Less than a year after Mark Walter officially took majority ownership of the Lakers, the franchise is now being sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion.
This sale is not only a shock, but comes with many questions. One very notable one is what happens to current governor Jeanie Buss?
When Walter took over the team, the agreement was that Jeanie would remain as governor for at least five years. However, just one season as the Lakers’ owner, Walter is gone. However, it looks like Jeanie will stay in her position.
Iger, in an exclusive interview in the California Post written by Khobi Price, stated that Jeanie will remain on as the team’s governor.
Iger told the Post he and Kushner intend to honor the agreement made between Walter and Buss.
“We have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they’ve contributed to this franchise,” Iger said. “And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie. If things change, they’ll change, but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.”
It certainly sounds like Jeanie won’t be leaving her position with the franchise anytime soon. However, Iger did leave himself some leeway by saying, “If things change, they’ll change.”
Transitions of power in the NBA can be tricky. When Mark Cuban sold the Mavericks, he believed he would continue to have control of the basketball operations and clearly that didn’t happen.
The difference between that situation and the original one with Jeanie was that she got it in writing, making it official. If it’s a handshake agreement, you can see how that turns out. For now, Iger seems open to the idea of keeping Jeanie on.
But, as he said, if things change, they change.
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