For the second time in just over a year, the Los Angeles Lakers are changing hands, this time in a record-breaking $12.5 billion deal that makes it the most expensive transaction in North American sports history. One other LA franchise isn’t going anywhere in the process. The Sparks, according to Lakers reporter Dan Woike, are staying exactly where they are.

“Source tells me the Los Angeles Sparks are not a part of any sale,” Woike noted on X.

The LA Lakers are being sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at a reported $12.5 billion price, setting a new record for the most expensive sports transaction in North American sports.

Apart from the Sparks angle, the transaction itself is quite remarkable. Just over a year ago, LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter acquired the franchise for $10 billion from the Buss family, who had owned the team for over 45 years. The current transaction is going through the NBA’s Board of Governors, and is not yet final.

“Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life — an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family,” Walter said in a statement after the sale. “I am grateful to Jeanie Buss, the Buss family, the players, and the staff for welcoming me into this chapter. The Lakers belong to Los Angeles, and I have every confidence the best is still ahead.”

Notably, Water is currently under investigation by the federal government for tax fraud committed by companies tied to him. Since July, Delaware Life Insurance Co and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co, two insurers controlled by the billionaire, have been looked at by prosecutors to see if they failed to declare private credit holdings backing other ventures controlled by Walter.

Walter is currently co-owner of the Sparks along with Lakers legend Magic Johnson and several Dodger executives, who took control of the team in 2014. Under that leadership, the Sparks have made it to two finals and won it all in 2016.

Interestingly, Johnson and the rest of the Sparks ownership crew almost sold the team at one point, as the former point guard revealed a year ago.

Magic Johnson’s Past Los Angeles Sparks Sale Talks Put Franchise’s Rising Value Into Perspective

Back in August 2025, Magic Johnson was one of the main speakers at Invest Fest 2025, where he made a telling revelation about the internal considerations within the Sparks’ ownership group.

“We’ve owned the Sparks for a few years. We haven’t made a dime. It’s been a tough going for the WNBA. Except now,” Johnson said, in a clip of the event that went viral on X.

“There was a time when we said, ‘Should we sell this?’ We kept saying, ‘No, let’s hold on to it.’ Thank God we didn’t sell too early. We only paid $10 million for the franchise. When you think about the return we’re going to have, it’s amazing. Don’t sell too early. I just wanted to point that out.”

That $10 million purchase in February 2014 now looks like a bargain. Forbes currently ranks the Sparks 7th in the WNBA, valuing the franchise at $350 million.

For now, the Sparks’ next chapter will still be one with Walter and Johnson at the top, but only time will tell if they can turn their young core into a real contender.