AROUND the NBA:

[SleepingHero]

Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne)
Walter is only selling the Lakers in this transaction, sources said. He’s retaining the Dodgers.

[SleepingHero]

In a shocking move the Lakers are sold again.  

https://x.com/ramonashelburne/status/208...9950797855

The man flipped the Lakers for 2 billion profit. Incredible.

I genuinely don't understand how Kushner and Iger can afford that price. Neither have 12 bil in the bank.

Which makes me wonder if they are going to own 51% of shares, crowd funding the other 49%, and hopefully get cash flow.

[mvossman]

Wasn't all that long ago that the Mavs were in the finals with a lot of the same players on the roster. Luka is gone, Flagg is in. Cooper is not at Luka's level but Cooper should be on the upswing or the league should be selling that idea. Mavs have churned the end of the roster, at least, brought in a bunch of young sharp-shooters, at best. Cooper should be a face of the league. They used to like themselves a star of his complexion. They're not putting him on the national stage. Looks like for marketing purposes, they're missing the boat. Are the Mavs going to be worse than Golden State?

Vegas have Golden state 5 wins better than Mavs.

[Smitty]

[MFFLER est 01]

They won 26 games last year, and added a bunch of guys who are young with potential, but not really sure how all the pieces will fit. If Kyrie comes back as good as before, Cooper takes a big leap, we are still probably a play-in team because of how deep the west is.

They won 26 games last year with a depleated roster,no shooting,tanking,and with the most clutch games in the league. 

Only Lakers,Spurs,Jazz,Suns,and Portland actually got better. It's still unclear if the Wolves replacing Randle,and Naz for Melo is improvement. 

Oh the Mavs also got better. You guys overrate West teams and underrate your own. 

You're losing from the finals team

Luka

Derick Jones

Josh Green

Dwight Powell

Dante Exum

Tim Hardaway

Jaden Hardy

AJ Lawson

Replacing them with

Cooper Flagg

Naji Marshall

Zaccharie Risacher

Santi Aldama

Klay Thompson

Max Christie

Marcus Sasser

Sergio

Morez Johnson

Tarik Biebrovic

Mousa Cisse

Jett Howard

John Poulakidis

I like this team more. It's ok let's fly under the radar this season and shock people. No expectations no problem

[omahen]

@ramonashelburne
The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to American businessman Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record breaking price over $12 billion, multiple sources told ESPN.

Kushner and Iger were involved in the expansion process in Las Vegas, but a stunning turn, they pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter, who had purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Buss family last year.

This really is a surprise and (at the risk of the debate becoming political) I have to say I am not enthusiastic about the owners coming from Trumps inner circle.

[WillE]

This really is a surprise and (at the risk of the debate becoming political) I have to say I am not enthusiastic about the owners coming from Trumps inner circle.

What's interesting at least from a sports political perspective is that this investment came only and right after the FIFA investment plan bubble bursted. Which basically means Kushner moved on and the Lakers are only his second choice.

[omahen]

What's interesting at least from a sports political perspective is that this investment came only and right after the FIFA investment plan bubble bursted. Which basically means Kushner moved on and the Lakers are only his second choice.

Kushner was also aiming for a team in the Vegas expansion, but looks like he went for a more sure thing. Once the money from the FIFA investment was freed.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

This really is a surprise and (at the risk of the debate becoming political) I have to say I am not enthusiastic about the owners coming from Trumps inner circle.

The old owner Mark Walter is being investigated by the Feds for $16 billion in illegal loans.  How much you wanna bet that investigation goes away now?

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Looks like Westbrook is retiring.

https://streamable.com/3idnfr

[Tyler]

The old owner Mark Walter is being investigated by the Feds for $16 billion in illegal loans.  How much you wanna bet that investigation goes away now?

I think this is a sign that the investigation has him dead to rights. My educated guess is that he financed his Lakers purchase with illegal loans and had to quickly unwind his exposure before the whole thing falls apart.

[Tyler]

https://x.com/PensareBBall/status/2087416247327608870
Pensare Basketball
@PensareBBall
According to a source close to the Clippers, another source close to the Raptors, and another source close to a Southwest Division team, yes, the Kawhi Leonard deal is once again an inevitability. I am not a news breaker, nor do I pretend to be one. But on this Kawhi thing, yes, I do know enough people close to this situation to trust this.

---

Interesting that he specifically cites a Southwest Division team with inside knowledge of the Kawhi deal. Hope everyone is ready for the Gafford trade to the Clippers.

[Hooper21]

This really is a surprise and (at the risk of the debate becoming political) I have to say I am not enthusiastic about the owners coming from Trumps inner circle.

Is Trump's son-in-law's brother actually considered 'inner circle'?  One article said Kushner already owns stakes in the Grizzlies and Heat that will have to be divested, but he wasn't on anyone's NBA radar till now.

[SleepingHero]

The old owner Mark Walter is being investigated by the Feds for $16 billion in illegal loans.  How much you wanna bet that investigation goes away now?

Definitely looks like he paid for the Lakers using fraudulent loans.

Can pay those back and add 2 bil to his fortune.

[DallasMaverick]

Definitely looks like he paid for the Lakers using fraudulent loans.

Can pay those back and add 2 bil to his fortune.

Our Oligarchs are learning from the Russians!

[omahen]

Is Trump's son-in-law's brother actually considered 'inner circle'?  One article said Kushner already owns stakes in the Grizzlies and Heat that will have to be divested, but he wasn't on anyone's NBA radar till now.

That FIFA deal had Trumps fingerprints all over it. Looks like Kushner was looking to invest in an NBA team for a while, aiming for the Vegas expansion team. I think he already had to sell Memphis investment when investing into Heat.

[omahen]

Definitely looks like he paid for the Lakers using fraudulent loans.

Can pay those back and add 2 bil to his fortune.

Based on this article, it looks like those loans were a problem in the purchase of Dodgers, if anything. Doesn't look like anything particularly problematic or fraudulent, if things in this article are correct.

Dodgers, Lakers owner's financial empire reportedly a target of federal loan fraud investigation

[omahen]

The old owner Mark Walter is being investigated by the Feds for $16 billion in illegal loans.  How much you wanna bet that investigation goes away now?

I wouldn't be surprised at all

[Chicagojk]

Looks like Westbrook is retiring.

https://streamable.com/3idnfr

A pretty polarizing player.    As he got older, his flaws became more and more apparent.    Also seemed like an odd player to be paired with.   His last few years this played out where he was playing for low $$.    

Bigger than you think, and he was a world class athlete.    He always played hard too.  Feels weird calling him a point guard, but he finished his career #6 in assists, #14 in points and #67 in rebounds.  Per Google, him and Lebron are the only players with 25K points and 10K assists.    

Him or Iverson...who was the better player?

[Chicagojk]

It seems like we are having more and more of these conversations.    I guess all sports are now.    The money is so large that you mostly get guys with obscene levels of money and all the stuff that goes with it or you have these private equity companies who just want to make good on an investment in the future.    If you look back at the old owners before the money rush, there were several terrible ones too.   I just dislike how only a limited group of people can purchase teams nowadays.    A lot of the ones who can are ones who I typically are not fans of when you learn about them.   

Team values keep on increasing though.   I just feel like eventually it will not be a good thing.    Hope I am wrong.