Another Lakers ownership change is coming before many employees have even had time to settle into the last one.

Mark Walter took control of the franchise at a $10 billion valuation in October 2025, ending 46 years of primary Buss family ownership. Just 14 months later, he agreed to sell his controlling stake to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner for a $12.5 billion valuation. The deal still needs NBA approval and has not closed, but inside the Lakers, the next transition is already being felt.
And the mood is not as simple as fear over another round of cuts.

The Athletic’s Dan Woike, after speaking with more than half a dozen current Lakers employees across business and basketball departments, reported that some employees felt the Dodgers’ influence was “pushing too hard toward analytics” and “weren’t upset to see a pathway for new management to come in.”

That split may explain more about the Lakers’ current workplace than the ownership change itself. Employees have already watched the organization go through layoffs and major changes under Walter. Now they are waiting to see whether Iger and Kushner bring another overhaul or finally give the organization some stability.

The last transition left a mark

The reason another ownership change is causing anxiety is not difficult to understand.

Walter’s arrival did not simply put a new name at the top of the Lakers. The organization began changing around him. Dodgers executives Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi were brought in to advise Rob Pelinka, while longtime Dodgers executive Lon Rosen later became the Lakers’ President of Business Operations. Michael Spetner, another former Dodgers executive, was hired as Chief Strategy & Growth Officer.

The changes reached the business side as well.

In May 2026, the Lakers cut at least 15 full-time employees across marketing, communications and corporate partnerships. The layoffs were part of the corporate restructuring under Walter and were described by Woike as a “brutal” day for those affected.

That distinction matters.

The Lakers did not carry out a mass firing of basketball staff. The documented cuts involved business-side employees. At the same time, the organization was trying to build out its basketball front office, creating a strange contrast: people were losing jobs in one part of the organization while the team was looking to add people in another.
That expansion did not go smoothly.

The Lakers tried to add a second assistant general manager focused on scouting after bringing in Rohan Ramadas for a data and strategy role. Candidates Steve Senior of the Timberwolves and Prosper Karangwa of the 76ers were offered the scouting position but chose to remain with their teams.

Then the ownership situation created another problem.

By August, the Lakers had paused consequential front-office hiring while the Iger-Kushner deal went through its diligence process. Woike reported that while the team pushed back on calling it a formal hiring freeze, high-ranking sources believed it would be unwise to make major hires at that point.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst added another striking detail: an executive from another NBA organization was already in the process of leaving for Los Angeles when the Lakers’ ownership turmoil froze the move.

For employees watching all of this unfold, another ownership change therefore does not feel like a clean break.

It feels like the latest chapter of a transition that never really stopped.

But some Lakers employees want the change

That is where the story gets more complicated.

If everyone inside the building wanted the Walter era to continue, another ownership change would be easy to understand as a source of fear. Woike’s reporting suggests that is not what is happening.

Some employees were unhappy with the direction the Lakers had taken under Walter, particularly the growing influence of Dodgers executives and analytics. Woike reported that the approach had turned off people in both basketball operations and the locker room.

The issue was not simply the use of data.

The Lakers had brought in people from the Dodgers’ organization as Walter looked to bring parts of that successful model into the basketball team. Friedman and Zaidi were brought in to advise Pelinka, while Rosen and Spetner moved from Dodgers roles into important Lakers business positions.

That created friction.

According to the research, some longtime basketball staff felt the Dodgers executives were approaching Lakers operations with too much confidence in their methods. The research also points to resistance to the idea that an approach built around baseball analytics could simply be carried over into basketball without friction.

That helps explain the unusual mood Woike found.

The employees are not simply waiting for the next owner with their fingers crossed that nothing changes. Some are hoping something does change.

For them, the Iger-Kushner group represents a possible reset.

There is still a major catch, though: nobody knows exactly what that reset will look like.

Iger and Kushner have not promised a basketball overhaul

Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to buy Walter’s controlling interest for $12.5 billion on August 12. The figure would make the Lakers the most valuable sports franchise involved in the transaction, but the ownership change is still pending.

And Iger has made one thing clear.

The incoming group does not yet have a basketball plan.

Iger said, “It’s just premature to speculate at all about what we plan to do, because frankly, we haven’t made any plans yet.”

That leaves Lakers employees in an unusual position.

Some are hopeful about the people coming in precisely because they were unhappy with the direction under Walter. At the same time, those same employees cannot know what Iger and Kushner will eventually do once they actually take control.

That uncertainty is especially important for the basketball side.

Rob Pelinka remains the Lakers’ Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager, with authority over roster decisions. Rohan Ramadas remains in place after being hired as the assistant GM overseeing strategy and data systems. JJ Redick and his coaching staff also remain in place.

But the Lakers still have work left to do.

The second assistant GM position has not been filled, the pro scouting expansion remains stalled and consequential front-office hiring is on hold while the ownership transaction moves forward.

So even before the new owners arrive, the transition is already affecting how the organization prepares for the future.

The Lakers are still not officially Iger and Kushner’s

There is another reason the situation remains unsettled.

Walter is still the legal controlling owner until the sale receives NBA approval and closes. The NBA Board of Governors is expected to consider the transaction at its September meeting, and Kushner must also divest his minority stake in the Miami Heat before the Lakers deal can close.
The Buss family has its own unresolved fight in the middle of all this.

Five of Jerry Buss’ six children voted 5-0 to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% Lakers stake to the Iger-Kushner group. Jeanie Buss abstained and later challenged the vote through attorney Adam Streisand. Her side argues that selling the entire stake could leave her below the 15% equity level required under NBA rules for her to remain the team’s Governor.

That means the Lakers are dealing with more than one layer of uncertainty.

There is the ownership sale itself. There is the Buss family dispute. There is the unfinished front-office work. And there are employees who have already experienced one major organizational change and are now watching another take shape.

What happens to the Lakers’ employees next?

That is the question hanging over the organization.

Walter’s tenure lasted only about 14 months, but in that time the Lakers moved from the long-running Buss family structure toward a more corporate model, added several Dodgers executives, made business-side layoffs and began reshaping parts of basketball operations.

Now the next ownership group is waiting for approval while the organization holds off on some of the biggest decisions.

That does not mean another round of layoffs is confirmed. The research does not establish that Iger and Kushner are planning mass cuts. What it does show is why employees have reason to be cautious: the previous transition already brought layoffs, while the current one has put important hiring decisions on pause.

And yet, there is a strange sense of hope inside the uncertainty.

Some Lakers employees reportedly see the coming ownership change as an opportunity to move away from parts of the Walter-era structure they did not like. Others are simply waiting to find out whether the next group will make their jobs more secure or start another round of changes.

The Lakers were a family-run organization for decades. Walter’s tenure changed that in a matter of months. Now, only 14 months after taking control, he is preparing to hand the franchise to another ownership group at a $12.5 billion valuation.

For the people inside the building, the biggest question may not be who owns the Lakers next.

It may be whether the next owner finally gives them time to settle in.