Who's the boss? Luka Doncic gets fifth owner in five years

This era of NBA basketball features plenty of player movement, with superstars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant changing teams multiple times over their career.

Sometimes, it's the bosses who keep changing, as Luka Doncic discovered again this week after the Los Angeles Lakers were sold for the second time in less than a year.

Los Angeles Lakers sale gives Luka Doncic another new boss

For the first five years of his NBA career, Doncic played for Mark Cuban, owner and team governor of the Dallas Mavericks. But in December 2023, Cuban sold a controlling interest in the Mavericks to the family of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, retaining only 27 percent of the team. Cuban has said he regrets the decision to sell, especially after he was quickly forced out as the team's top decision-maker.

New team governor Patrick Dumont and general manager Nico Harrison took over and stunned the NBA world by trading Doncic to the Lakers in January 2025. That made Jeanie Buss his new boss, until she sold a controlling interest in the team to Mark Walter in the summer of 2025.

This seemed like a long-term investment for Walter, who was also the head of a group that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers. Doncic was reportedly "impressed by the level of communication" he had with Walter, who took Doncic and his teammates to a Backstreet Boys concert in Las Vegas after Doncic signed a contract extension last August.