3 reasons Lakers fans should be ecstatic about the sale of the team

In a Los Angeles Lakers season that's been marked by one shocking headline after another, it feels fitting that the purple and gold had one more trick in store for us before the NBA Finals wrap up. As reported by ESPN's Shams Charania yesterday, the Buss family, which has owned the team since 1979, is selling its majority share of the team to Mark Walter for a staggering $10 billion.

If the name Mark Walter sounds familiar to Lakers fans, it should. He also owns fellow Angeleno franchises the Dodgers and the Sparks, as well as the Premier League's Chelsea F.C., the Cadillac F1 team and the entire Professional Women's Hockey League, which he founded last year.

Enormous credit is due to Jeanie Buss and the Buss family, not only for the record windfall they're set to receive from the sale, but for capably steering the ship and winning another title in the 12 years since the family patriarch, Dr. Jerry Buss, passed away.

Just as they were during Dr. Buss' time, the Lakers have remained at the forefront of the NBA conversation in recent years. The team successfully recruited LeBron James, the best player of his era, back in 2018, won the bubble title in 2020, and just in the past year alone, hired JJ Redick as its new head coach and pulled off the most shocking NBA trade in history by sending Anthony Davis to Dallas for Luka Dončić.

No team receives more airtime than the Lakers, whether it be for nationally televised games or discussion in the morning after on programs like First Take. Walter paid an enormous price, but in return, he's getting a brand whose prestige and value are already on par with the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys.

Changes in team ownership come with great uncertainty for fans. Sometimes it's a good thing, such as when Josh Harris bought the Washington Commanders from the hated Daniel Snyder. No longer an embarrassment to the NFL and fans, the Commanders are now one of the up-and-coming franchises in the league.

Lakers fans need only look across town to see the positive impact Steve Ballmer has had on the Clippers, who were previously owned by Donald Sterling. Sterling was reviled for a multitude of reasons, while Ballmer has poured money into the club and turned it into one of the better-run franchises in the NBA.

Changing ownership is no guarantee of success, however. Phoenix Suns fans have found that out the hard way as Mat Ishbia has compounded one bad move with another, and Boston Celtics fans are currently extremely nervous over the transition from Wyc Grousbeck to Bill Chisholm after their own recent sale.

Lakers fans should have nothing to worry about, as Walter's history as a team owner proves that their favorite team is in great hands. Here are the three biggest reasons why.

The Lakers are about to get an infusion of cash at every level

Even before this record-setting sale, the Buss family was rich by nearly any definition. As far as fellow NBA owners go, though, they couldn't hope to compete with much of the league in terms of spending power. ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon accurately said yesterday that "the Lakers have been the most glamorous mom and pop shop in the world for a while now."

Tales abound of the Lakers being frugal, if we're being kind, and cheap, if we're not. Players such as Alex Caruso have left because they were underwhelmed by L.A.'s under-market offers, while behind the scenes, the Lakers have been behind the curve in embracing the NBA's modern age of scouting and analytics.

That won't be a problem under Walter, because as exorbitant as his purchase price appears to be, this is chump change to him. He's the founder and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, an investment firm that manages over $325 billion in assets. As owner of the Dodgers, he transformed that operation from a large-market team that behaved like a small-market one (former owner Frank McCourt infamously needed to take out a loan to make payroll), to a franchise that is, without a doubt, the standard to which all others in MLB aspire.

Walter opened his checkbook for Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, among others, but he won't be able to simply outspend his NBA counterparts. That's fine, because his organizational philosophy is much more comprehensive than that. Two years after buying the Dodgers, he hired Andrew Friedman, one of the most respected front office minds in the game, away from the Tampa Bay Rays, and placed an emphasis on scouting, drafting, player development and building up the minor league system. That has paid dividends, not only in granting the Dodgers the ability to trade top prospects for stars such as Mookie Betts, but in producing homegrown stars such Will Smith, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager.

Walter will drag the Lakers scouting and front office into the 21st century whether they like it or not. With the inherent advantages the team already has in terms of attracting top free agents, this could set them up for a new golden age of success.

Mark Walter has a history of hiring experts and then getting out of their way

Anybody who has ever bought a professional sports franchise naturally has a massive ego. How could they not, given the success they've had in business that allowed them to accrue the money needed to buy into such an exclusive club?

Being a trailblazer in the insurance industry, or a real estate mogul or a hedge fund genius doesn't at all correlate with knowing what it takes to run a team. The Ringer's Bill Simmons coined the term "New Owner Syndrome" to label new owners who come in and swing their you-know-whats around because they believe that they're the smartest people in the room. This often means making big, splashy moves in the first year, which often blow up in their faces.

Ishbia is the latest example of New Owner Syndrome in the NBA, unless you also count Miriam Adelson of the Dallas Mavericks, who traded away Luka but fell backwards into landing Cooper Flagg all the same. Previous examples include Mikhail Prokhorov of the Brooklyn Nets and Vivek Ranadivé of the Sacramento Kings.

Walter is not a meddlesome owner. He doesn't seek the spotlight, and he doesn't insert himself into personnel decisions beyond putting the best people in place to make the tough decisions, then opening his checkbook so that those decisions can be paid for.

Magic Johnson, who is part of Walter's ownership group with the Dodgers, extolled Walter's virtues to Lakers fans after the sale was reported.

Walter first bought into the Lakers as a minority shareholder in 2021, and in that time, he's gained Jeanie Buss' trust that he's capable of leading the organization that she's loved for her entire adult life, into a prosperous future. Just as her dad did, Jeanie loves the Lakers, and there's no way she would sell the team at any price to anyone that she didn't think would value it as much as she has. That trust goes both ways, as she's set to stay on as the team's official governor even after the sale is complete.

Magic has seen firsthand what Walter has done for the Dodgers, so Lakers fans should be thrilled to have his strong endorsement of the move.

Luka Dončić is locked in

Lakers fans have already been excited this offseason after catching tantalizing glimpses of Luka Dončić working out and looking svelte. Luka has drawn criticism for his conditioning, and he seems to have taken it to heart.

The five-time First Team All-NBA selection has just one year left on his deal and then a player option, and Lakers fans are understandably a bit reticent to fully embrace him until he signs a long-term extension. The Slovenian superstar took it hard after being traded at the deadline from the only NBA franchise he's ever known, and though he's said and done all the rights things in regards to embracing the Lakers and the city of Los Angeles, you can never be totally sure until someone signs on the dotted line.

Luka hasn't signed just yet, but his tweet in the wake of the team's sale is the next best thing.

If that doesn't prove that Luka is committed to being a Laker, I'm not sure what would. The Lakers can now operate with confidence as they attempt to construct the best possible roster around their newest star, safe in the knowledge that an extension isn't a matter of if, but when.

The Lakers rarely have any issue getting their hype train started, but we don't usually see it hitting full speed before the Finals are even decided. We'll see what other news comes out this summer to rev the engine (LeBron should be opting in to the final year of his deal any day now), but in the meantime, it's definitely a good day to be a Lakers fan.