Six-time NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss said new majority owner Mark Walter's access to capital will help the team best compete with the NBA's top franchises — and that her late father, Jerry Buss, would have supported the sale.
"What was important to him was that the Lakers stay at the top of the NBA, and to stay at the top of the NBA, you need to have the resources," Buss said. "You need to have everybody pulling together. And he would want [that for] the Lakers, because the Lakers are his legacy."
While the NBA has a salary cap that can limit team spend, franchises do have some flexibility if owners are willing to pay a luxury tax. Team spend currently ranges from about $154 million to $220 million, with the Lakers seventh overall at $197 million, according to Basketball Reference. Walter has consistently been one of the top spending owners in Major League Baseball since acquiring the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012.
Buss and her family agreed to sell their majority stake in the team to Walter last year at a $10 billion valuation. ESPN recently documented significant conflict between the Buss siblings that led to the sale, which Buss called "bittersweet."
Jerry Buss willed ownership of the team to his six children in a trust when he died in 2013.
