Jeanie Buss has agreed to sell a majority stake in the Lakers to LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a record-setting valuation of $10 billion. After taking over from her father, who passed away in 2013, Jeanie Buss and her siblings have unanimously decided to let Walter purchase their father’s property handed down to them in consortium.
Following this news, ESPN Insider Dave McMenamin went on SportsCenter’s live broadcast and revealed how LeBron James and Luka Doncic reacted to hearing this news.
“Speaking to people close to both Luka and LeBron James, there’s excitement about this move for what it means for this team. Obviously, having someone like Mark Walter doesn’t mean the salary cap goes out the window. There’s a new collective bargaining agreement in place that has punitive measures for teams that overspend. You lose draft picks, you can’t make trades and aggregate salaries, etc, when you reach towards the second apron. But what you can do is add extra spending towards your scouting department, your analytics department, your health and wellness staff, etc., to make it an even more inviting environment other than just having the 72 and sunny weather that we have out here in Southern California.”
While Mark Walter’s arrival does not indicate that the Lakers can now spend beyond the league’s permissible rules and disregard the salary cap. But it does mean that he can spend more on the facilities that can make the Lakers internally better.
But it is noteworthy that, considering that the Lakers do not own the Crypto.com Arena, this valuation of $10 billion is solely based on the brand value of the team and its history. Otherwise, it is very hard to justify the leap from the previous highest valuation of an NBA team (the Boston Celtics, $6.1 billion).
Does This Ownership Change Influence LeBron James’ Contract Decision?
While Jeanie Buss may have sold a majority of her ownership stake in the team, she will still be expected to remain as the governor of the team. To be the governor of an NBA team, a person must represent at least 15% of the ownership stake, which is the expected ownership stake that the Buss family will retain.
Thus, in effect, there will not be many changes to the daily activities of the team. According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, the change in ownership will therefore have no bearing on LeBron James’ player option decision, which is pending till the end of this month.
“I’m told that one person that this decision has no bearing on his decision of moving forward with the Lakers is LeBron James. He still has his decision at the end of the month to decide whether to opt in for his next year’s contract worth about $56 million or opt out and become a free agent. This decision has no bearing on where LeBron will go next year. And then again, we have no indication so far that LeBron James won’t be a Laker next season.”
While most people anticipate that LeBron James will not take a pay cut once again for the Lakers, he will need to do that if he wants the Lakers to sign some top-tier talent in free agency. Their previous playoff run exposed several holes in the Lakers’ roster, which they need salary space to fill. Will James make the ultimate sacrifice for the Lakers, or will he secure his own future?
