Lakers

Disney’s Purple Kush

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The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to be sold for the second time in ten months.

“Mark Walter … is selling it to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion.”
— CBS Sports

While most people’s initial reaction to the sale was in regard to LeBron leaving leading to a 25% increase in the value of the Lakers, or the connection to Disney’s deconstructionist woke era in Iger taking over, or the new connection the Lakers have to President Trump in Josh Kushner — the first person that came to my mind was Jay Mohr.

Mohr is a comedian I grew up enjoying that got into sports and podcasting, he hosted Jay Mohr Sports and Mohr Stories. The reason he came into my mind is that he is married to Jeanie Buss, former Lakers majority owner, who sold controlling interest to Mark Walter in June of 2025. Mohr was previously married to one of my childhood crushes, Nikki Cox, the comedy it-girl for a good chunk of the nineties. A series of plastic surgery misfortunes would in large part end her public-facing career. Mohr wrote one of the more surreal articles I’ve read during his time with Fox Sports, about being dosed with LSD at a restaurant while he was married to Nikki. The line I have never forgotten: “When you’re on acid and you’re playing Madden, your fingers are your coaches.” Then after his divorce from Nikki he ended up with Jeanie and became married into Lakers ownership. I say none of this out of envy for the man, but I have always found him funny and interesting so it’s more from a place of fraternal appreciation. He provides a human lens for me into the numbers and names of this story.  

As for Kushner, this comes less than two weeks after FIFA scrapped his attempt to buy a private equity stake in the World Cup, a plan UEFA threatened to boycott the tournament over. He’ll also have to sell his current piece of the Miami Heat before this deal can be approved.

These new sports team sale prices and valuations are often used as talking points for whatever someone’s personal ideology is. People typically see this event through whatever their worldview happens to be: corruption in the Trump Administration, the league getting more woke, Jews continuing to take over the world, billionaires being unrestrained oligarchs that are destroying society — usually people’s initial baseline worldview comes out in how these type of events are colored in their minds.

For me, I’m sure that is still true to some degree. Yet the exorbitant valuations of sports franchises today are telling for a few reasons. First, enormous increases in company valuations have taken place over the last decade, and franchise values rose right alongside them. Second, sports are one of the last bastions of attention in a hyper-fractured, niched down marketplace where it’s easier than ever for people to exist in their own bubbles. Sports still unites people across otherwise scattered interests. 

Another topic of discussion is the Lakers’ current owner, Mark Walter, who had purchased the team for $10 billion ten months ago, he makes a 25% return on that investment. Walter is the head of Guggenheim Baseball management, owners of the Dodgers since 2012, where he now turns his full attention to, aside from his reported federal investigation. So in a round about way, this one ups the Yankees’ big news of their minority share of Yankee Global to Apollo. That’s not how you make Mona Lisa smile. 

These franchises are ultimately worth whatever people are willing to pay for them. Fans should be reminded that their beloved teams are often simply someone’s investment widget to be milked for cash and flipped when the right offer comes. It may be their owner’s hobby or status symbol, or best case scenario: their passion, where they seek to show mastery of leadership, competition, and detail to put the skills that have made them titans of industry on display within the sporting world. The latter describes franchises that are actually worthy of our time and attention. Seeing fans be emotionally decimated by incompetent organizations is like seeing a brand loyalist defend a defective product. 

I understand Bob Iger does not equal Disney in this transaction, but he is still the most recognizable public figure from their executive leadership this century. Aside from Kathleen Kennedy and her brand-destroying reign as the head of Star Wars. My hope for the return of Disney to Los Angeles professional sports was always them reacquiring the Anaheim Ducks and bringing back the green and purple uniforms full time. Disney had an incredible setup with the Ducks and incorporated their IP into the live arena experience for fans. While we may not see that with the Lakers, I don’t expect to see any courtside shots of Goofy at Crypto.com arena, should they falter in the postseason, I will happily refer to them as a Mickey Mouse organization.

Photo: Erik Drost / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

The Indecision Concludes 

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LeBron James will join the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year deal, the second year being a player option, for an $8m total contract value.

“The NBA’s all-time leading scorer will head back to the Eastern Conference to join the 76ers.” — NBA.com

Lebron announced on June 30th that he wouldn’t be returning to the Lakers, he did this after his son “Bronny” James $2m+ salary with the Lakers became guaranteed for next year.

I’ve never been in support of the term “nepo baby”. A deconstructionists/marxist term to guffaw at so called nepotism or privilege, when what they actually want is an inheritance tax. As far as I’m concerned, the reason people are motivated to attain great success is primarily for their children and future generations, and if they do so, they are entitled to position their heirs as they see fit. The most successful family in the world has had this multigenerational outlook for centuries and it has served them quite well, but this article isn’t about the Rothschilds. It’s about Lebron James.

LeBron held the Lakers organization hostage, giving them a de facto ultimatum to draft his wholly unqualified son, and made a mockery of the league in doing so. Bronny is so far beyond Nepo Baby it’s hard to quantify. 

LeBron milked his “decision” announcement regarding which team he will play his age 42 season with for 24 days, he got every ounce of attention he possibly could for it before signing his name on a contract. Apparently the extended free agency period even held up the Association’s 2026-2027 schedule creation. Wanting to see where LeBron landed before locking in their primetime games for the upcoming season.

Though he received considerable flack from the sports media for his indecisive antics, this summer has not been nearly the PR disaster for him that his 2010 decision to leave his hometown Cavaliers and “take his talents to South Beach” was. Prior to that epic television event my thought process was, “well he has to choose Cleveland, otherwise they’ll rake him over the coals for this.” LeBron chose Miami, won not one, not three, not four, but two championships, and the rest is history. He then went on an incredible redemptive arc and returned to The Land and brought them their first major sports championship in 52 years. LeGacy now having been restored, James dipped for Hollywood for an eight year stint that included a 2020 BLM Bubble Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.

With this move LeBron has made himself far more relevant in the league as he fights the sunset upon his career for as long as his incredible physio regimen, TRT and stem cells (allegedly) can hold it off.

We just recently covered Futures bets and how they are the most reliable version of Power Rankings, or at least a market-driven version of them, so lets check in on what they are saying about this move:

The 76ers have climbed up to #4 with +1000 Odds , or 10/1 (up from +2000 a week ago), behind Western Conference Finalists Oklahoma City and San Antonio at a strongly favored +260, and the defending champion New York Knicks at +900.

LeBron is in his ring-chasing era, and with the emphasis sports debate shows place on championships in regard to the GOAT pantheon, it’s hard to argue with at this stage in his career. Four titles after 23 seasons, including jumping to well positioned teams in Miami, back in Cleveland, and then LA just don’t compare to Kobe’s five titles, and Jordan’s six, both of which were secured with a single franchise.

LeBron joins the newly acquired Jaylen Brown from Boston, and “The Process” Joel Embiid. They form a new big three that looks to capture the 76ers their first title since 1983.

Boston deserves a large dose of blame for fumbling the Giannis trade talks so poorly that they felt it was best to dump a franchise player to a rival to address the fallout, and in doing so creating this potential superteam destination for James.

But their loss is the other East Coast residents’ gain as Giannis and Lebron will now be playing their games in primetime in the Eastern time zone and remix the league with new rivalries, compelling matchups, and a whole host of new and lofty expectations for LeBron and the Sixers to live up to.

While I’ll take satisfaction in the mumbled excuses LeBron gives in his postseason press conference should Philly come up short in their quest for a title, this gives me something I haven’t had for a few years in regard to the NBA regular season, a reason to watch.

Now that his decision is made, he can spend some time this summer finally watching The Godfather and reading Malcolm X!