The Lakers sale may have started with a direct call, not a league-orchestrated plan.
According to a Reddit summary of Bill Simmons' podcast comments, Simmons said Josh Kushner read about Mark Walter's situation and contacted Walter directly about buying the Lakers. Simmons also said NBA commissioner Adam Silver was not involved in that initial push.
The detail matters because the Lakers' ownership flip has already become one of the strangest sports business stories of the year. Walter bought control of the franchise at a $10 billion valuation and then agreed to sell to a group led by Kushner and Bob Iger at a reported $12.5 billion valuation. Simmons' version frames the deal less as a formal NBA expansion pivot and more as an opportunistic strike once the Lakers became reachable.
The Reddit post said Simmons added context around Las Vegas expansion, including the idea that an expansion franchise could cost more than $9 billion. Kushner and Iger had been connected to that market, but the post says they were not the highest bidder and were not fully sold on needing to build a new arena. Once Vegas looked less attractive, the Lakers became the cleaner target.
Simmons also described Iger as the person expected to handle day-to-day leadership, not Kushner. The post quoted him saying Iger, now 75, could put in "6 or 7 really good years" after running Disney. Sam Koppelman, who joined the podcast, called the Kushner-Iger pairing a serious ownership group and said the Lakers should be in decent hands.
This remains a reported podcast nugget, not an official timeline from the buyers or the league. But it adds one more layer to the sale: Kushner and Iger may have moved because the Lakers suddenly looked more attainable than waiting on Las Vegas.
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