Ramona ShelburneOct 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseSenior writer for ESPN.comSpent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily NewsMultiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsBOB IGER WAS on his 213-foot sailing superyacht on Aug. 12, winding down a monthlong vacation in Europe following a historic, two-decade run as CEO of Disney.The biggest event of the day was supposed to be the first total solar eclipse over the continent in more than a century.Millions of tourists, including Iger, had booked vacations along the eclipse’s path from Greenland to Southern Spain during the syzygy — a word derived from Ancient Greek for “yoked together” — which describes a rare astronomical event in which three or more celestial bodies align in a straight line.During a solar eclipse, the moon sits exactly between the sun and Earth, casting its shadow onto Earth. Some enjoy the rare view — through special sunglasses.Others ascribe great meaning and magic to eclipses. As those tourists headed to viewing spots for the solar eclipse across Europe, Iger was in a wholly different syzygy with his longtime friend and business partner Josh Kushner and Los Angeles Lakers owner Mark Walter.The alignment of three financial heavy hitters was about to turn what should have been a once-in-a-generation event — last year’s record-breaking sale of the Lakers from the Buss family to Walter — into the NBA’s most shocking news — again.Instead of getting into position to watch the solar eclipse, Iger was furiously working the phones from Italy to consummate a stunning event of his own — a $12.5 billion sale of the Lakers seemingly out of nowhere, creating an eclipse unto itself across the worlds of sports and business.Little did anyone know that these secret, cross-continental talks were about to put the Lakers in significant transition yet again — with new owners evaluating everything and everyone; squabbling former owners, again, jostling for power and money; and an overhauled roster finally built in the image of its superstar, Luka Doncic.Interviews with more than a dozen team insiders, league executives and others with intimate knowledge of the sale reveal how the deal, which was made over a furious 72 hours, upstaged an already-transformative offseason — and reignited yet another unresolved round of messy public bickering among the six Buss siblings that still hangs uncomfortably over the beginning of this new season.JUST A YEAR ago, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss had shocked the sports world by negotiating a sale to Walter after 46 years of family ownership. Though that deal was eventually approved by all six siblings, it was not a clean process.According to several family sources, younger brothers Joey and Jesse Buss — who, because of a “last-man standing” provision in Dr.
Jerry Buss’s family trust, were positioned to run the team one day after their older siblings died — hadn’t responded to the vote when the sale was initially announced.If the family was going to sell, Joey and Jesse wanted to be a part of the process. They had recently pitched to the other siblings a way to do that — albeit, sources with knowledge of the discussions said, at a lower valuation than the $10 billion their older sister subsequently agreed to in the deal with Walter. The younger Buss brothers eventually joined their four older siblings in voting for the sale to Walter, but the process created animosity.Several siblings grumbled that Jeanie had not opened the bidding to outside buyers and had, instead, negotiated directly with Walter, multiple family sources said.Walter, who already owned 27% of the Lakers, had the right of first refusal on any eventual sale of the Buss family’s remaining shares, but how did anyone know how much the team would’ve fetched without actually putting it on the open market?The relationship between Jeanie and her siblings disintegrated further when the Lakers, with Jeanie’s approval, fired Janie, Joey and Jesse from their respective positions with the franchise within two months of closing on the sale.All three had expected they’d keep their roles for at least some time while Jeanie was still the controlling owner, multiple family sources said.The deal with Walter included contractual language to keep Jeanie in charge for the next five seasons but contained no such protections for any other family members.Janie told ESPN’s Baxter Holmes last season that her sister’s actions had made her feel disrespected, like a “crumpled-up piece of paper thrown into the trash.” She cited the desires of their father, who had purchased the Lakers in 1979 and died in 2013.”I don’t think my dad would be happy with the way things just went down,” Janie told Holmes. “Not at all.”There was even more consternation, those sources said, when the Buss family members were suddenly charged more for hospitality and their tickets to Lakers games, shortly before the start of the playoffs as part of a larger restructuring of Lakers business practices.That familial tension simmered throughout last season — and came to a boil once again this summer.FOR MUCH OF 2026, Iger and Kushner had been leading a group bidding for the potential Las Vegas NBA expansion franchise, which the NBA initially projected to go for $6-8 billion, according to industry and ownership sources.But those bids had blown by that threshold, those sources said, and were approaching the then-record $10 billion valuation of Walter’s sale.Whichever group won the expansion bid would likely then need to spend what multiple sources estimated would be an additional $2 billion — at least — to build an arena in Las Vegas.The Kushner-Iger group had been regarded as one of the favorites to land the team.
Iger has had a longtime business relationship with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, from Iger’s days negotiating broadcast rights deals for ABC/ESPN with the NBA. In 2020, the two collaborated with the NBPA to create “the bubble” at the Walt Disney Resorts in Orlando, Florida, where the NBA finished its season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Iger had also been a longtime season-ticket holder of the LA Clippers, although he notably canceled them last season over the team’s treatment of Chris Paul, a close friend of Iger’s, sources close to him said.Other finalists for the Las Vegas expansion franchise included groups headed by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill Laurie; Las Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Phoenix Suns CEO Jerry Colangelo; and Canadian businessman Steve Apostolopoulos and former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry.As the Aug. 10 deadline for bids approached, Kushner and Iger discussed their options.Over the past two decades, the 41-year-old Kushner had made a fortune building his venture capital fund, Thrive Capital, with investments in technology companies such as Instagram, Spotify, Twitch, Stripe and OpenAI. This year, Kushner started a new fund, Thrive Eternal, as a hedge against artificial intelligence.”These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology,” Thrive Eternal says on its website.
“Iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience. In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.”An expansion team is not exactly an iconic brand or a legacy franchise. The Lakers, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics are. None of those was known to be for sale, however.
The Knicks had just won an NBA title. The Celtics and Lakers had recently been sold to new owners for record amounts. The Bulls were firmly in the hands of the Reinsdorf family, who have not shown any interest in selling.Still, Kushner and Iger kicked around the idea.Would any of the owners of those franchises take a phone call or listen to an offer? How much would it take to pique their interest?It was a bold, risky pivot to even make calls while they were in the throes of the expansion p
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