May 3, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; LA Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue reacts in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets during game seven of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

NBA Insider Reveals Why Lakers Didn’t Hire Ty Lue as Head Coach in 2019

Originally posted on Los Angeles Lakers on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Aug 20, 2025 9:00 PM ET

Incoming new Los Angeles Lakers owner Mark Walter could have a unique impact on the team's moves beyond the hardwood.

Walter, a private equity CEO who has agreed to procure the Buss clan's controlling majority stake of the franchise for an amount that translates to a $10 billion cumulative team valuation, was credited with helping build out the Los Angeles Dodgers' front office when his ownership group took over in 2012.

Now-Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue had held exploratory conversations with Lakers ownership in the summer of 2019 to take over from Luke Walton as the club's head coach, where he'd be guiding a team led by All-NBA frontcourt superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

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“I’m pretty sure Ty Lue didn’t get hired by the Lakers because of money,” ESPN's Tim Bontemps revealed on a new installment of "The Hoop Collective Podcast."

Bontemps' co-host Brian Windhorst indicated that Lue ultimately balked at the offer that the Lakers had tendered his way, and ultimately took a lead assistant coach gig under Doc Rivers with the Clippers. Lue has been in stewarding the franchise since Rivers' firing in 2020.

“I think Ty Lue was underwhelmed by the contract offer,“ Windhorst posited.

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The next time a big-ticket free agent head coach hits the market and L.A. is in that market, Bontemps suggested that the Walter-era Lakers would pounce, no matter the cost. The Lakers wound up pivoting, hiring Frank Vogel. Vogel guided Los Angeles to a 52-20 record and the 2020 title during a COVID-19-shortened season.

"That won’t happen again if Mark Walter owns the Lakers, that’s just a fact. They are going to become a more modern organization when he takes over,” Bontemps added.

A New Era in Los Angeles

< p> When the sale does finally go through, the Lakers will move on from the Buss family for the first time since late patriarch Dr. Jerry Buss procured ownership from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979.

Under first Jerry and later Jeanie Buss, Los Angeles has won 11 championships, including during that very first season, 1979-80, with superstar rookie Magic Johnson joining a loaded club that also included future Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes.