The Lakers are perhaps the most historic franchise in the NBA and, until last summer, were one of the league’s true family businesses—with all of the warts that entails. Jerry Buss bought the franchise in 1979, and his family stewarded the team through its 11 most recent NBA championships.
Los Angeles’s leading family cashed in last year, however, as Jeanie Buss sold her majority stake in the franchise to investment manager Mark Walter, who also owns the MLB’s Dodgers among other sports investments. Walter had been a minority owner of the franchise but had a right of first refusal to buy the Buss family’s majority stake, and did so last year.
