Buss family sells Lakers to Mark Walter for record $10 billion valuation; Top 100 prospects for NBA Draft

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Let’s get right to it.

🏀 Good morning to all but especially to …

THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS

One of the iconic families in all of entertainment is moving on from owning one of sports’ crown jewels. The Buss family agreed to sell its majority stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter. The franchise was valued at $10 billion, making it the most expensive U.S. sports team sale ever by a wide margin.

• The Buss family trust, which includes all six Buss siblings, owns 66% of the team.
• The family has owned the team since 1979, when Dr. Jerry Buss bought it from Jack Kent Cooke. Jerry Buss died in 2013, and his daughter Jeanie Buss has been the team’s governor since. She will retain that role.
• The Lakers won 11 titles under the Buss family’s ownership.
• Magic Johnson congratulated Jeanie Buss and Walter on social media.
• The previous largest U.S. sports franchise sale belonged to the Celtics, who sold to Bill Chisholm for $6.1 billion in March.
• Walter — a minority investor in the Lakers since 2021 — purchased the Dodgers in 2012. Since then, the Dodgers have won more games than any other team, won two World Series titles and spent extravagantly on superstars such as Shohei Ohtani.

It’s that last point that’s the biggest. The Lakers, for all their pomp and circumstance and tradition, had been far from the biggest spenders recently, Sam Quinn notes, an approach that cost them on the court.

R.J. Anderson detailed how Walter built the Dodgers into a powerhouse by not only sparing no expense but by hiring smartly, embracing advancements and much more. Oh yeah, and importantly, he stays out of the way.

Walter’s purchase makes Luka Dončić a big winner, but might make the GM who brought him to Los Angeles, Rob Pelinka, a little bit antsy, Sam writes in his winners and losers.

• Quinn: “[Walter’s] going to put the right people in place to lead this team into the future. That’s no guarantee of anything, of course, but it’s a good sign for Dončić’s hopes of competing for titles in Los Angeles. … Pelinka’s performance in the 2025 offseason is now paramount. If he can put a championship-level team around Dončić and LeBron James, his job is likely safe. But if this season goes poorly, without the security of the Buss family’s ownership, his seat could start getting very warm very quickly.”

👍 Honorable mentions

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 Ravens sign Jaire Alexander: Winners, losers and what’s next

There’s a Louisville college reunion going down in Baltimore. One day after Lamar Jackson encouraged the Ravens to sign Jaire Alexander, Baltimore listened, signing the former All-Pro cornerback to a one-year, $6 million deal.

There’s no doubting Alexander’s talent. The 28-year-old former Packers standout has been a Pro Bowler and a second-team All-Pro in each of his last two healthy seasons. The problem is those seasons were in 2022 and 2020. He played in just seven games in 2024 and 2023 and just four in 2021, with a litany of injuries to blame.

Baltimore already had one of the league’s best secondaries, which features Kyle Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins, Malaki Starks and Chidobe Awuzie. If Alexander stays healthy — admittedly a big “if” — he adds an aggressive, ballhawking presence.

That makes Baltimore a winner and opposing quarterbacks a loser, Tyler Sullivan writes.

• Sullivan: “In the seven games he played last season, Alexander allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 56.7% of their passes with him in coverage and recorded an 86.9 passer rating. If Baltimore can maintain its level of play from the second half of last season on defense, the addition of Alexander only makes the Ravens more of a headache to face twice a year, especially if he can stay healthy.”

Baltimore has arguably the NFL’s most talented roster. All 11 of their 2024 Pro Bowlers return, and there’s depth to spare. At this point, it’s Super Bowl or bust, and the Alexander move reflects that.

🏀 NBA Draft top 100 big board, mock draft: Cooper Flagg No. 1

With under a week to go until the NBA Draft, the finalized CBS Sports top 100 rankings have arrived. It should be no surprise Cooper Flagg is No. 1, and Dylan Harper is No. 2. We have full scouting reports for the top 10 players right here.

In a late twist, Tre Johnson rose to No. 3; Kyle Boone gives him a grade of 93.5 (out of 100), compares him to Malik Monk and rates his strengths as “high-level scorer,” “developing playmaker” and “electric quick release weapon.” That last trait is what caught my eye most. When he’s rolling as a jump shooter, he’s hard to stop.

In at No. 8 is Khaman Maluach, and Kyle wrote a wonderful story about the South Sudan native, Duke product and “the most interesting prospect” in the draft:

• Boone: “Without a basketball goal during lockdown, he kept pushing himself but had to get creative: he’d stack large tires one on top of another until the makeshift rubber rim was 10 feet tall, or somewhere close. Then he’d practice his shooting. That continued for a year before NBA scouts recommended he attend NBA Academy Africa in Saly, Senegal, which opened in November 2018. … Maluach was the youngest player ever at an NBA Academy school upon enrollment and roughly 4,700 miles away from his home in Uganda — nearly double the distance, for scale, from Los Angeles to Durham, North Carolina.”

Maluach goes ninth to the Raptors in Kyle’s latest mock draft.

Still, it’s Flagg, Maluach’s Blue Devils teammate, who has been and will be the object of fascination. Sam says if the Mavericks really want to make the most of Flagg, they should trade Anthony Davis.

🏒 How Panthers’ culture lifted them to dynasty status

“Culture” is a word you hear a lot in sports but can’t really define. It’s camaraderie, yes, but it’s also trust and teamwork. An ability to push one another without pushing too hard and let players be themselves without compromising on standards.

The back-to-back Stanley Cup Final champion Panthers embody culture, Austin Nivison writes.

• Nivison: “Paul Maurice‘s enthusiasm for coaching has been restored, and the culture in the Florida locker room is the biggest reason why. … Of course, team leaders like Sam Bennett are the cultivators and caretakers of that culture. The toughness and commitment to winning from the Panthers’ top players became evident shortly after their Game 6 win. … In Sunrise, culture is immeasurable, but for very different reasons. The Panthers have taken an overused cliche and developed a true commitment to selflessness and winning.”

I loved this story. Culture may be immeasurable, but you saw it every step of the way. And then the Panthers had one heck of a party.

📺 What we’re watching Thursday

⚾ Angels at Yankees, 1:05 p.m. on MLB Network
⚾ Mets at Braves, 7:15 p.m. on MLB Network
🏀 Game 6: Thunder at Pacers (Thunder lead 3-2), 8:30 p.m. on ABC
⚽ USMNT vs. Saudi Arabia, 9:15 p.m. on FS1