Mark Walter and Josh Kushner have agreed all outstanding terms of a sale of the Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation, according to ESPN, in a deal that would set a record for a sports franchise sale if it closes.
Agreement matters because the Lakers are the NBA’s most famous franchise, and a $12.5 billion valuation would top even the $10 billion price at which Walter himself bought control of the team from the Buss family, a purchase the NBA approved on October 30, 2025.
Walter, the current Lakers owner, and Kushner, the founder of Thrive Capital, met in person on Thursday at Walter’s home in Florida to settle the remaining terms, sources told ESPN, as reported by the Sports Business Journal and the New York Post.
Kushner has assured Walter that he has raised all the money needed to complete his side of the deal, according to the ESPN report, and the two men are expected to sign the formal agreement soon.
That assurance follows public doubts about the financing. Podcaster Bill Simmons said on his show that Kushner was still $5 billion to $6 billion short on the deal, a claim the ESPN report’s account of Kushner’s funding assurance answers without naming Simmons.
Once signed, the agreement will go to the NBA for review, and any ownership sale needs approval from at least three-quarters of the league’s Board of Governors before it becomes official.
What still has to happen before the sale closes
League approval is not a formality on a set timetable, and recent franchise sales show the review can take months.
Walter’s own purchase of the Lakers from the Buss family was approved on October 30, 2025, about four and a half months after he agreed to buy the franchise, according to the New York Post.
A sale of the Portland Trail Blazers to a group led by Tom Dundon was not approved until March 30, about seven and a half months after Dundon agreed to buy the team in mid-August of last year, while a sale of the Boston Celtics to a group led by Bill Chisholm took five months to win Board of Governors approval.
Kushner’s previous experience as an NBA owner could help the process move faster, the New York Post reported, noting that he became a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019 before selling that share to become a minority owner of the Miami Heat in May 2025.
Kushner and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger first reached agreement with Walter in August to join the purchasing group, a deal that came together over a matter of days, according to RG’s report of the ESPN account.
Under that August agreement, Kushner and Iger would buy the Buss family’s remaining 17.8 percent stake in the franchise, a holding that sits at the centre of a family legal dispute.
Walter bought control of the Lakers from the Buss family at a $10 billion valuation, a price that set a record for a North American sports franchise at the time, and the pending $12.5 billion valuation would top it./
Buss family dispute heads for a December hearing
Jeanie Buss, the Lakers’ governor, is attempting to block the sale of the family’s remaining stake, having filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court in late August, according to the New York Post.
Her five siblings in the Buss Family Trust, Johnny, Jim, Janie, Joey and Jesse, voted to sell the family’s 17.8 percent stake to Kushner and Iger, the report said.
Selling that stake would drop the family below the ownership level needed for Jeanie Buss to remain governor, since NBA rules require the governor’s side to maintain control of at least 15 percent of the franchise, according to the New York Post.
Walter’s original purchase contract had included a clause keeping Jeanie Buss as team governor for at least five years, according to Hypebeast’s account of the deal, but the sale of the remaining stake would end that arrangement.
Jeanie Buss filed a court document this week accusing her siblings, primarily Joey Buss and Jesse Buss, of a “cloak and dagger” conspiracy against her, ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported, as covered by Hoops Rumors.
She claims the family resented her for being named successor by her father, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and that the effort to sell the family’s stake, which would prevent her from continuing as governor, reflects that lingering ill will, according to the report.
Her filing states: “Jeanie had no choice but to seek court intervention to enforce the clear terms of the trust and this court’s 2017 order.”
It adds that her siblings responded by casting themselves as victims, when, in the filing’s words, the episode was their own “false flag operation” built on backroom votes and resolutions shared with ESPN rather than with their co-trustee and sister.
Her siblings have defended their sale as within their rights, invoking a tag-along provision in the original sale to Walter that allows the Buss family to sell their shares if he were to ever sell the team, according to the Sports Business Journal’s weekend report.
Jeanie Buss and her siblings have a hearing scheduled in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 8, according to the New York Post.
Agreement between Kushner and Walter will not be affected by the Buss legal battle, the New York Post reported, since the dispute concerns the family’s remaining stake rather than Walter’s own holding.
What happens next is in two parts: Walter and Kushner are expected to sign the formal agreement soon, and the deal will then go to the NBA’s Board of Governors for review, while the Buss family dispute heads for its December 8 court hearing.
Sources for facts: ESPN reporting via Sports Business Journal (November 1-2, 2026), New York Post (October 30, 2026), Hoops Rumors (November 1, 2026), Hypebeast (November 2, 2026) and RG (November 2, 2026). No figure in this post is invented: the $12.5 billion valuation, the 17.8 percent stake, the 15 percent governor threshold and the December 8 hearing date all come from those reports.
