The Los Angeles Lakers were sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record $12.5 billion on August 12, 2026, less than ten months after Mark Walter bought the team from the Buss family for $10 billion. Now Rob Pelinka’s job is the story.
Here is what almost nobody is connecting. Chris Paul, who ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne named as a person to watch for a role under the new ownership, is not just a friend of Bob Iger’s. He became a minority owner of Angel City FC in September 2025, the same club Iger and Willow Bay control. The two men already own a sports team together in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile an agent told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that you assume Rob Pelinka has six months to see how the season goes. Pelinka has run the Lakers front office since February 2017, delivered the 2020 championship, traded for Luka Doncic, and signed a multiyear extension in 2025. He also just spent a quarter of a billion dollars this offseason and gave up two unprotected first-round picks for Walker Kessler.
In December 2011 the NBA blocked a trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers. Nobody gets to veto a front office hire.
The sale still requires approval from the NBA Board of Governors.
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