With the Los Angeles Lakers led by Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves going into the 2026 season, the franchise itself has seen a change of ownership recently. As Mark Walter sold the Lakers for $12.5 billion after a year as a majority owner, though he was under investigation by the federal government, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has commented on the situation.

While Silver spoke to the media on Tuesday, one reporter asked the commissioner if the league was aware that when the sale of Los Angeles was happening, Walter was the subject of a federal investigation. On top of that, Silver was asked if that should have been a cause for concern upon approving the sale, with the commissioner mentioning that they “found no red flags.”

“I will say at the time that we vetted Mark Walter to be the principal governor of the team; again, he was already a part owner, minority owner in the Los Angeles Lakers,” Silver said, via Oh No He Didn't on X, formerly Twitter. “We went through the full process we all do, we spoke to governmental agencies, we spoke to, in the case of Mark Walter, a heavily regulated insurance agency, we spoke to other leagues in which he has investments. We found no red flags.”

“Again, even to this day, as you know, these are — call them allegations,” Silver continued. “There are issues that are now being looked into. Independent of Mark Walter choosing to sell his team right now, he was not being investigated by our league. I don’t know what’s happening in other leagues right now.”

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At any rate, the sale has gone through, with Bob Iger and Josh Kushner now the majority owners of the Lakers.