The Lakeshow Review

Last week, Jeanie Buss and the Buss family sold their majority shares of the Los Angeles Lakers to billionaire Mark Walter. Walter is the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm. This news dropped out of nowhere to say the least. But given the team’s penchant for stealth affairs lately, this should come as no surprise. The Buss family, after over 45 years of guiding the franchise to great success, including 17 finals berths and 11 NBA titles (since 1980), will cede control of the organization to businessman Mark Walter, who has recently had great success guiding the LA Dodgers of the MLB to championship heights. In today’s economic climate where maximizing profit margins and creating joint ventures is part of the new age strategy, this is perhaps a good opportunity for the organization to hit a hard reset and modernize their business model with new ownership. After nearly five decades of operating as a mom and pop organization, the team might now be well equipped to dip their toes in the contemporary business world, and be run like a traditional business. One with deep pockets and vast resources.

Alas, it is perhaps bittersweet to see the Busses sell the team. The Lakers and the Buss Family have been synonymous with each other for the past 40 years. Under the ownership of the late and great Dr. Jerry Buss, the team reached extraordinary heights. Perhaps the likes of which will be hard to replicate. However, over the years, much has changed in the landscape of sports team ownership. Long gone are the days of mom and pop ownership, where a single family helms control of a franchise and do their part to brandish their labor of love into a symbol of pride within the community. These days, teams are run by larger conglomerates, who view their teams as investments, and like big businesses, profit margins are the order of the day. For better, or for worse, this is the climate in today’s world of sports. The Lakers, for all their best intentions, have been lagging lately in this regard. For the past decade or so, the organization has been being beaten in the margins by other, savvier organizations with more modernized business approaches. Not to mention, deeper pockets. The Lakers have lost out on players, and coaches, at times, over the past couple of years. So one would hope that with new ownership in place, these things would no longer be a source of concern.

Infused with new blood at the the top, it is the hope of all Lakers fans that the new management will go out of their way to invest heavily on the team and potentially try to get a leg up on the competition. Personally, I believe this was a necessary step for the organization. I empathize with the Buss family, who for their troubles will be awarded somewhere in the neighborhood of $10B in exchange for their majority shares. But it still must be tough for them to relinquish control of an organization that has been their labor of love for the past few decades. And for all intents and purposes, they’ve done right by the fans. But given the current climate, this is a necessary move for the betterment of the franchise. A franchise such as the Lakers shouldn’t be losing on the margins, shouldn’t be losing out on players or coaches, shouldn’t have anything but the best when it comes to trainers, team doctors and facilities, etc. With this new ownership group, the Lakers should have the opportunity to be all they can be. This should ignite a legitimate sense of excitement for any Lakers fan. The Lakers brand has always been robust. Now with deep capital to go with it, the brand’s power has the chance to further expand, provided of course that they can bring in the right people on board.

Good organizations succeed from top to bottom. Great front offices bring in great personnel who hire great coaches and draft great players. In today’s world of luxuries, quality costs money. It’s increasingly difficult to small-time your way to the top, and skimp out on the margins, and still expect to field a contender. Winning requires a uniform commitment from the front office execs all the way down to the players. And just like players are expected to produce on the court, team owners are expected to produce with their checkbook. It will be interesting to see if the new ownership will seek to beef up the front office, to expand the scouting department, to be aggressive with coaching hires and to try to establish a culture of excellence.

Any type of financial aggression needs to be complimented with prudence and patience. In the sense that team building is the most important component. As much as a blank check from the owner can go a long way, a level head in the executive branch is just as important. Meaning that in order to have any success, it is paramount for a team to value their own assets and optimize their internal growth. Haemorrhaging assets, panic trading young players, gambling away draft picks and making short-sighted ‘win-now’ moves needs to be a thing of the past. The Lakers are no longer in the LeBron timeline, or the Jeanie Buss timeline. The Lakers are now on the Lakers Timeline. The team will now have the opportunity to bolster their brand with a new owner who is eager to spend. If they are able to bring in the right people to correctly allocate those resources, they’ll be in good shape. All in all, it’s exciting to have new blood in the owner’s box. With several quality young pieces already in place, it’ll be interesting to see how the roster shakes out moving forward and observe how the wheels start moving. As long as there’s a commitment to winning and a solid plan in place backed by steady resources, then that’s all we can hope for as fans. Here’s to an exciting new era of Lakers Basketball.

GO. LAKERS.