Oklahoma City Thunder (from Miami through LA Clippers)
Memphis Grizzlies (from Orlando)
Minnesota Timberwolves (from Detroit through New York, OKC and Houston)
Washington Wizards (from Memphis)
Brooklyn Nets (from Milwaukee through New York, Detroit, Portland and New Orleans)
Miami Heat (from Golden State)
Utah Jazz (from Minnesota)
Atlanta Hawks (from LA Lakers through New Orleans)
New Orleans Pelicans (from Indiana)
Oklahoma City Thunder (from LA Clippers)
Orland Magic (from Denver)
Brooklyn Nets (from New York)
Brooklyn Nets (from Houston)
Boston Celtics
Phoenix Suns (from Cleveland through Utah)
Los Angeles Clippers (from OKC)
Minnesota Timberwolves (from Utah)
Boston Celtics (from Washington through Detroit and Brooklyn)
Charlotte Hornets
Charlotte Hornets (from New Orleans through San Antonio, Phoenix and Memphis)
Philadelphia 76ers
Brooklyn Nets
Detroit Pistons (from Toronto through Dallas and San Antonio)
San Antonio Spurs
Toronto Raptors (from Portland through Sacramento)
Washington Wizards (from Phoenix)
Golden State Warriors (from Miami through Brooklyn and Indiana)
Sacramento Kings (from Chicago through San Antonio)
Utah Jazz (from Dallas)
Oklahoma City Thunder (from Atlanta)
Chicago Bulls (from Sacramento)
Orlando Magic
Milwaukee Bucks (from Detroit through Washington)
Memphis Grizzlies (from Golden State through Washington and Brooklyn)
Cleveland Cavaliers (from Milwaukee)
New York Knicks (from Memphis through OKC and Boston)
Los Angeles Clippers (from Minnesota through Atlanta and Houston)
Phoenix Suns (from Denver through Charlotte and Minnesota)
Utah Jazz (from LA Clippers through LA Lakers)
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies (from Houston)
Orlando Magic (from Boston)
Cleveland Cavaliers
Houston Rockets (from OKC through Atlanta)
What are the 2025 NBA Draft dates?
The NBA draft will take place over two days for the second straight year. The first round, which includes the first 30 picks, is on Wednesday, June 25, followed by Round 2 on Thursday, June 26.
What is the 2025 NBA Draft location?
The Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets in New York, is hosting the entire draft.
Why are there only 59 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft?
The NBA without the Buss family owning the Lakers sounds… weird.
Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers when Ronald Reagan was entering the White House and he proceeded to transform both the team and the league. There is the on-court success, where the Lakers have won 11 championships since Buss bought the franchise, while boasting a parade of “face of the game” level players: Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and now LeBron James, with Luka Doncic.
Laker fans should be estatic. A few things I can tell you about Mark - he is driven by winning, excellence, and doing everything the right way. AND he will put in the resources needed to win! I can understand why Jeanie sold the team to Mark Walter because they are just alike -…
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 18, 2025
Beyond that, Dr. Buss changed how the sport was packaged as a product — this was entertainment. This was an event. It was the Laker girls and music pumped in the arena (not just an organist), it was Dancing Barry and celebrities sitting courtside. The modern fan sporting experience started with Buss' vision.
Now, Lakers ownership is changing. Once approved this summer by the Board of Governors, it will be Mark Walter, the CEO of global investment firm Guggenheim Partners, who will have bought the franchise at a $10 billion valuation. Jeanie Buss reported will stay on as the team’s governor (she and the Buss family will retain 18% ownership, according to reports).
Sale about change
Is the sale of the Lakers good or bad for the franchise? Is it good or bad for the NBA?
Yes. The answers are nuanced. It’s also not the right question,
Is this the end of family ownership in the NBA?
Yes
This is the real takeaway from the sale. The days of an NBA team as a family-run operation — especially where the team is the primary source of income, as it was for the Buss children — are gone. Big-time professional sports are now an investment for the ultra-wealthy.
Fans look at the Lakers' brand, the superstar players, how often they are on national television, the purple-and-gold jerseys in the crowd at road games, and with all that comes a perception that the Lakers were a free-spending, do-whatever-it-takes-to-win organization.
They were not even close. Behind the scenes, this was a relative mom-and-pop operation because it had to be — and if it wasn’t for a very generous local television contract it would have been much more noticeable (but betting on cable television to keep funding the team is a losing proposition long term). The Lakers did not spend top dollar on coaches (remember Ty Lue going across town?). They did not spend to beef up basketball operations and staff — Oklahoma City has a larger scouting and basketball operations team.
That’s what Walter’s ownership changes and why Lakers fans should feel positive. Under Walter’s ownership, the Dodgers have unashamedly acted like the richest kids on the block, and have been rewarded for it on the field. For a Lakers team going into summer negotiations with Doncic and LeBron, having a deep-pocketed owner willing to spend matters, even if the NBA’s tax structure limits that spending.
The Lakers are an amazing organization. I’m looking forward to meeting Mark and excited about the future. I am also grateful to Jeanie and the Buss family for welcoming me to LA, and I’m happy that Jeanie will continue to be involved. I look forward to working with both of them…
What Walter did with the Dodgers was spend — not just on players, he also upgraded Dodger Stadium, he beefed up the team’s front office (stealing the GM from another team), its analytics department, and he spent big on player development. He turned the Dodgers into Goliath and has a couple of World Series wins to show for it.
Walter can’t just spend to buy players under the NBA’s punitive salary cap/luxury tax system, but his Lakers will start acting like a rich team off the court. Expect the Lakers' front office and scouting teams to grow. Expect a focus on player development. Expect facility upgrades (not at Crypo.com, which is owned by AEG, but other team facilities).
The Lakers didn’t act like the richest kids on the block — that other team in Los Angeles did — and around the Lakers there are a lot of little stories that highlight things. As noted at ESPN: “An assistant coach was not approved to stay at the same hotel as the player he was traveling to work out with in the offseason because the room was too expensive.”
All that is about to change.
Something lost
With that, a connection between the fans and the owner is lost. Jeanie Buss will remain the team governor and in some ways face of ownership, but Walter and his investment team will have the final say. A much more corporate entity runs the Lakers now, whatever face they put on it.
The same was true in Dallas, where part of the loss in Mark Cuban selling the Mavericks was not having him as the recognizable owner fans to relate to (and talk to). The same is true in Boston, where Wyc Grousbeck was always a rich, corporate owner, but one fan saw, who a year ago was carrying the Larry O’Brien Trophy around the streets of Boston during a parade, high-fiving fans.
The trend toward corporatization and private equity/investment banking touching everything is not just a sports thing, it’s a societal thing. It’s the way of the world.
It’s just going to feel a little different for the NBA. At least Jeanie Buss will still be around and have a voice in the Lakers, but it’s not going to be the same.
Not that it will matter to Lakers fans if they start winning like the Dodgers.
Former NBA star Vlade Divac, left, sits with Sasa Doncic, father of the Lakers' Luka Doncic, during the team's game against the Golden State Warriors on April 3 at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Basketball Hall of Famer and former Lakers fan favorite Vlade Divac broke his hip Thursday when he fell from his motorcycle while riding near the Adriatic Sea coast in Montenegro.
On Friday, a spokesperson for a hospital in Risan said the 57-year-old Serbian basketball legend now has an artificial hip after emergency surgery.
“During the day, a surgical procedure was performed,” hospital spokesperson Ljubica Mitrovic said of Divac. “He is in a stable general and physical condition and is under a careful supervision of the medical staff.”
Divac, a 7-foot-1 center, was drafted by the Lakers in 1989 after leading the Yugoslavia men's basketball team to an Olympic silver medal the previous year. He became a full-time starter during his second season as a Laker and soon emerged as a fan favorite, with frequent appearances in commercials, sitcoms and late-night talk shows.
After seven seasons with the Lakers, Divac was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for the recently drafted Kobe Bryant on July 1, 1996. (The Lakers would sign another 7-1 center, Shaquille O'Neal, as a free agent later that month.)
Divac played two seasons with the Hornets and signed with the Sacramento Kings as a free agent in 1999. He spent six years there — a stint that included his only All-Star season, in 2000-01 — before returning to the Lakers for the last of his 16 NBA seasons in 2004-05.
After finishing his career with 13,398 points, 9,326 rebounds, 3,541 assists and 1,631 blocked shots, Divac had his No. 21 jersey retired by the Kings in 2009. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
The Boston Celtics need to shed at least $20 million in salary this offseason to get under the second apron of the luxury tax and avoid punitive roster penalties, which means president of basketball operations Brad Stevens may have to trade several core players.
If that’s the case and superstar forward Jayson Tatum misses the entire 2025-26 season while recovering from Achilles surgery, Boston will need players on lower-cost deals to step up if the team wants to remain competitive.
That’s why the 2025 NBA Draft is so crucial for the Celtics: Can they find a legitimate rotation player with either the No. 28 or No. 32 pick in next Thursday’s draft — or package those picks to move up higher in the first round?
The “trade up” path is intriguing if Stevens and Co. believe they can acquire a prospect with the potential to be a legitimate rotation player. And if that scenario comes to pass, Michigan State guard Jase Richardson is a name worth watching.
Let’s continue our “Celtics Draft Fits” series with a full breakdown of Richardson — the son of former NBA player Jason Richardson — and why he’d make sense for Boston:
If Boston trades Jrue Holiday, that could thrust reigning Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard into a starting role. And the Celtics might be very tempted by the possibility of developing Richardson into the next Pritchard.
While Richardson is much greener than Pritchard — who entered the league at age 23 after four years in college — he’s the son of an NBA player who boasts a high basketball IQ and averaged just 0.8 turnovers per game last season.
Richardson also is a deadly shooter (41.2 percent from 3-point range) who makes up for his lack of height with strong body control around the basket. Sound familiar?
“The son of Jason Richardson, he hit 41 percent of his threes as a freshman at Michigan State,” Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg says of Jase Richardson. “Richardson’s fit with the Celtics could be similar to what Payton Pritchard has provided as a scoring spark off the bench.
“Boston could be intrigued by those NBA bloodlines and his two-way potential. For the Celtics to get to Richardson, they might need to move up from No. 28.”
Indeed, Richardson is projected as a top-15 pick in most NBA Mock Drafts. But if Stevens likes him enough, perhaps the C’s would strike a deal to jump up and draft the Spartan sharpshooter.
The 2025 NBA Draft will be held on Wednesday, June 25, and Thursday, June 26, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Live coverage begins at 8 PM ET on both nights. This year marks the 79th edition of the event.
See below for everything you need to know about the 2025 NBA Draft, including the full draft order, how to watch information, and more.
A new NBA champion will be crowned this Sunday, June 22, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder go head-to-head with Tyrese Haliburton andthe Indiana Pacers at Paycom Center. It all comes down to Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Tip-off is at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
The Indiana Pacers forced Game 7 with an aggressive 108-91 win on home court on Thursday night. Obi Toppin led the way for Indiana with 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17, and Pascal Siakam scored 16 points with a team-high 13 rebounds.
Haliburton, playing through a strained calf injury, contributed 14 points.
"We did our job to take care of home court and we've got to be ready to compete in Game 7," said Haliburton.
The Pacers' defense forced 21 Thunder turnovers, including 8 from Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
“It was collective. It wasn’t one guy. We were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7," said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault.
“The way I see it is, we sucked [in Game 6]. We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything — for everything we’ve worked for — and so do they,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The better team Sunday will win.”
The Thunder vs Pacers series will take place on ABC.
Thunder vs Pacers Series Scores and Schedule:
*All times listed are ET
Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110
Game 2:Thunder 123, Pacers 107
Game 3:Pacers 116, Thunder 107
Game 4: Thunder 111, Pacers 104
Game 5: Thunder 120, Pacers 109
Game 6:Pacers 108, Thunder 91
Game 7: Pacers at Thunder - Sun, June 22, 8 PM on ABC
Want even more NBA best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert NBA Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and over/under picks for each game of the Thunder vs Pacers series!
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Path to the NBA Finals:
The Thunder are seeking their first NBA title since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008. The last time the franchise reached the Finals was in 2012, dropping their series against LeBron James' Miami Heat in 5. Here is how they advanced to the NBA Finals:
Oklahoma City swept the No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies in the First Round, eliminated the No. 4 Denver Nuggets in 7 in the Conference Semifinals, and defeated the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves in 5 in the Western Conference Finals.
The Indiana Pacers are seeking their first NBA title. The team's last Finals appearance was in 2000, when they lost to the Lakers in 6. Here is the team's path to the Finals:
Indiana eliminated the No. 5 Milwaukee Bucks and the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers in 5 games, before knocking out the No. 6 New York Knicks in 6 to advance to the Finals.
INDIANAPOLIS — There is just one game left in the NBA season.
"One game for everything you ever dreamed of," Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of Game 7 on Sunday. "If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It's that simple." After Indiana's blowout win on their home court in Game 6 Thursday, both Pacers and Thunder players were already feeling the weight — and getting excited — about what was to come
"It's so, so, exciting. As a basketball fan, there's nothing like a Game 7," Tyrese Haliburton said. "There's nothing like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Dreamed of being in this situation my whole life. So, to be here is really exciting."
"You could ask every team in the NBA. Every team would take this opportunity to take this chance," Chet Holmgren added. "We're no different. It's on us to go out there and make the most of it."
"There's not a lot of Game 7s that happen. So, to have this opportunity to play in a Game 7 with this team is a blessing and wouldn't want to do it with any other team," Obi Toppin said.
What Game 7 brings is not just the drama and finality of one game to win it all, this is also almost pure basketball focused on effort and execution. There is no special adjustment coming, nothing either coach left in their back pocket for this moment.
"We've played each other enough now, where it's like, it's pretty much -- I mean, I don't think there are any secrets out there when we play," Pascal Siakam said. "I think it's just about who wants it more, like just playing hard, and leaving it all out there on the floor and living with the results."
Game 7s are less about adjustments and more about focus.
"The narratives are going to be almost poison…" Haliburton said. "To talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk and we played so well and now the pressure it on. Like, you know what I mean? There's going to be narratives that we can't really pay attention to."
"They're going to go into Game 7 confident, and so are we," Jalen Williams said.
Both teams have earned that confidence. Game 7 will be about which team can execute in the biggest moment of their careers, in the brightest spotlight basketball has.
"The way I see it is, we sucked [in Game 6]. We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything, for everything we've worked for, and so do they," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "The better team Sunday will win."
"We've got one game. One game," Haliburton added. "It's nothing that's happened before matters, and nothing that's going to happen after matters. It's all about that one game."
Owner Jerry Buss displays the Larry O'Brien Trophy after the Lakers won the 1980 NBA championship. (NBAE via Getty Images)
The story is so good, so rich, that Hollywood couldn’t resist.
The Lakers, a golden brand. The stars on the basketball court. The celebrities on the sidelines. The spotlight on the show flying up and down the floor 24 seconds at a time.
HBO made a series. Books have been authored. Documentaries have been filmed. No hyperbole is too outrageous.
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird helped save basketball. The Lakers were the greatest show in town. The highs and lows, the devastation and the jubilation, made them iconic.
And the ringmasters for the last 45 years have been the Buss family.
That era culminated Wednesday when a majority of Buss’ six children agreed to sell controlling interest of the franchise to Mark Walter for a record price — a $10-billion valuation that’s the highest in pro sports history.
The initial reaction to the news — a sale that shocked the Lakers’ biggest partners inside and outside of the NBA — centered on what it will mean for the organization. Will Walter and his partners pour the same financial resources that they’ve deployed to turn the Dodgers into the best team in baseball? How will their capital boost the weakest areas of the franchise’s infrastructure? What will happen next?
We don’t know for sure. We do, though, know what just wrapped — an era of pro-sports ownership unrivaled in success and melodrama.
The start
Dr. Jerry Buss wasn’t a physician — the title came from a degree in chemistry at USC. And the money? It didn’t come from science. It came from real estate. But Buss was always one to sense an opportunity, and Jack Kent Cooke’s record-breaking divorce settlement meant that he was about to capitalize on one.
In 1979, Buss scrambled to put together a wild business deal — properties and cash moving between Buss, third parties and Cooke before the self-made man ended up with The Forum, the Los Angeles Kings and, in what would be his legacy, the Los Angeles Lakers. The price was $67.5 million.
The timing was impeccable. The team would win a coin flip and with it the right to select Johnson with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Buss' and Johnson’s relationship helped lay the groundwork for the player-empowerment era that dominates the current NBA, Buss realizing faster than his peers that the biggest and best players were what drove the league’s success.
In his first season as owner, the Lakers won an NBA title, kicking off a decade-long battle with the Boston Celtics that helped the NBA move from the margins of pro sports to the mainstream.
In this 1979 photo, Lakers owner Jerry Buss is shown with children (clockwise from top left) Jeanie, Johnny, Jim and Janie. (Gunther / mptvimages.com)
Yet it was more than Johnson leading fastbreaks, flashing smiles and dishing no-look passes. It was the merging of sports and entertainment that helped define what fans now experience.
In 1979, shortly after purchasing the Lakers, Buss commissioned the first Laker Girls dance team. The Forum Club became one of the city’s hottest nightspots. The games were more than athletic contests. They were events.
For the first 12 seasons Buss owned the team, they never won fewer than 54 games in an 82-game season. Titles came in 1982, 1985 and 1987 against the hated Celtics and in 1988 against Detroit.
The Lakers built one of basketball’s most unstoppable machines — Jerry West in the front office, Pat Riley on the sideline and Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott and Michael Cooper flying on the break.
As Buss became one of the NBA’s most powerful figures, his children were at his side, learning the business. His daughter, Jeanie, famously helped organize events at the Forum. The family’s true promoter spirit couldn’t be suppressed — soccer, indoor tennis, roller hockey, the Buss family tried it all.
Even after Johnson’s stunning retirement after his HIV diagnosis, the Lakers missed the playoffs just once before they fully reloaded, first with Shaquille O’Neal, then with Kobe Bryant and finally with Phil Jackson.
Nothing, though, would last forever.
The transition
In 2005, The Times’ Hall of Fame basketball writer, Mark Heisler, wrote about Buss’ succession plan coming into focus.
“Jerry Buss wanted a crowd-pleasing basketball team the movie stars could relate to but might have gone too far,” Heisler wrote. “He wound up with the greatest floating soap opera in sports, and basketball was almost beside the point.”
Still, it was Buss’ legacy.
“I just can’t visualize myself walking away, relinquishing control,” Buss said in a 2002 story in The Times. “My relationship with this team is a lifelong marriage.”
The thing about family businesses, it turns out, is that family drama is always at play.
A Sports Illustrated feature in 1998 painted a story of jealousy and unease that seemed prophetic.
Kobe Bryant, left, holds the Larry O'Brian Trophy as Shaquille O'Neal holds the NBA Finals MVP trophy in 2000. (AFP / Getty Images)
As Buss scaled back his involvement, Jeanie took on a greater role in the business side of the franchise while son Jim became a basketball executive. And the Lakers kept on winning.
Tensions between O’Neal, Bryant and Jackson ended with the dissolution of another dynasty after three consecutive championships. Belief in Bryant led to two more rings once they reunited him with Jackson and added Pau Gasol to the mix.
Through it all, the Lakers remained a family business in its truest sense, Buss’ youngest sons Joey and Jesse learning the ropes in business and scouting in the same way his older children did.
Jeanie's romantic relationship with Jackson, at best, complicated things in the organization. Still, she was always the one her father intended to lead the organization, beginning when Buss put her in charge of the team’s indoor tennis franchise when she was just 19.
“I figured, ‘If Dr. Buss [she refers to him by his preferred title] says he thinks I can do it, I must be able to do it,’” Jeanie told The Times in 2002.” If he never doubted me, how could anyone else? It was only later that I thought, ‘What the hell was I doing?’"
In 2005, son Jim began to take on a bigger role in the organization, becoming the team’s vice president of player personnel.
“When I hear somebody say, 'Are you qualified?' I’m like, 'If you had eight years of Jerry West plus Mitch Kupchak and all the talented scouts working on a daily basis tutoring you, I don’t know what other credentials you could have,'” Jim said then.
When Buss died in 2013 from complications of cancer, all six of his children held titles with the Lakers.
“Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today,” then-NBA commissioner David Stern said. “Remember, he showed us it was about ‘Showtime,’ the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen.”
While Buss was living, the Lakers missed the playoffs only twice. In the six seasons after his death, the Lakers never won more than 37 games.
Something had to change.
The fallout
Bryant took a fateful step at the end of a game late in the 2013 season, his Achilles tendon rupturing in his left leg. He miraculously made two free throws before heading to the locker room — a moment codifying him as an all-time Los Angeles legend and a moment, it turned out, that signaled the good times were about to end.
The following season, coach Mike D’Antoni’s Lakers won just 27 games, Nick Young leading the Lakers in scoring and Bryant playing only six times. After the year, Jim Buss told The Times that he saw a pathway forward and he told his family the same in a meeting earlier in 2014.
“I was laying myself on the line by saying, 'If this doesn't work in three to four years, if we're not back on the top' — and the definition of top means contending for the Western Conference, contending for a championship — 'then I will step down because that means I have failed,'" he said. "I don't know if you can fire yourself if you own the team … but what I would say is I'd walk away and you guys figure out who's going to run basketball operations because I obviously couldn't do the job.
"There's no question in my mind we will accomplish success. I'm not worried about putting myself on the line."
In 2015, the Lakers won only 21 games. In 2016, the team lost a franchise-most 65 times against a franchise-worst 17 wins. In 2017, they were headed to another season in which they would be more than 30 games under .500 when Jeanie fired Jim and Kupchak, the team's general manager.
They were replaced with Bryant’s former agent, Rob Pelinka, and Johnson.
Jeanie Buss applauds the Lakers' efforts during the team's 2010 NBA championship ring ceremony at Staples Center. (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)
Shortly after the decision, Jim, along with his brother Johnny, tried to remove Jeanie from the team’s board of directors, sparking a legal feud that included Jeanie filing a restraining order while she wrested control of the team.
“I must also point out that Jim has already proven to be completely unfit even in an executive vice president of basketball operations role and I recently had to replace him,” Jeanie said in court documents.
The Lakers signed LeBron James in 2018, traded for Anthony Davis and built a title team in 2020, the family’s biggest success in the years following their father’s passing.
With Jeanie firmly in charge, brother Joey helped run one of the league’s most-respected developmental teams in the South Bay Lakers — a program that helped develop players such as Alex Caruso. Jesse Buss and his scouting department found value in late first-round picks like Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma as well as an undrafted star in Austin Reaves.
In 2022, Jeanie produced a documentary for Hulu that dealt with heaps of the family’s drama, and Wednesday’s sale not coming from a majority — and not unanimous — vote again means that not everyone is on the same page.
While the Buss family will retain minority ownership, things will never be the same in the organization. The influx of money, of modernization, of more corporate structure could help the Lakers on the court.
But what they were under the Buss family, they’ll never be again.
“I really tried to create a Laker image, a distinct identity,” Jerry Buss once said. “I think we’ve been successful. I mean, the Lakers are pretty damn Hollywood.”
Jeanie Buss, center, is the daughter of Jerry Buss, who bought the LA Lakers in 1979; they have since operated like one of the world’s largest family businesses. Photograph: Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
First of all, it is a record. The glitziest team in basketball is changing hands at a valuation of $10bn, the biggest ever for a sports franchise. Second, it is probably an excellent deal for the buyer, even at that astonishing valuation. And third, the shift in majority ownership from the Buss family to an investment group led by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, is something else: inevitable.
Sports teams are an eye-watering asset class. Not only does owning one confer countless perks and the kind of societal status that most money can’t even buy, but team valuations in the major North American sports have been on a steep upslope for decades. The sale of the Lakers represents a new peak and is also the latest data point that illustrates a new fact about sports ownership. The best properties have become too valuable an asset class for people like Jeanie Buss to control them.
Buss’ father, Jerry, bought the team in 1979, and the Lakers have since then operated like one of the world’s largest family businesses. The Lakers are by far the biggest source of the Buss family’s wealth, and as ESPN reported on Thursday, the team has traditionally used its own revenues to pay its expenses. Its golden goose is an enormous local television deal with the LA cable provider Spectrum.
The cable bundle is dying, however, and these days the biggest sports teams are increasingly owned not by wealthy individuals and families but by consortiums of deep-pocketed investors and institutions. The Lakers had already moved in this direction; the Buss family sold a quarter stake in the team to a group led by Walter in 2021. That same group – with Walter as the frontman, but by no means doing it alone – took control of the Dodgers in 2012 and later bought control of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.
Blue-chip sports properties like the Lakers are now too big for even most billionaires to just reach into their pocket and by all alone. For that reason, leagues have gradually made it much easier for institutional investors to buy stakes in teams. (The NFL, with limits, has swung open the door to private equity.) The corollary to that trend is that when a longtime owner like Jeanie Buss has buyers lined up with enough liquidity to secure her family fortune in cash, rather than ownership of a team, she’s likely to jump at it.
The Lakers’ new owners are likely to do very well on their investment. The decline of cable is a major threat to professional sports teams, and some smaller-market clubs in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have taken substantial cash flow hits as regional carriers have faded. But the Lakers are so entwined with one of the world’s largest cities that to bet against their continued growth is to bet against the future popularity of basketball, the city of Los Angeles and live entertainment altogether. Angelenos will not stop buying Lakers tickets and, even more critically, will not stop happily paying to watch 82 games per year, whether they’re doing that on a streamer or traditional TV. The Lakers are too big to fail, and some time down the line, someone will value them at well more than $10bn.
The sale will probably be good for Lakers fans, though they are not the priority in any transaction of this type. Walter’s group has done wonders with the Dodgers, seizing on the franchise’s natural advantages – a rabid fanbase and a location players want to play in – and turned the team into the most consistent winner in baseball. It is harder to flex a financial advantage in the NBA than in salary cap-less MLB, but Walter’s Dodgers have become the team with the best reputation among ballplayers. Not that the Lakers have a hard time attracting stars, but one could imagine them attracting even more of the players they covet. At the end of the day, isn’t that kind of product what fans want to see?
While this will all likely go fine for the Lakers, the shift in ownership models does raise questions about what will become of sports teams that don’t defy gravity by their very existence. Plenty of individual club owners have been massive flops who have earned the endless scorn of their clubs’ fans. But the fact of having one highly visible, specific owner has at least rendered a version of accountability. After all, it’s easier for Manchester United fans to chant “Glazers out!” than it would be to chant “shadowy consortium of institutional investors out!” A move toward large groups of investors controlling iconic teams will make it easier for individual actors to milk them for cash without facing the kind of public shaming that has long been possible for teams with more identifiable villains in the owner’s suite. The Lakers are big enough and successful enough that this dynamic might never come to a head. Most teams can’t say the same.
Among the lessons the Warriors learned during the 2025 NBA playoffs, which was amplified after their ouster, is that they no longer can compete among the league’s elite with their relatively miniature paint presence.
Translated, impactful size in the NBA matters more than it did 10 years ago when the Warriors would go small and torture opponents. That strategy was effective for a variety of reasons, paramount being 6-foot-6 Draymond Green’s unique ability to slide over to center and play marvelous defense while running opposing big men off the floor.
Now that it is evident Green’s body, at age 35, has lost some of that ability, the Warriors must adjust. The encouraging factor, if you’re a fan, is that they concede it.
“I’d prefer not to have to play Draymond at center for 82 games,” general manager Mike Dunleavy said two days after Golden State was eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals.
“I don’t want to start next season with Draymond as our starting 5,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s doable for the last 30 games, like we did this year. But you see the toll it takes on him. He’s talked about it too.”
It’s not that Kerr should completely abandon his pet lineups; there will be instances when they’re useful. But those instances are rapidly diminishing.
Those 12 players – eight of whom are under age 30 – compose a smorgasbord of skill, length and athleticism. They all bring something to the paint. Jokić is transcendent, and Wembanyama is pointed toward that direction.
The Warriors’ counters, in addition to Green, are 6-foot-9 Trayce Jackson-Davis and 7-foot Quinten Post. Jackson-Davis provides some rim protection on one end but struggles to finish in traffic on the other. Post’s best attribute is perimeter shooting. They are valuable role players. They are not, at this stage of their careers, difference-makers on a contender.
(If there were a way to combine the best of Jackson-Davis with the best of Post, the Warriors wouldn’t be in this fix.)
“It’s important if those guys of positional size are good basketball players,” Kerr said. “You can’t just add size for size’s sake, and the pieces need to fit together.”
Given the ages of Stephen Curry (37), Jimmy Butler (turns 36 before training camp) and Green, logic dictates next season as Golden State’s last, best chance to chase a championship. It’s a longshot – they would represent the oldest core trio to win the NBA Finals – but Curry’s longevity makes it worth a shot.
The Warriors own a second-round pick (41st overall) in next week’s NBA draft, but league sources tell NBC Sports Bay Area they’re showing interest in veterans that might be available – and that future draft picks are in play. Golden State owns each of its first-round picks from 2026 through 2029.
In doubt that Curry, Butler or Green would be willing to sacrifice some of that in a deal that delivered a plug-and-play big man?
“The biggest things are you’ve got to look at both sides of the ball,” Dunleavy said. “How does a player of that position complement the guys we have? That’s specifically in the frontcourt (with) Jimmy and Draymond.”
Another option on the table is the future of Jonathan Kuminga. The Warriors will tender him an $7.98 million qualifying offer sometime by June 29, making him a restricted free agent. The 6-foot-7 forward still is an attractive trade asset, and it has become apparent the Warriors are willing to listen.
Myriad possibilities are centered around Kuminga, with a sign-and-trade option being complex but doable. Dunleavy, in his brief history as GM, has shown no fear of complexity.
What’s clear is that the Warriors must make strides to join the new NBA. They need shooting, always have.
They need 3-and-D wings, always have. They need productive size, someone who can bang and bump with the best of the West. That’s a new priority. We’ll submit five candidates in our next post.
The Indiana Pacers have never won an NBA Championship [Getty Images]
The NBA Finals will be decided by a winner-takes-all game seven for the first time in nine years after the Indiana Pacers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 in game six to level the series.
A fine attacking display from the Pacers, which included 20 points for Obi Toppin off the bench, stopped the Thunder from claiming the Championship in Indianapolis.
Star player Tyrese Haliburton, who missed game five with a calf injury, passed a late fitness test before tip-off and managed 14 points, five assists and two steals in 22 minutes of play.
"We just wanted to protect our court," Haliburton said.
"We didn't want to see those guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall, we just responded.
"So many different guys chipped in. It was a whole team effort. I'm really proud of this group."
The victory means the NBA finals will go to game seven for the first time since 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won their first Championship with a 4-3 series win against the Golden State Warriors.
The Thunder will host game seven on Monday (01:00 BST) but will need a much improved performance to win their first Championship since 1979.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the newly-crowned Most Valuable Player, top scored for the Thunder with 21 points but his side paid the price for missing their first eight shots of the game, which gave the Pacers an early eight-point lead.
"Credit Indiana," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game."
Monday's game will mark the 20th time the NBA Finals have gone to game seven, with the home side in the decider triumphing 15 times.
Results
Game one: Thunder 110-111 Pacers (Indiana lead 1-0)
Game two: Thunder 123-107 Pacers (Series tied 1-1)
Game three: Pacers 116-103 Thunder (Indiana lead 2-1)
Game four: Pacers 104-111 Thunder (Series tied 2-2)
Game five: Thunder 120-109 Pacers (Oklahoma Cit lead 3-2)
Game six: Pacers 108-91 Thunder (Series tied 3-3)
Game seven: Thunder v Pacers (Monday, 23 June 01:00 BST)
INDIANAPOLIS — Hanging in the rafters of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse are three Pacers ABA championship banners — every one of them was won on the road.
The Pacers are now just one more road win away from their first NBA championship.
With its season on the line, the Pacers demonstrated the resilience that had brought them to this point, led by their All-NBA point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, who played through a strained calf, still scored 14 points, and was +25 on the night.
“I felt like he did amazing today, he led us to win. He’s a soldier, he’s never going to let a little injury keep him from playing in the Finals, from leading us to a win,” Obi Toppin said of Haliburton.
In Game 6 the Pacers played their best game of the postseason — they just kept making plays.
That’s who these Pacers have been all playoffs and it’s why there will be a Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday after a 108-91 win in Game 6.
The Pacers played with the desperation of a team trying to save its season. Their ball movement was as crisp as it has been these playoffs. More importantly, they cranked up the pressure defense and forced 21 Thunder turnovers — MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 7 made buckets and 8 turnovers on the night — which led to transition buckets going the other way.
OH MY GOODNESS THIS PACERS SEQUENCE
HALIBURTON STEAL. HALIBURTON NO-LOOK DIME. SIAKAM SLAM WITH FORCE.
That’s when Indiana’s defensive intensity overwhelmed the Thunder reserves, and things started to spiral. OKC shot 6-of-18 for the quarter and turned the ball over seven times, which sparked a 30-9 run by Indiana to close the second. The turnovers and misses allowed the Pacers to get out in transition, and they thrived in their element with a raucous crowd soaking up every minute of it. By halftime it was 64-42 Indiana and it was in total control.
T.J. McConnell got going in the second quarter. It started doing something he has done all series — attacking whenever Aaron Wiggins (or Isaiah Joe) is the defender. But once McConnell got a couple of buckets that way, the basket looked huge and he was hitting midrangers over everyone. He finished with a dozen points on the night.
Any dreams of a Thunder comeback were snuffed out when they failed to score on their first eight possessions of the second half. While there was a flicker of life late in the third, the Thunder cut the lead to 19, the game was never really in doubt.
Indiana did it with balance, led by Toppin scoring 20 off the bench. Andrew Nembhard scored 17, Pascal Siakam added 16, and there was Haliburton’s inspirational 14.
“Everybody was tied together, and that’s how it has to be,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We did better rebounding, we did better on the turnover count, and on Sunday we’re going to have to be better.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 on 7-of-15 shooting but had eight turnovers. Jalen Williams had 16 points, and as a team the Thunder were 8-of-30 on 3-pointers.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Season on the line, the Indiana Pacers did what they’ve done time and time again. They bucked the odds.
And the NBA Finals are going to an ultimate game.
Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the Pacers forced a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday night.
The first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 is Sunday night in Oklahoma City.
“The ultimate game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton - playing through a strained calf - scored 14 points. The Pacers started slowly and then turned things into a blowout.
Game 6 was a microcosm of Indiana’s season in a way. The Pacers started the regular season with 15 losses in 25 games, have had five comebacks from 15 or more down to win games in these playoffs, and they’re one win from a title.
“We just wanted to protect home court,” Haliburton said. “We didn’t want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall and we just responded. ... Total team effort.”
TJ McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. Jalen Williams added 16.
“Credit Indiana,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game.”
Good news for the Thunder: home teams are 15-4 in finals Game 7s. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent of those and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 - by Seattle, the franchise that would move to Oklahoma City three decades later.
Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. The arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he ever seemed as a player.
No need.
After the slow start, the Pacers outscored the Thunder 68-32 over the next 24 minutes. An Indiana team that hadn’t led by more than 10 points at any time in the first five games - and that double-digit lead was brief - led by 28 early in the third quarter. The margin eventually got to 31, which was Oklahoma City’s second-biggest deficit of the season.
The worst also came in these playoffs: a 45-point hole against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder came back to win that series, obviously, and now will need that bounce-back ability one more time.
“Obviously, it was a very poor performance by us,” Daigneault said.
The Thunder, desperate for a spark, put Alex Caruso in the starting lineup in place of Isaiah Hartenstein to open the second half. There was no spark. In fact, there was nothing whatsoever - neither team scored in the first 3:53 after halftime, the sides combining to miss their first 13 shots of the third quarter.
Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, right, celebrates a basket during the second quarter of Thursday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6 of the NBA finals. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The Indiana Pacers saved their best for last at home. Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the Pacers blew past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 in Game 6 of the NBA finals on Thursday night, leveling the series at 3-3 and setting up a dramatic Game 7 in Oklahoma City.
Pascal Siakam added 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton, playing through a strained calf, delivered 14 points to steady the team after a rocky start. TJ McConnell chipped in 12 points, nine boards and six assists off the bench in another energetic showing.
Schedule
Best-of-seven-games series. All times US eastern time (EDT).
In the US, all games will air on ABC. Streaming options include ABC.com or the ABC app (with a participating TV provider login), as well as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, fuboTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and Sling TV (via ESPN3 for ABC games). NBA League Pass offers replays, but live finals games are subject to blackout restrictions in the US.
In the UK, the games will be available on TNT Sports and Discovery+. As for streaming, NBA League Pass will provide live and on-demand access to all Finals games without blackout restrictions.
In Australia, the games will broadcast live on ESPN Australia. Kayo Sports and Foxtel Now will stream the games live, while NBA League Pass will offer live and on-demand access without blackout restrictions.
Indiana missed their first eight shots and fell behind 10-2, but then went on a 68-32 run across the second and third quarters. The lead ballooned to 31 late in the third – the Thunder’s second-worst deficit of the season – and the Pacers cruised to their first double-digit win of the series.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 21 points and Jalen Williams had 16, but the Thunder pulled their starters before the fourth quarter. A half-time lineup switch inserting Alex Caruso failed to spark a comeback, as both teams opened the third quarter with nearly four scoreless minutes and 13 straight missed shots.
Game 7 will mark the first time the NBA finals has gone the distance since 2016. The Thunder have already come back from a 45-point hole in these playoffs and will need one more rally at home.
For Indiana, the moment was about resilience. With Hall of Famer Reggie Miller watching courtside in a Jalen Rose jersey, the Pacers played their most complete game of the series. They controlled the glass, pushed the pace and held Oklahoma City to 37% shooting. Now both teams head to a one-night showdown for the NBA title.
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton will play in a win-or-stay-home Game 6 for Indiana on Thursday night.
"Tyrese will play..." Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "He was strength tested at 5 p.m. and did very well. Went through walkthrough. There's no set minutes limit. We will watch and monitor things very closely from the beginning of the game through the entirety of the game. We'll go from there."
Haliburton suffered a strained calf on a first-quarter drive in Game 5. While he went back to the locker room for a stretch, he came back out and still played 34 minutes on the night, but he scored just four points on 0-of-6 shooting. That is what Carlisle has to monitor: if Haliburton is out on the court but not helping the team — or is actively hurting it because he can't move well enough — Carlisle will have to make a tough decision about how much to play the team's offensive conductor.
Expect the Thunder to test him early on both ends of the court.
"I'll say it again, he's a great player," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Haliburton. "If there's one thing we know, you don't underestimate great players. In this situation, we're expecting his best punch. Indiana is a great team. We're expecting their best punch. I have no doubt he's dealing with stuff, but we're expecting him to come out and play like a great player would play. We have to prepare for that."
Haliburton is averaging 15 points, 7.2 assists and 6.2 rebounds a game through these Finals, but is shooting 29.4% from 3. The Pacers are 12-3 in these playoffs in games Haliburton has scored 20+ points, which includes a Game 3 victory in the Finals in which he scored 22 points.
Kurt Helin
