Did Lakers leave money on the table keeping Jeanie Buss in charge?

The shocking sale of the Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5B valuation was a huge jump from the $10B valuation from their sale just a year ago. But the former majority owners won't benefit from that boost.

Mark Walter purchased roughly 50 percent of the Lakers last year from Jeanie Buss and her siblings, and retained Buss as team governor for five years. Now that stake has gone up in value by 25 percent, but the family won't see those gains.

Jeanie Buss may have sacrificed billions to remain in control

Walter had been a minority owner of the Lakers since 2021, when he acquired 27 percent of the team from Philip Anschutz. Now he's selling his chunk of the team, roughly 77 percent, to a group led by Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Before buying a controlling interest in the Lakers in 2025, Walter and his partners had the right to match any outside offer to buy the Buss family's majority stake. That made last year's sale easier, especially since Walter had already been vetted as an NBA owner, but it may have led the Buss family to take a below-market price.

If the Lakers are worth $12.5B in the summer of 2026, it's hard to imagine that they weren't worth more than $10B one year ago. And in a transaction where two of the six Buss children voted against the sale and subsequently got fired, it may have made a big difference to the eldest Buss sister that she'd remain team governor afterward.

Jeanie Buss likely to stay in place after Los Angeles Lakers sale

In a phone interview with the California Post, Iger suggested Buss' role as team governor was safe. Iger said, "We have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie," referring to the deal that left Buss in place until 2030.

That's good news for Buss and for Rob Pelinka, who got a promotion to team president and a contract extension last fall. At least for now.

It's bad news for the Buss siblings, who would have seemingly split an extra $1.25B had the team been sold at the 2026 valuation. That's brutal news for the two youngest Buss siblings. Not only did the team get sold against their will and cost them their jobs, but they may have lost out on $200M each because the team was sold to an insider.

Maybe Jeanie Buss didn't imagine the team could be valued at such a record high. But it's hard not to think that her desire to make a deal with a buyer who would keep her in charge left her blind to the chance she was leaving hundreds of millions on the table by looking at other buyers.