Anew era is upon the west coast of California, especifically in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, where Crypto.com Arena sits. The Los Angeles Lakers, the cream of the crop franchise of the NBA, will have new ownership. It was confirmed in the past days, that the Buss family has agreed to sell the franchise to Los Angeles Dodgers owner, Mark Walter, for a $10 billion valuation.
Basketball order needed a response from one of the new global icons of the sport, Luka Doncic, the Lakers’ recent acquired star player and the foundation of future comings. We have a response and, Lakers fans, you will love it.
Doncic went to his X (formerly Twitter) account and send a message reflecting optimism, excitement, and, most important, commitment for what the future holds for the storied franchise.
The post reads, “The Lakers are an amazing organization. I’m looking forward to meeting Mark and excited about the future.” After visualizing the first handshake with his new boss and expressing eagerness towards the new road their taking together, Doncic showed class by not forgetting who were the ones behind his arrival in Los Angeles, Jeanie and the Buss family.
“I am also grateful to Jeanie and the Buss family for walcoming me to LA, and I’m happy Jeanie will continue to be involved. I look forward to working with both of them”, expressed the Lakers’ star to close the statement.
According to Ramona Shelburn of ESPN, Lakers’ new majority owner Mark Walter has agreed for Jeanie Buss to stay as the governor of the franchise and for her to keep running the team for ‘at least a number of years’. Buss and Walter have been building a strong relationship since the latter acquired a minority stake of the franchise back in 2021. This was part of the plan all along.
A lot of Laker and NBA fans have expressed concern with this agreements comparing the situation to Mark Cuban’s sale of the Dallas Mavericks. The billionaire sold the majority stake of the Mavs and was promised to ‘keep running the team’. As we all know, the new owners kept Cuban from having a say in the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers and all hell broke loose in Dallas. According to Shelburne, the Lakers will handle the matter a different way and Laker nations should get excited, as their legend Magic Johnson professes.
Since the late Jerry Buss acquired the golden and purple franchise back 1979, this is how the team ranks in major success categories in the NBA:
- .604 winning % – 1st in NBA
- 301 playoff wins – 1st in NBA
- 11 championships – 1st in NBA
- 6 MVP’s (Magic Johnson 3x, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant) – 1st in NBA
