Mar 12, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers majority owner Mark Walter and team executive Jeannie Buss in attendance at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
As one of the NBA’s most iconic franchises, it’s always a big story when the Los Angeles Lakers change hands. For decades, the team was controlled by the Buss family, starting with Jerry in 1979, who ran the show for decades before giving all authority to his daughter, Jeanie.
In a move that surprised everyone, Jeanie sold the majority of her family’s shares to billionaire owner Mark Walter, who also owns the Dodgers. It was only later that we learned of Mark’s involvement in a federal fraud investigation, which eventually forced him to sell the Lakers only one year after taking over. Today, NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke publicly on the situation for the first time, telling reporters that Walter came back clean in their own investigation.
“I will say at the time that we vetted Mark Walter to be the principal governor of the team; again, he was already a part owner, minority owner in the Los Angeles Lakers,” Silver said in Tuesday’s press conference (via ohnohedidnt24). “We went through the full process we all do, we spoke to governmental agencies, we spoke to, in the case of Mark Walter, a heavily regulated insurance agency, we spoke to other leagues in which he has investments. We found no red flags. Again, even to this day, as you know, these are — call them allegations. There are issues that are now being looked into. Independent of Mark Walter choosing to sell his team right now, he was not being investigated by our league. I don’t know what’s happening in other leagues right now.”
Walter had big ambitions for the Lakers, initiating a front office overhaul that was still playing out when he sold to co-owners Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. He was in the process of ‘Dodgerizing” the team, but he never got to see his vision to completion. For Silver, he never saw it coming, given that Walter passed their extensive vetting process.
“We take the vetting process very seriously,” Silver added. “A lot of what we do is intensive database searching. I mean, you would think in this day and age, with AI and everything else, that everything is centralized. It’s not. In many cases, you’re going state-by-state. In certain cases, people are part of industries that are regulated state-by-state, so you have to look there as well. We also talk to as many people as we can find who have knowledge about these people, and we do interviews. So, again, we’re always seeing if we can do things better, but I don’t see a trend or some widespread issue, certainly among our principal owners, that gives me cause for concern.”
Mark Walter is facing serious federal charges, and he’ll use the money he made from selling the Lakers to help him out of this legal crisis. How much that actually helps his situation remains to be seen, but it’s not a good look for the NBA.
With so much financial baggage and major questions about the validity of his empire, it’s interesting that the league found no red flags with his initial purchase of the team. Unless Walter is innocent, it suggests that they weren’t looking in the right places. If nothing else, let’s hope they improve the process for the next incoming owner.