If you're Luka Dončić, the business of basketball is quite a thing.
Not only was he traded from the Dallas Mavericks, the team that drafted him, to the bright lights of the Los Angeles Lakers, seemingly without any advanced notice; he will, this season, be playing for his fifth different ownership group in the past three years.
Mark Walter, who officially purchased a majority stake in the Lakers from the Buss family in October 2025, agreed last week — amid an ongoing federal investigation into alleged fraud in his lending practices — to sell control of the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.
Neither Iger nor Kushner has ever run a professional sports franchise.
That may not seem like such a big deal. Dončić entered the NBA as the No. 3 overall pick (should have been No. 1), made the All-NBA First Team in his second season and earned a maximum designated rookie contract extension from the Mavericks. He now gets to play for the Lakers, the league's most fabled franchise, on a three-year, $160 million extension.
#team #kushner #franchise
Not only was he traded from the Dallas Mavericks, the team that drafted him, to the bright lights of the Los Angeles Lakers, seemingly without any advanced notice; he will, this season, be playing for his fifth different ownership group in the past three years.
Mark Walter, who officially purchased a majority stake in the Lakers from the Buss family in October 2025, agreed last week — amid an ongoing federal investigation into alleged fraud in his lending practices — to sell control of the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner.
Neither Iger nor Kushner has ever run a professional sports franchise.
That may not seem like such a big deal. Dončić entered the NBA as the No. 3 overall pick (should have been No. 1), made the All-NBA First Team in his second season and earned a maximum designated rookie contract extension from the Mavericks. He now gets to play for the Lakers, the league's most fabled franchise, on a three-year, $160 million extension.
#team #kushner #franchise
2 months ago
