Los Angeles Dodgers majority owner Mark Walter during recognition for the Los Angeles Dodgers World Series victory at Crypto.com Arena.
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
The NBA world was woken up with a bombshell report on Wednesday morning when it was announced that after less than a year, billionaire Mark Walter had sold his majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to the duo of Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. But while the Lakers will no longer be under Walter’s ownership group, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks are reportedly not part of the sale, as per Dan Woike of The Athletic.
Although Mark Walter and his group had just recently purchased the Lakers, the Sparks have been under his ownership group since 2014, overseeing the franchise’s third WNBA championship in 2016. The Sparks have long been one of the WNBA’s premier franchises, but are on the verge of failing to qualify for the playoffs in six consecutive seasons now.
This season in particular, Walter’s group seemingly started taking a more hands-on approach with the Sparks. In mid July, the organization fired general manager Raegan Pebley after only two seasons. The team was also active at the trade deadline, trading All-Star guard Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury, a deal that reportedly was done with Walter’s advisor Farhan Zaidi in charge.
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As of right now, the Sparks are 12-20 and in 10th place in the WNBA standings. Although they have not been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet, with only 12 games remaining in the regular season and six and half games behind the No. 8 seed Dallas Wings, a postseason berth is looking extremely unlikely.
With Walter’s group continuing to own the Sparks, it will be interesting to see what happens in the offseason.