The Los Angeles Lakers were sold this week for the second time in 14 months, as billionaire sports enthusiast Mark Walter re-sold the team for a reported $12.5 billion after buying it for $10 billion in June of last year.
Walter, who was the subject of a federal investigation reported last month, is selling the team to a group headlined by former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner.
The peculiarities of the sale were too much for FS1’s Nick Wright to ignore, which he called “a little weird.” On Wednesday’s First Things First, the host said “you can’t ignore” the federal investigation, Walter’s recent visit to the White House, or the fact that Kushner is the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“The specter of, what you can’t ignore, the Wall Street Journal reporting just a couple weeks ago that Mark Walter, the main guy in this group, is under FBI investigation,” Wright said.
“I think it’s also hard to ignore the fact that he was just at the White House because of the Dodgers’ celebration, and a couple weeks later, the brother of the president’s son-in-law bought the Lakers. Those are all just timeline-accurate things that happened, and all of this is very odd. Particularly on the heels of them trying to buy the World Cup, not being able to do that.”
Walter is part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with whom he visited the White House on July 23 to celebrate their World Series victory last year. The Journal recently reported that Walter is the target of a federal probe over $16 billion in potentially illegally issued loans to companies he owns. Authorities have seized one cellphone and subpoenaed two companies in connection to the investigation, the report said.
Josh Kushner’s Thrive Eternal, a capital holding company, was projected to be a leading investor in the private company that would operate the FIFA World Cup under a plan that collapsed last month.
As Wright sees it, these stories appear to be linked in some way. And potential political or legal maneuvering around Walter and Kushner could help explain the surprise of the Lakers’ sudden sale.
“I think there will be really good investigative journalism on how all of this came together. I know the reporting today is, ‘This happened in three days,'” Wright explained. “That feels unlikely to me, that you can buy the Los Angeles Lakers on a Wednesday after first broaching it on a Sunday. But again, I’m not doing the reporting.”
After, Wright’s cohost, Chris Broussard, concurred.
“I feel like this is definitely related to the investigation. Like maybe Mark Walter got a tip, whatever, that he’s gonna need some money,” Broussard, a former NBA insider, said. “You don’t buy a team to flip it like a house … you just don’t. Especially the Lakers. This is the Lakers. This is the glamour franchise of the NBA.”
The First Things First commentators are not the first to connect these dots, but it appears clear the mainstream narrative around the Lakers’ latest sale is forming. Right now, it’s not a positive story for anyone involved.
Source: Awful Announcing
