NBA rumors: How Lakers’ sale revolved around Las Vegas expansion price jumping to $10 billion

After NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s address during Summer League this year, the question of whether or not Las Vegas will get an expansion team is only a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if.’ And with the stunning news on Wednesday morning that Mark Walter had sold majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers after only one year, the new ownership group comprised of Josh Kushner and Bob Iger reportedly moved towards the Lakers amid the current asking price for a potential Las Vegas team, as per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

“From what I understand, Iger and Josh Kushner were in the expansion process trying to bid on the Vegas team. Those talks are going nuts right now,” Shelburne reported. “I think the number for the Vegas expansion team is climbing close to what Mark Walter paid for the Lakers back last year which was $10 billion.

“And at some point these two guys are pretty smart and they go, ‘why would we buy an expansion team for 10 and then spend another two and half to build a stadium in Vegas, without at least calling Mark Walter and seeing if we could buy the Lakers for 12 and half.”

Since Walter had initially bought majority ownership in the Lakers, the organization has undergone several major changes in the front office and the business side of things. Last November, around one month after the sale to Walter was finalized, the team fired the majority of their scouting department including Joey and Jesse Buss.

And then in May, a couple of weeks after the Lakers had been eliminated in the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the organization underwent several layoffs in the business department.

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