The Buss family sold the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $10 billion on Wednesday to Mark Walter, according to ESPN. Meaning the mega-rich owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Andretti Global, which operates the Cadillac Formula 1 team, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Professional Women’s Hockey League, is now the boss of one of the Denver Nuggets‘ primary rivals.
Since Walter’s Guggenheim bought the Dodgers in 2012, they’ve become one of the highest-fianced and most competitive teams in the sport. They’ve won two World Series and have won the National League West in 11 of the 12 full seasons under the ownership group.
Walter, a businessman from the finance world, will offer the Lakers much deeper pockets than the Buss family. Owners of Los Angeles’ premier basketball team for nearly 50 years, the family made most of their money from the team itself. All the while, the team has struggled relatively since Dr. Jerry Buss died. In the aftermath, his daughter Jeanie Buss has run the team to mixed reviews with one championship won thanks to LeBron James and the bubble. Outside of that 2020 team, the Lakers have not really met their Showtime standards and have a record of 430-533 since the father’s death.
The deal comes just as the Lakers find their post-LeBron James star in the form of Luka Doncic, who was unloaded for cheap to SoCal by the Dallas Mavericks last season.
The sale was rather quiet until the news on Wednesday. That’s not too surprising, given Walter was already in-house as a minority owner at 20%, which he bought at an evaluation for nearly 1/10th of the current price.
Now it’s Walter and Doncic starring in a new era for Los Angeles basketball. Oh, and there will be a splash of Magic Johnson too; he’s an investor in the ownership group and is around the Dodgers quite a bit. Jeanie will stay on, running the team. Which is something both of the last two NBA owners who have sold their team have attempted to do. Both Mark Cuban in Dallas and Wyc Grousbeck pulled that move, but unlike those two, Buss got a way higher price. Those two recent sales were for $3.5 billion and $6.1 billion, respectively.
Job well done to my sister Jeanie Buss for striking an incredible deal and picking the right person to carry on the @Lakers legacy and tradition of winning – Mark Walter, my business partner and friend! Mark Walter is the best choice and will be the best caretaker of the Laker…
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 18, 2025
This means another team in the West is getting its ducks in a row for the future — which means the Nuggets few year recent terror over the Lakers is now seriously threatened. That’s a bit of speculation. What’s real is how annoying Lakers fans are already being, with Nikola Jokic already on trade graphics. But as long as the three-time MVP is in Colorado, Denver sports fans won’t have to fear the Lakers, the way Colorado Rockies fans do the Dodgers and their dominance.
The Lakers new owner Mark Walter loves to make big moves…
Imagine the Lakers traded for Nikola Jokic to pair with Luka? 🤯 pic.twitter.com/m9rIWE4L9N
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) June 18, 2025