LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and their teammates at Los Angeles Lakers might be watching the increasingly exciting NBA finals from home, but Lakers actually made it into headlines this week when it was sold for $10 billion, making it the biggest sale for a US sports team in history, dwarfing the sale of Boston Celtics by $6.1 billion last March, which already held the record. That shows how valuable the Los Angeles Lakers are, even compared to the 2024 NBA champion.
The new Los Angeles Lakers owners will be Mark Walter, CEO of the holding company TWG Global, once the deal is done, although the previous owners, the Buss family, will keep a minority stake of 15% "for a period of time", as reported this week by ESPN, and Jeanie Buss will remain the Lakers' governor and continue to run the team for "at least a number of years".
Of course, a sale of this magnitude is not easy to pull of, and the final value of the team is not yet known, and could be even larger. Walters from TWG Global already had a minority stake (20%) in the franchise since 2021. He has also invested in other sports teams, like the new Cadillac F1 Team starting next year or Chelsea Football Club.