In 1979, Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and turned professional basketball into a Hollywood production: courtside celebrities, a fast, camera-ready style of play, an arena built to feel like a stage. He called it Showtime, and it worked so well it became the template every league in the world eventually copied.
Forty-seven years later, the team Buss built as entertainment is being bought by the man who spent his career running the biggest entertainment company on earth. Bob Iger, who built Disney around owning stories the world already loved, is now buying the story Buss invented.
The deal, reported Wednesday by ESPN, values the Lakers at roughly $12.5 billion, the highest price ever paid for a U.S. sports franchise. Iger and Josh Kushner, the venture capitalist who founded Thrive Capital, are buying the team from Mark Walter, who purchased a controlling stake from the Buss family just 14 months ago at a $10 billion valuation, making Walter’s return roughly 21%.
“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world,” Kushner and Iger said in a joint statement. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss.”
