Winners and losers of Lakers sale: Good news for Luka Dončić and other NBA owners, Celtics lose record

One of the most famous families in basketball is about to leave the stage on the left. After 46 years and 11 championships, the bus family is Sell ​​his majority participation In Los Angeles Lakers to the owner of the Dodgers, Mark Walter, an evaluation of $ 10 billion. It is one of the most amazing sales in the history of sport not only for the Gargantusen price, but for people behind.

The bus family has never been absent owners. Dr. Jerry Buss was so essential to direct the Lakers that HBO literally made a television program on him. Several of her children have held important positions not only in the business, but in basketball operations, and Jeanie Buss has been the team governor since the death of her father in 2013. Everything that happened to Lakers since almost the last half century has turned around this family in a significant way.

Jeanie Buss would have kept her governor from the team, but we do not yet know what this will imply. It is hard to believe that Walter would spend $ 10 billion on a team he will not control. This sale will change a little in Los Angeles, so let’s talk about who benefits from it and who loses in the largest sale of franchise in the history of the NBA.

Winner: Luka Dončić

We like to apply credit and blame for the success of a team or failures for superstars, but most often, these stars are at the mercy of their first offices. Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant won the Bus 10 family championships, but most of their teams were built by Jerry West, the biggest general manager in the NBA history. The 11th and last bus championship came from LeBron James. Indeed, he was not drafted by a team that had a west executive at the helm, so he had to leave the Cleveland riders to get there. He started winning championships when he linked himself to Pat Riley in Miami.

Think of the front office that Dončić comes to Dallas. Forget for a moment that it was stupid enough to exchange it in the first place. When Nico Harrison took over in 2021, the Mavericks had Kristaps Porziņģis and Jalen Brunson flanking Dončić. They lost both essentially for nothing. Dončić’s primary at that time was not in good hands.

Well, now the person who shapes the organization while Dončić strikes his theoretical peak will be Walter. No, he will not make basketball decisions, but his history with the Dodgers speak of himself. They have not missed the playoffs since its first season by having the team. They did the World Series four teams, won it twice and won more than 60% of their matches. He will put the right people in place to drive this team in the future. It is not a guarantee of anything, of course, but it is a good sign for the hopes of Dončić to compete with the titles in Los Angeles.

Mark Walter’s Dodgers have become a MLB mastodon – and Lakers can use these lessons when he takes over the NBA team

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Losing: competition

It would not be quite right to say that the bus era was cheap. They have been the highest seventh of the NBA’s highest NBA since 2017, according to Eric Pincus to Bleacher Report. But … these are the Lakers. They print money. A Los Angeles team with the largest local sport television case should probably not be exceeded by anyone.

But the Lakers were. Although they were willing to pay the luxury tax, they were generally more eager to spend on big names than supporting parts. The loss of Alex Caruso in 2021 was a perfect example. There would have been no basketball cost to keep it. It would only have cost money. They did not spend it. This economy has manifested itself more often from the Court. Lakers have never been known to have a deep front office or invest massively in off -field support. You cannot quantify the value of these things, but it is significant.

Lakers have always, for lack of a better term, hired within the family. They had five head leaders under the bus family. Bill Sharman was a former Lakers coach. Jerry West, Mitch Kupchak and Magic Johnson were laker players. Rob Pelinka was Kobe Bryant’s agent. Many of their coaching hits also had laker ties. Bus family members have held several basketball stations over the years. Kurt Rambis and his wife Linda are sadly powerful within the organization. Some of these decisions have worked better than others, but at the very least, it is just to say that the management of an organization in this way is not optimal. The teams should seek the best talents from afar. Lakers do not.

They have always posed an important challenge for the rest of the league, because, well, these are the Lakers. The players want to come to Los Angeles. They want to carry purple and gold. But now that the Lakers will probably work more like a standard large market franchise and less as a family business, well, which expresses problems for the rest of the league, which can no longer count on the Lakers to put themselves in their own way.

Winner: the rest of the owners of the NBA

It is not a secret for anyone that the NBA explores expansion in the near future. One of the big rumors of the season was that the expansion would occur after a sale of the Boston Celtics resets the franchise prices market. Boston sold for just over $ 6 billion, and Adam Silver has started talking more seriously to the expansion press since. If the NBA had sold expansion franchises for $ 5 to 6 billion each before that, it would have been considered a huge success.

But $ 10 billion? This completely resets the market. No, the other teams do not suddenly start to sell for this price. These are the Lakers, after all. But a seismic sale like this has training effects throughout the market. No NBA team was sold even at $ 1 billion when Steve Ballmer bought the clippers for $ 2 billion in 2014. But each franchise that has been sold since 2016 has now been for at least $ 1 billion, and several for a lot more. The alleged teams of Las Vegas and Seattle will not have $ 10 billion, but they are worth more today because of what the Lakers have just received.

The functioning of expansion is, a new owner mainly buys a team nonexistent from the League. The existing owners divide the sale price equally, so for the moment, it would be in 30 pieces. Each additional dollar is more than three hundred each team. Now multiply these three hundred hundreds of millions or maybe billions of times. The bus family has not only made money for themselves, but for each owner in basketball.

The Celtics had the second sale in history of history. It is not as if they were selling stockings. But, as we have covered, the Lakers reset the market. If the world knew that the Lakers obtained $ 10 billion, it is difficult to imagine that the Celtics did not sneak at least closer than $ 7 billion in their own sale. So, on this front, it is a minor loss for the Groubeck property group.

But at a deeper level … it is the greatest rivalry in basketball. The rivalries thrive on the level game fields. Well, the free market has just shown us that the Lakers are worth much more than Celtics. Does this affect both sides on the ground? No. But the Boston ego must know how definitively they are the second financial violin of this relationship.

If it’s a consolation, Boston is very used to that now. They occupied a similar role in the greatest rivalry of baseball, because New York Yankees have much more financial power than the Red Sox. Boston has twice as many championships this century, but their cost reduction maneuvers in recent years have caused significant outcry among its fans base. Celtics should also reduce costs in the near future, but it has more to do with basketball implications to stay above the second deck than any cheap. Lakers are subject to these same rules, so it does not sting so badly. It is above all a question of pride.

Winner: the bus family

As successful as the bus family has managed the Lakers, it is important to remember that in financial terms, they do not have the resources of the Steve Ballmers in the world. Their wealth is not derived from external companies. He came almost entirely from Lakers. They were in no way poor, of course, but in terms of money, they had less than your standard and large market owners.

Bus participation in the Lakers was owned by a trust. There are six brothers and sisters of bus, and each of them has a sixth game in this confidence. Before this sale, the trust held 66% of the team. To an evaluation of $ 10 billion, which 66% would bring in $ 6.6 billion, or $ 1.1 billion per brother. Now, we do not yet know with certainty what percentage of the team that Walter bought apart from the fact that he now has a majority. The NBA rules dictate that a team governor must come from a group that holds at least 15%, it is therefore possible that the value of the bus family kept, because Jeanie will remain in this role. But whatever the final split, the liquidation of most of their part by sharing the six brothers and sisters of bus richer in practical terms.

Loser: Rob Pelinka

We ultimately do not know where power in the Lakers organization will lie. Buses will ostensibly keep the governor and, according to Ramona Shelburne d’Espn, she will keep it for “at least a certain number of years”. We can also be realistic here. Walter probably did not spend billions of dollars to let someone else lead his team. If he wants to install his own people, it is difficult to imagine that he will not be able to do so.

When he bought the dodgers, he quickly looked for the best executive possible to manage his baseball operations. He landed on Andrew Friedman and poache him rays of Tampa Bay. Will he do the same for Lakers? Only time will tell us. In particular, however, there is a fairly known framework with Los Angeles Ties which currently does broadcasting work for ESPN. Bob Myers built the Golden State Warriors. He went to the UCLA. It is difficult not to think of him for the Lakers what Friedman was for the dodgers.

Where does it leave Pelinka? For the moment, work is his. Dončić’s trade probably bought him a reasonable amount of employment security. But his relationship with the buses, and by extension thanks to his partnership with Bryant, the entire Laker organization, made a long way for him during a very fragile section of Lakers basketball. Remember, he drew three separate coaches and had the freedom to hire their replacements without a real control be put on his own performance. Even if LeBron James pushed for this, he finally exchanged against Russell Westbrook and let Caruso leave. His performance was hardly beyond the reproach.

A change has probably not come in the short term. Pelinka’s performance in the 2025 offseason is now essential. If he can put a team at the championship around Dončić and James, his work is probably sure. But if this season goes badly, without the security of the property of the bus family, its headquarters could start to become very hot very quickly.