not get closer to a double-digit
12:14billion, excuse me, a double-digit billion, you know, expansion fee.
12:19And again, the Celtics, you know, funny enough, at one point, you know, they went to Earthdale,
12:23I think it was around $6 billion themselves.
12:25So, we're seeing either the valuations of the franchises or the expansion fees, you
12:31know, there's been a climb, there's been a climb.
12:33So, I think that there's a possibility whether it's Seattle or it's Vegas, where the expansion
12:37fees are a little bit more or a little bit higher, specifically Vegas, than originally
12:43anticipated, you know, a few years ago when talks of expansion in Seattle and things
12:49specifically, Earth really tried to pick up.
12:52But, and then also not just for the teams that, not just for the expansion teams, but
12:57not even just the Lakers or even the Celtics, but we're just seeing an overall increase in
13:00valuation.
13:01It's crazy to think that, I think it was, what, what year is it, 2014, that the Clippers
13:06were sold at a valuation for $2 billion?
13:09And even at the time, most people thought that Steve Ballman was overpaying.
13:13Now, that's looking like an incredible investment, just because, it doesn't, it almost feels like
13:19no matter what team you're interested in, if you're trying to buy an NBA team, that almost
13:22feels like the ground floor.
13:25So, but it's, I mean, it's just also a reflection of the growth of the NBA's business, both
13:29domestically and internationally.
13:31And that's why you're going to see these, you know, expansion fees get as high as they
13:34will be.
13:34And also why it seemed like the Lakers could have a valuation, you know, well over $10
13:38billion, you know, $12.5 billion to be exact.
13:41Kobe, that was 12 years ago.
13:44Clippers were purchased for $2 billion, right?
13:47And now we're talking about a $12.5 billion valuation with the Lakers, obviously one of
13:51the most iconic brands in sports.
13:54I'm thinking about 12 years from now, what we might see some franchises go for.
13:59It's really interesting time for the NBA, really interesting time for the Lakers.
14:02We'll see, go ahead.
14:03I'm sorry.
14:04No, that's the answer to that point.
14:05That's something that the league has to, you know, they have to consider when they're
14:07talking about the expansion fees for Vegas and Seattle, because those are teams that,
14:10you know, you're not, if you're owning, like you're, you're playing to own a team for
14:1612, 15, 20, you know, a long time.
14:18I mean, that's why, you know, the owners that we're seeing, whereas the Buzz family or
14:21the Simon family are, they're the longest tenured, you know, currently the longest
14:25tenured majority owners of the NBA, like they own these teams for so long.
14:29Mark Cuban owned his, you know, owned the Mavericks for over 20 years before selling.
14:34Same with the Celtics, they had ownership for around 20, you know, a few decades.
14:37So this is a, you know, decades, multiple decades long investment.
14:40So that's why you're going to see these expansion fees again, get up to that, probably close
14:45to 10 billion, if not 10 billion, when you're talking about specifically Vegas too.
14:49Yeah, it's going to be very interesting what happens with the potential expansion teams
14:53and what their expansion fees will be there.
14:55That is Kobe Price.
14:56He does a fantastic job covering the Lakers for the California Post.
15:00Check out his piece, his exclusive with Bob Iger, new co-majority owner.
15:06Or once it becomes official of the Lakers, you can check it out.
15:09Really good job up on the californiapost.com.
15:11Kobe, always good seeing you, man.
15:13Thank you for joining me.
15:14I appreciate it.
15:14Thank you for joining me.
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