Luka Doncic Reveals TRUTH on Lakers Move...

Luka Doncic has just revealed the truth on the Lakers move, as in a shocking turn of events, the franchise has completely changed leadership, and now the future of Lakers basketball is now up in the air. And welcome to Lakers Digest. My name is Hunter Pitkoff, where we cover everything surrounding your Los Angeles Lakers. Whether it be different rumors, reports, breaking news, as well as different signings and trades, this is the place to be for your purple and gold. Just hit that subscribe button here, as about 7 out of 10 of you watching the videos are not subscribed. Look, this is free around-the-clock coverage surrounding your Lakers, and just like this video is going to show you, anything can happen on the change of a dime. So keep up with everything, hit the subscribe button, so you don't miss a thing here on Lakers Digest. And of course, it was a shocking, shocking turn of events that happened in Los Angeles, and who knows what the fallback is going to be on this. As a change in leadership now is fully underway here in Los Angeles, as Ramona Shelburne, who covers the Lakers for ESPN and just covers basketball in general, saying that the Lakers are being sold to American businessmen Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record-breaking price of over $12 billion. That number right now, after this, was at 12.5 million. Look, 16 million views, good for Ramona for breaking this news. That's crazy, crazy news. Probably some of the biggest she's broken in her career, which says a lot, but Kushner and Iger were involved in the expansion process in Las Vegas, but a stunning turn. They pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter, who had purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Buss family last year. So after 14 months, the Walter era ends here as he ends up selling to Iger and Kushner. And so, the New York Post, Kobe Price as well, he's been doing a lot of work this summer, they got an exclusive here with the former Disney CEO and his business partner, or more so with Iger here, as he was a former Disney CEO for a long time. They originally pursued ownership stakes in the NBA's potential expansion in Las Vegas. It came to their attention last weekend that Walter could be interested in selling a stake in the Lakers that he purchased just over a year ago. And then Iger and Kushner immediately jumped at the opportunity, coming to an agreement to buy the Lakers within three business days. And then Ramona Schauber also reporting that Walter originally got the call on Sunday, and of course, they closed the deal 72 hours later on here Wednesday morning. And so, also saying that right from the source himself, Iger saying, we were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas, saying during an exclusive phone call with the California Post. And while it happened, it was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling a stake in the Lakers. And we immediately decided that given the value of the franchise and the iconic nature of this team, that we would be really smart to pursue it the day the deal came together within three days. It's that simple. Also saying that when Walter purchased the majority ownership of the Lakers from the Buss family for a value of then record $10 billion, the league announced that former majority owner Jeannie Buss would remain the team's governor for at least five years. And Iger told the Post that he and Kushner intend to honor that agreement made between Walter and Buss. That's going to bring us to our next point here as well. What does the future of LA hold right now? Because of course, a lot of you are probably wondering, how does this affect the Lakers as a basketball team? Because we've seen change in ownership before throughout sports. It can sometimes have a drastic impact or sometimes maybe not much of an impact at all. So yes, they fully do intend to keep around Jeannie Buss and honor the agreement that Mark Walter and Jeannie had in place. So Iger saying that we have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeannie, her father, and what they've contributed to this franchise. And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeannie. If things change, they'll change. But we're going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in this organization. So it looks like also too here that Jeannie Buss is not going to be going anywhere for the foreseeable future. And Luka Doncic, again, we talked about him taking on that leadership role this summer. And this is him speaking out about the news saying, Being a Laker means everything to me, and I'm excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA. I've gotten used to this big changes over the last few years, but I know that no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get to work building something special here in LA. And then Jeannie Buss retweeting Luka saying, perfectly said. So it seems like and also Magic Johnson tweeting out the support as well. And of course, he's Mark Walter's guy. So clearly it shows that the Lakers franchise, at least those who are in it. I know JJ Redick also has a relationship with Bob Iger as well working for ESPN. Also, Bob Iger actually ironically was a big Clipper fan when he was in Los Angeles and he had season tickets to the Clippers. Well, got changed that blue and red for purple and gold. That's going to look a lot better on you, Bob, I promise. But looking at what this Lakers franchise, those within it right now, they seemingly are backing the new ownership. But this is obviously some pretty unprecedented stuff. I mean, we saw somebody with Mark Walter's status, his money and obviously his prominence in LA with the Sparks and I mean, most famously with the Los Angeles Dodgers selling the Lakers after buying them for 10 billion dollars. Now he flips it for a profit. He makes two and a half billion out of it. Maybe this is just a business move. But of course, there are some speculating out here. And again, guys, this is just speculation. The reports are right now that what's going on maybe below the surface does not have to do with this. Again, they're just saying that this was something that kind of came up on the fly. Mark Walter made the decision to ultimately buy the team or sell the team for the price that was offered. It was an offer that he could not say no to. But of course, reading in between some of the tea leaves here, Mark Walter, Forbes right now estimating him to be worth 7.3 billion dollars. They bought the Lakers 14 months ago and then now it's 12 and a half billion. It's a new record set for the largest sale ever of a sports team. So that just shows you that Lakers power that they certainly have. But look, there also is this too that had came out during the season or during the offseason, but it was Bloomberg that reported that the federal agency's the mobile phone and computer of LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter last September in a wide range probe into the financial dealings of the billionaires businesses, according to people with knowledge within the matter. I'll say the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the FBI, carried out a search warrant abroad a private plane at a Chicago airport where Walter was traveling said the people who spoke on condition of an amenity to discuss sensitive matters. The FBI Chicago's field office confirmed that is an executed a court-authorized search for a mobile phone and laptop on an aircraft at Midway International Airport on September 18th, but declined to comment further. Also saying here at Bloomberg reportedly that Mark Walter has been in talks with investors to raise money to pay down the loans. He is being investigated for that's why he sold the Lakers for twelve and a half billion dollars and a deal that came together in just 72 hours less than two years after he purchased the team. So all of this is of course speculation at this point, right? We don't know for a fact exactly why and honestly, we're not going to know for a while what the deal is and if Mark Walter did in fact sell for any sort of purposes for legal matters, but focusing on the Los Angeles Lakers here. They have new owners Bob Iger. He has been around sports. This guy was a former Disney CEO who's heavily involved with ESPN as well. Josh Kushner ironically, his older brother Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, who of course is the daughter of President Trump. So if there is like this weird kind of connection to that as well, but again, I think you know, we don't got to talk about the politics here focusing on basketball. What are they going to bring to the table? That's a little bit different here because with someone like Mark Walter, there's proof of concept. He's been very successful with the Dodgers. He has owned the LA Sparks. So there was definitely more of a I guess you want to call it just like with eye test. We see what he does. We see the results Iger and Kushner. I'm not quite sure but I will say this though. These are wealthy guys. They've made a lot of money. I said with the Mark Walter hire or him buying the team. The reason why I was for it was because I think the Lakers were operating as a mom-and-pop shop. The bus family did not have as much equity outside of the Lakers. All their money was in LA for that franchise. And so I think they needed more money to boost some stuff. Mark Walter 14 months wasn't like he got a lot done over that time. I guess it's hard to say a lot of owners would have but I'm still with that transitional period happening. So I'm not going to necessarily fault him for anything good or bad. But what I will say is from this perspective, I'm excited to see a lot of new owners. I feel like they come in a lot of them have been better than not for the most part. I look at like the Timberwolves for example, they had new ownership and they've been doing pretty well. Blazers also sold also the Celtics a lot of teams, right? There's kind of a change in ownership right now because sports are becoming so much money and it requires a lot of capital to be the best of the best. And so a lot of these teams that were inherited through family or through different means like that. They just physically can't financially support them like the Lakers had the small scouting department in the NBA. They were the last team to get on TikTok. Like they were so behind and so many things and that's why I was excited for Mark Walter. But the fact that these guys and Kushner and Iger invested twelve and a half billion dollars into this team that shows that they're all in, right? They paid two and a half billion more dollars than Walter did just a year ago. So they are all in right now on the Los Angeles Lakers. They want this team to be great people that have worked for Iger have talked like Ramona Shelburne as well as Dave McMenamin and have said really good things about him. So I'm excited. I'm going to have an open mind. I'm curious to see how this all plays out in different moves that transpire. I expect for this upcoming season a lot more stability. I don't know how many jobs are going to be on the line or not, but we will see of course how it plays out this summer and a future season as well is going to be even more interesting, but to keep up with everything surrounding your Lakers. Of course, this change in ownership saga, but different rumors, reports, breaking news, different trades and signings that can happen. I'm going to say it one more time for the people in the back here. 7 out of 10 of you watching the videos are not subscribed. It is free. It does not cost you any money. It really helps this channel a lot. So to keep up with everything surrounding your Lakers, hit the subscribe button so you don't miss a thing here on Lakers Digest.