It was an otherwise dull mid-week dog day of August when mere minutes ago an onslaught of breaking news alerts similar to the one that YAHOO! SPORTS’ Chris Cwik composed began to flood timelines around the world:
Mark Walter’s time as the Los Angeles Lakers’ owner did not last long. A year after purchasing a controlling interest in the team, Walter reportedly sold the Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. Kushner and Iger were reportedly involved in an expansion process to get an NBA team in Las Vegas, but pivoted to make a massive offer for the Lakers, per Shelburne.
Shelburne, as auspiced and connected as arguably any working media professional is these days when it comes to anything Lakers, provided a few more intriguing details in her initial piece:
Walter and TWG Global have interests in multiple professional sports organizations, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Premier League club Chelsea and the Professional Women’s Hockey League. And through TWG Motorsports, Walter owns several auto racing teams, including Cadillac Formula 1.
Walter, who built his financial empire in the insurance industry, is under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud by other companies tied to the billionaire.
Bloomberg reported in July that U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan are examining whether Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., two insurers controlled by Walter, failed to disclose that their private credit holdings backed other Walter-controlled ventures. The Securities and Exchange Commission is running a parallel investigation, according to the Bloomberg report.
Well, now it does become an awful lot clearer why Walter insisted that his Dodgers made that pilgrimage to the White House earlier this month, doesn’t it? Between this and the stroke he reportedly suffered during the 2024 World Series, let alone the imminent prospect of a work stoppage that will stop the firehose of cash that back-to-back world’s championships otherwise provide, do you seriously think Mark Walter gives a flying fig about any of y’all who have declared that you’re giving up a lifetime of slavish devotion to bleeding Dodger Blue and have taken some sort of perverse pride in the fact that they lost seven in a row following that pil;grimage and have had to rally to defeat the moribund Kansas City Royals at home this week?
I’m defying those of you with moral hubris to now triple down on your declarations of fandom divorce in the wake of this morning’s revelations about the Lakers. Considering the family that Joshua Kushner belongs to via his brother’s marriage to a shiksa goddess that is still a preferred choice to the option of being Daddy’s Girl in more than one way, I’m counting the number of minutes it’s gonna take for Bluesky to be flooded with similar announcements to no one in particular that you’re forever going to walk away from anything purple and gold. And now that we know what the former head of the Walt Disney Company is choosing to do with his post-Magic Kingdom life, I suspect there will be more than a smattering of y’all that will now immediately cancel your Disney Bundle subscriptions because Iger had the audacity to pursue a business venture with someone with access to the current White House administration.
Let these events be a reminder to any of you saber-rattlers out there. If you haven’t yet figured out that more than ever sports is a business and that business is often fraught with the reality that sometimes you gotta conduct it with people you wouldn’t ever break matzah at a Seder with, you’d be best served to start now.
People don’t often get to be billionaires by being paragons of virtue and fairness–in today’s world, that’s truer than ever. The more that those who support such forces who come from worlds where inflitrating the so-called “seven mountains of influence” is a force that drives their very existence, the better off they feel and the greater the likelihood they believe they will reach heaven when the end times take place. Unlike you, they don’t think it’s already happened because Iger and Kushner found a couple of spare billion between team to allow someone like Walter a ramp to freedom in the waning days of his life.
If you’re a true Lakers fan, the only thing that should ultimately matter to you is whether Jonathan Kuminga might be able to find his way onto a bloated roster of cheaper cast-offs that will attempt to replace the actual output of Lebron James and provide Luka Doncic with yet another supportive role player for his master plan to succeed. (You did read that yesterday, didn’t you?) Sounds like now any potential financial concerns in making that happen are moot.
Plenty of Dodgers fans that were playing the karma card last week are now shutting up now that at least for now the bleeding has stopped at Chavez Ravine. I’m personally hoping that continues, if for no other reason than my fantasy team’s threadbare hopes for a playoff spot rest on what might prove to be Eric Lauer’s last start in the L.A. rotation later today.
I’ll humbly ask that you Lakers fans follow that lead, and while you’re at it go watch an episode of FURIOUS of Hulu if you need further escape from the uncomfortable reality you’ve been forced to confront this morning. For once just spare us your declarative social media posts that we both know you’re incapable of committing to long-term. Stop thinking you can run away from rich people you don’t personally like gaining control of brands you love. You can’t, and they don’t owe any of us an explanation to the contrary.
Courage…