Nobody saw this coming. The Lakers just got sold for the second time in 18 months, and this time the price tag is a record-breaking $12.5 billion, with Mark Walter handing the keys to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. ESPN's Ramona Shelburne broke the news first, reporting that Kushner and Iger had actually been circling the NBA's Las Vegas expansion process before pivoting hard toward an aggressive offer for the Lakers instead.
The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to American businessman Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record breaking price over $12 billion, multiple sources told ESPN. Kushner and Iger were involved in the expansion process in Las Vegas, but a stunning turn, they pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter, who had purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Buss family last year.
The whiplash here is real. Walter closed on his purchase of the Lakers from the Buss family for roughly $10 billion, a deal the NBA's Board of Governors didn't even formally approve until the end of October 2025 — meaning, as Marc Stein pointed out, Walter was the team's controlling owner for less than 9 months before agreeing to sell again.
Mark Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was formally approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors at the end of October 2025 … meaning he was officially the Lakers’ controlling owner for less than nine months.
Both sides put out statements through Shelburne. Kushner and Iger called it an honor to become "stewards" of the franchise and pledged to build on the foundation Jerry and Jeanie Buss laid, while Walter said owning the Lakers was one of the great honors of his life and thanked the Buss family for welcoming him in. Reading between the lines, this all moved fast — Shelburne later said on First Take that Kushner and Iger reportedly called Walter with the idea on a Sunday.
Ramona Shelburne recaps how Kushner and Iger's approach to Mark Walter came together in a matter of days.
One thing this deal is NOT is a Dodgers sale — Shelburne confirmed Walter is only offloading the Lakers and keeping the Dodgers in his portfolio. The Sparks aren't part of it either, per Dan Woike. So while the number sounds apocalyptic, Walter's L.A. sports empire isn't collapsing, it's just getting smaller by one very, very expensive team.
Walter is only selling the Lakers in this transaction, sources said. He’s retaining the Dodgers.
There's also a real governance question hanging over this. When Walter's purchase closed, it came with a written stipulation that Jeanie Buss would stay on as Lakers governor for at least 5 years. That agreement is barely a year old, and now there's a new set of buyers in the building — Stein flagged that clarity on how the leadership structure looks going forward is still TBD.
As for Walter himself, the man didn't do too badly on the flip — a purchase near $10 billion turning into a $12.5 billion sale works out to roughly $2.5 billion of profit in about a year, which is the kind of number that makes you rethink your entire career. Kushner runs Thrive Capital and just launched Thrive Eternal in May, a fund built around restoring iconic brands that had previously only taken a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants — this Lakers deal is on an entirely different planet in scale. Iger, the longtime Disney CEO, brings the media-mogul half of the partnership. Together they're now set to become the new stewards of the league's most valuable, most storied franchise, and the NBA world is still trying to figure out how it happened twice in a year and a half.