REACTION: Lakers Sold Again In MASSIVE $12.5 Billion Dollar Deal, What Does This Mean For LA?

- Hello, I'm Mark, and I'm glad to meet you. Talk with the NBA, which we are doing on Wednesday. Evening here in Scotland, where I'm at. Wednesday, early afternoon in Los Angeles, where Ramona Shelburn is at, after breaking enormous news

about the Los Angeles Lakers. Hello, Ramona, how are you? - Hey, Brian, I was wondering what time zone you were in. You've been having this fabulous European vacation. - BST, British summer time.

Joining us from Dallas, Texas, is bandica.

- Howdy, Barton's, I'd say you always

on BST, Wendy. - That was on the T for you, sir. Ramona, this was a genuine shocker. When I heard about, I heard about slightly before you tweeted out while I was on about the 11th hole today.

- That was quite surprised, I was quite surprised. The Lakers being resold after a little more than a year to a group, I assume it'll be a group because they'll continue to be selling pieces of this as my guess, but to a group with our old boss, Bob Eiger.

And, you know, just a stunning turn of events from how to the story come together in what's your viewpoint of it? - I had to take a minute to Brian, when I first started getting wind of it, I would say very late last night

in Los Angeles, so that would have been Tuesday night, very late Tuesday night. I couldn't even really wrap my head around this, like is this right?

“But you know, you got to run those things down, right?”

You all get tips like that, and you run them down. And then I went to bed thinking, I was probably right, but I wasn't sure yet, and I woke up very early and I knew I was right, and then we had to get enough confirmations to go with it.

But it was, like I kind of, he held on the team for less than a year, like it was 10 months, like it's just, I understand that the business aspect, I mean, let's go back to when Mark Walter first

became a public figure to us with he bought the Dodgers,

and that purchase for two point one, five billion dollars,

and everybody was like, whoa, that's so much money, right? He just made two and a half billion in 10 months selling the Lakers. And I don't think that was the initial intention of buying the shares of the Lakers. I think there was grand plans with the Walter Group

and the Dodgers and the Lakers. I don't even think he was offering this up. The way this came together is Mark, I'm sorry, the way this came together was that Josh Kushner and Bob Eicher were one of the bid groups in Las Vegas,

and they've been trying to get an expansion team in Vegas from what I understand, the bidding on that franchise has gotten close to that $10 billion number, at least where they were in that moment was around 10, and that's the same price mark,

the valuation Mark paid Genie Bus when he bought her shares of the Lakers,

“and I think both of them being L.A. the natives go,”

you know, we want to buy legacy brands, like why buy something new and start it all new

and spend another two or three billion building in arena

in Vegas without at least checking with Mark Walter, and I think we should talk about the back story here, which is that there's been some reports over the last few months, Mark's under investigation with the Department of Justice. Everyone involved says Deny's blanket denial

that this had anything to do with it, but you and I are smart, Tim, you're also here. I mean, I can't remember this. - Yes. - Yes. - That made my summer.

- I know. - I know. I know. I knew you left one on a tee, and I didn't swing, so I had to do this one. - Oh, no. - But, Hall of Fame. You collect a Hall of Fame, Ramona Sheldon, she's in.

- You know, we're all very tired, so we can be funny like that.

“I think, look, did he intend to sell the team”

and flip it like, I mean, he just made a huge business, you know, he just made a lot of money in 10 months, but our Josh and Bob Eiger smart enough to know that somebody who's dealing with a lot of other issues might be receptive to a call like that.

Yes, and from what I understand this happened over the weekend, it was a short time table that Mark had to think about this. I want to say a day or two that he had even think about whether he would consider it. I don't think they initially offered 12.5.

I think that got to that number of some back and forth, but they were either gonna get a yes or a no from Mark, and then get back into the expansion bid, right? They had to have an answer to it. Hey, before we go on Vegas, let's make sure

that we can't buy the lakeers instead. They're both from L.A., Josh Kushner,

He is the brother of Jared Kushner,

but he is a very different man politically, and there's some articles that have been written about that. I can refer you to an S.Y. article where you can read that. He's sort of on the record saying I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. They're not politically affiliated.

All of this is gonna be stuff for us to discuss over the next few months, as this is going, but I think there was a giant business opportunity for Mark that came at a time when he's dealing with a lot of other legal issues that he took.

He just took it. You know, it's probably advantages to being liquid here. To get all this money back into the accounts. I don't know, I'm speculating on that, but it's interesting,

“and that's what everyone in the NBA is wondering”

and talking about, because I certainly think when Mark bought the lakeers from G-Bust, that intention was to own them for a very long time. - Yeah, you don't buy the lakeers to flip them. It's not like a house you buy into a quick remodel.

Flip, this is the freaking Los Angeles lakeers, and it's just crazy. You see the top two purchase prices of professional sports franchises. This broke the record that Mark Walter said,

less than a year ago, and it's just a,

and look, I get a 25% profit by $2.5 billion.

That's more than tillman fatigue, a paid for the rock. It's not that long ago. - Yeah. - Well, I get that. - Hold on, let's just stop right now. Let's talk about things that we know,

things that we believe. Let's start with things that we know, okay? We know that Mark Walter is under investigation by the SEC. We are not insurance law specialists.

“We are not assistant, U.S. district attorneys,”

we are not investigators, but he is under investigation. We know this. We know that he is under investigation, because there is a suspicion that he might have put too much of his insurance company's money

into his other businesses, which he referred to as affiliated companies. Essentially, it's, you know, you're allowed to take some money out of your left pocket and put it into your right,

but there's regulation on insurance companies, and there's suspicion that maybe not all of the rules were followed. From what I understand that there's a state law issues or a federal law issues,

but we don't understand that's where we're not gonna go into that. We know that Mark Walter didn't want to buy the Lakers for one year. He, it was a stepped process where he bought,

he and his partners bought 27% of the Lakers in 2021, and they gave Genie bus a five-year transition window to remain as the governor, where after that they would do that.

“You don't do that if you're planning on flipping it, okay?”

So we know that, you know, that's a factor, okay? I also want to, a couple of other things. He bought the team, he bought, he owned 27% and now they own Ramona about 77% is that correct? I think that's right, that's right.

- That's family owns 17 or 18. - And Patrick's shoe and Sean owns about 7%. - We don't know about the shoe and the little two, yeah. - We don't know unless you do, how much a percentage are selling.

- Right. - I believe they're buying all of Mark shares.

- Okay, it's not, he didn't actually make two billion

because he didn't pay 10 billion for the team, but I'm not gonna get into all that, has to do with valuations. There are potentially reasons why he would want to get liquidity for his businesses, again, this is not a financial guest.

- I guess. - And there's also reasons why he would want to potentially be able to show the SEC that he made an investment that returned a big profit for his insurance business. All of those things are true.

Here's something else that is true. Josh Kushner is a minority owner of the Miami Heat and previously was a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and therefore has been approved to have that by the NBA.

He has been vetted on some level by the NBA and approved by the NBA to own pieces of two different teams. In fact, he will have to sell his share of the Miami Heat, which by the way, the heat don't sell shares very often. That's a very closely held team.

That's neither here nor there. He will have to sell the shares of the Miami Heat before he can buy the Lakers. That potentially could take some time as a side note. Now, I want to point to something.

Now, Bob Iger is been a long, long time close business associate with the NBA and its owners and top officials. As the CEO of Disney, he was part of the negotiations

This is our company, it ESPN.

We carry the NBA. Bob Iger has sat at negotiating tables with that in silver for years. There's obviously a relationship there.

“Also, Kushner and Iger and their group were raising money”

to make this Vegas team. I don't know how much money Josh Kushner has. I don't know how much money Bob Iger has. There's estimations out there. They're going to have to have other partners here.

But they didn't just put this ownership group together in three days. They've been putting it together for months if not years to prepare it a bid for Las Vegas. And so there was this ready made.

And by the way, this is one thing that Mark Walter,

if Mark Walter came to the point where he understood

he had to settle the Lakers, it's not a bad time to sell a high asset when you've got all these ownership, potential ownership groups who've been working for a long time to put money together. That's part of the reason why it happened so fast.

Now Ramona, I want to refer to a quote that Bob Iger told the California Post, California Post, sorry, it's a new application. I gave an interview to Kobe Price, the Lakers beat writer for the California Post.

And I want to read this sentence carefully, assuming that Bob chose these words carefully. Okay, he said, we were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas. And while that happened, it was suggested to us

that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his steak in the Lakers. A lot is in that sentence. I don't want to assume that that is like the Iron Cloud sentence, but Ramona makes it sound like somebody came

to them, okay? I can speculate who that somebody was, but I'm not going to. Okay, this is a different version than I have heard. I know I don't want to say that that's inaccurate or anything. I don't, and so this is why I don't want you to either.

All right, this is why we as reporters, you know,

“I don't, I'm never afraid to say I don't know yet, right?”

We have to find this part out. But the sense I got is these are very well-connected guys and they're very bright. And everybody in the league has been talking about what's going on with Mark Walter for the past month or so.

I think there's been a Bloomberg story and a Wall Street Journal story. I've been digging on it. I think that's partially how I found out about this is, you know, you're just kind of digging into things

and calling the kinds of people who help you understand things like this. And so they're smart enough to know that what's in the background matters. Okay, so did somebody push them, did somebody tell them, I don't know that's not what I've heard so far,

but we shall see, there's more to come here. Yes, well, so the, so Bloomberg reported again, this is Bloomberg's end of the business. Not my, our end of the business with Bloomberg reported was in the last couple of weeks since the investigation went public

that Mark Walter has been looking to take businesses that he moved his insurance money into and unwind them. So then gets, he can get the money that he gave from his insurance company out of them. Now, I do not want to make an assumption

as to why he's doing that, but he's being invested. He's been reportedly investigated for maybe not 100% following all the laws putting his money into affiliated companies and now he's trying to take money out of the affiliated companies and put him back to insurance.

You can decide what you want to decide on how that goes. But I will say this, I'm not surprised

he was 12 billion dollars Ramona, because in all honesty,

I think the Lakers sold for less than they could have gotten on the open market a year ago. And I think a big reason they sold for less was because Jeannie Bus made the deal where she was able to stay governor for five years.

- I don't disagree with you.

“I think also you have to remember Mark had first right”

of refusal. - Right. - But they only deal, yeah, but it was the only deal that she could, like he was the only person she could deal with. Like anybody else, if she would have put him up for sale,

anybody else, let's say somebody else wants to bid a 15, Mark could have then had the right to say, well, I'll bid 50. - I agree. - But I agree.

- I agree, but they were incentivized to work together because Walters Group was incentivized to work with Jeannie. - Right. - More who'd collect it podcast after this? - I think you have also reported

that Jeannie will remain as the governor. - I have not reported that, that was something

Iger's quote left, there was definitely a hedge in that quote,

“you know, great respect for Jeannie, I think,”

and it was Jeannie and the family, and we're gonna do everything we can to honor the agreement that Mark had with her, but things could change, you know, there was a hedge in that quote. So I don't, what I've been told is, for now,

this is business as usual with the Lakers, they hired all these new people, they just, you know, completely redid the team. Luka Dances is looking up going, wow, I thought it was strange and Dallas.

- Yeah, well, McMahon, so Luka gives this quote, which is savvy, he's very smart to come out with the quote.

By the way, Luka's ultimately all the matters

was what he does on the court, but Luka's management of his public profile, since he's become a Laker has been excellent, largely, well, Luka and Priority are prioritizing of that, his change, because he gets slapped in the face

by the harsh realities of NBA business if you don't take an active approach and managing these kind of situations and forming partnerships with ownership and front office and so on and so forth.

And his business manager, I'm remover knows your well, Laura Best Seder,

“same business manager, I think Luka is allowing her”

to be more proactive and more aggressive. - Well, whatever is happening with Luka, his management of situations, and even how he got out in front at times of the unfortunate battle he's had

having over the custody of his children, he has been anyway, I don't want to get into that, but inviting his team to Slovenia, the movies he's made, investing in the community and Los Angeles.

I just think Luka's team Luka is operating well,

ultimately, Player Luka has to win,

but one of the things he sees in this, he makes a statement and he says, "Being a Laker means everything to me." As an aside, an excellent opening line for the Laker fans who have gotten their heads

a little bit on the swivel right now. I know it's very basic, but words matter and this is beautifully constructed. I'm excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to L.A., okay,

we have got check marks across the board. I'm thrilled about being a Laker just in case anybody is like, "Oh my God, what does Luka think about all this thing?" I want to play basketball, I'm so excited because he was injured and everything, great,

bring a championship. The thing that fans want to hear, whether they're in Washington or L.A. or Siberia, is they want a championship. Beautiful, beautiful, first sentence.

Great day, period, I've gotten used to big changes over these last few years. Okay, this is just saying, okay, how many times we're gonna sell is LeBron gonna be on the team? No, okay, fine, you know, so like this is him acknowledging.

Forget that, dude. Big changes, Cuban sold, new ownership. He got backstab traded in the middle of the night. Jeannie bus sold or the bus family sold. No, Mark Walter, I mean, it's just like, this is his fifth

ownership group. (laughing) Okay, we just do what we know versus what we think, okay. So what we, let's just do the timeline, all right? February, 2025, Luka gets blindsided in the middle

of the night trade, okay, May when he's just getting to know Laker fans and Laker ownership, Jeannie bus sells the controlling interest to Mark Walter. He goes to like the back street boys concert with Mark Walter and the team, remember that?

Like, okay, everything's cool. He's my new guy, everybody's wearing white. They're at the sphere together, except LeBron wasn't there. He was busy, he had other things going on that summer, but he's kind of getting good with the new guy.

He signs the extension in August, okay, we're re-upping. And then the sale goes, okay, the sale goes through in October. Well, let's back up a little bit because in the reporting on Mark Walter

and the DOJ investigation, the first investigation

“seems to have started in September of last year, okay?”

And that's, I think it would be the Bloomberg or the journal, so apologies to whoever had that first, but it was one of those two, September of last year. The sale to Mark Walter is approved in October. So did the NBA where they fully apprised

of what was going on behind the scenes when they approved this sale? I don't know that answer. That's something we all have to go look into and find out. But from what I understand, it was a fairly quick closing.

I mean, he just wired $6 billion,

- As one done. - Right. And he, and then again, he'd already been up, as a 27% owner, him or her group had already been approved. Obviously, they had to show that they had the money. He had to have a signed sales agreement.

So, like, look, something happened though, because it went public and your actions over words, Ramona. The actions of Mark Walter are a man who looks like he's in trouble and is trying to sell a bunch of stuff to unwind his trouble position.

And the other thing that the Wall Street Journal reported on this investigation started according to the Wall Street Journal with the internal whistleblower,

which is never good, of course.

Anyway, I want to get back, but I'm not passed frankly, McMahon, you say he said five owners in less than three years. - Wow. - That's incredible. - Yeah. - So us. - But let me finish. - Four.

- Don't use to the human. - No. - You've been, do you want to do it? - Do you want to do it? - The bus, Walter. - Oh, yeah. - Kushner Eiriger.

- This would be his fifth ownership group in '80s. - That's pretty quick Spain. - Wow, that's crazy. - I mean, this is Chris Paul trade level of like, oh my God, like shifting sand beneath your feet.

- Well, the thing is, well, I'm done finished this, but I know, okay, I've gotten used to big changes over the last few years, but I know no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise.

I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob,

so we can get work to get to work building something special and I'll lay it together. I don't even know these guys. I haven't met these guys, but it's my iconic franchise. Bob Eiger said to the California Post

that this came the other in three days,

“and I believe 'em, because they were all in”

on trying to buy Vegas. Now, one of the big questions Ramona is, the thing that was exciting Laker fans is, they watched Walter and his partners and his leadership. Some of whom were also gonna be leading the Lakers, right?

- Yeah. - They watched him modernize the Dodgers, not only inject a bunch of money into the Dodgers, and we all know that you can't spend money in the L.A., like you can in baseball,

but there was this excitement that the Lakers were sort of a mama pop operation and Rob Polica has talked about this, that they were gonna, it is money was gonna be injected into the Laker franchise, they were gonna modernize,

and that this was going to potentially hopefully go down the Dodgers path. Now, I have no idea what Josh and Bob have planned. Or what they're financially going to be able to do by buying at this level.

And it's gonna be a little unsettling. I mean, I'm sure, I mean, Bob Eiger knows the NBA, as well as anybody, Josh Kushner is, but again, then a part of the league, like these are not people who are naive,

but, you know, this is the different level of pocket that is coming in. - Yeah. Okay, they've hired a lot of new people. They've hired analytics guys.

They've hired scouts. They've hired marketing people. They've hired business executives. - They've hired the whole business operations. - Yeah.

- So Andrew Friedman was advising Rob Polinka, Farhan Zaiidi, who was the GM of the Dodgers once, then he was a Giants GM, now he's back. He's the special advisor for Mark Walter. He's been very involved with Rob Polinka

and the whole front office there and the hiring. All of these things have been said in motion. Like, when you say actions of our words, all of their actions were of an ownership group that was taking over for the long-wall.

They signed guys to four-year deals. They signed this team, they put together on Luka.

“This is a team that is built to stay together, right?”

These, they don't have a lot of flexibility now after giving up the two draft picks for Walker Kessler. Quick and grinds, got a four-year deal, Sanjo Momukela Speely, got a four-year deal. - The deal.

- It's really, I'm getting good at it now. I've really worked on that one. We have to say it all the time. So I just have to get that nailed, right? Four-year deal for some role players.

And that's a lot. And the idea is, they wanted that group to grow together.

Well, if you pay $12 billion, 12 and a half billion,

I love that I just forget the half, 'cause like it's $500 million, it's a lot of money. Didn't buck sell for that once, not too long ago. - Just to be clear, they're paying the valuation of $12 million.

- The valuation. - I hate to be a stickler on this. - You're right, okay, so, 'cause if you really think about it, we can get really technical, but Mark bought 26% at a $5 billion valuation, then he bought the rest of it

at a $10 billion valuation. So he's actually done better. It's like, just think of it like a stock, okay? If you bought the stock at five and then it will go's up to 10,

“the first shares you bought really are worth a lot more now, okay?”

And that's right. - That's right.

- That's right. - Okay. - Let's put this way. It was a very good investment,

“buying and the makers for Mark Walter and his group.”

And probably, probably, I don't know, but probably terribly disappointing that he's done a sell them. - Yeah, and let's work on our wording here, 'cause I don't think we know that he had to sell them. I don't think we know yet that he wanted to sell them.

- Fair enough. - I don't think we know that he did sell them. Does that make sense? Like, I, you know, this is what it's like. It's what it's like before it seems like,

before hat and you're fine. - I would be stunned. I don't know. I would be stunned if this was ever viewed as a flip. - Stunned.

- I don't think it was ever viewed as a flip. I would say, I don't think it's incorrect to conclude that two very smart businessmen saw another businessmen who was dealing with some legal issues and took the opportunity to bounce.

But did I get it all the time? - But they did not get it as a disrespect. - This is that, they did not get it. - This was the price. - Right, right, without question.

Okay, so now, so we have a lot of questions that are unanswered and we're just not gonna know today. But I will say this, at the end of the day, these are people who are well respected within the NBA community.

This is not Tom Dundin. Tom Dundin made up being a better owner than these two. What do I know? I can't see the future, but there's a lot of owners who know these guys and like them.

And as long as they can demonstrate, they can bring the money, they would be approved. - Okay. - Well, you just made everyone a lot richer too. And he's, I grew and negotiated a lot of deals

to send a lot of money to the owners over here. - And let's also bring up one name.

“I think it's an important name to bring up.”

- Okay. Chris Paul is a very, very end of Bob Iger's. They, he just recently retired, so he's available. I know he has some production company. Designs that he's done, I think he's got the world.

This is oyster, he can do whatever he wants.

But if I'm Bob Iger, I think one of my first calls

is to Chris Paul and he's asking it how he would like to be involved, if he would like to be involved, et cetera. But I certainly think that's a name to watch. - As I go forward.

- That is one of the first names that I thought of because of the relationship that they have. And, you know, I don't know what the role would be. But I think if you ask Chris Paul,

I don't think he would lack confidence and his ability to contribute to or lead an organization in a management role. - You know, the NBA bubble was basically put together by Chris Paul and Bob Iger going on walks

and the Hollywood Hills during COVID. - Yeah. - You know, they put it together. They talked about a partnership, you know, they would put out, then they would call out him silver

while they were walking and talk about it. - It's a very fun who collective exclusive for you here, Brian. - All right, we love it.

“- Josh Kushner is married to a supermodel, close, right?”

In a couple of years ago, I think she is a bright woman who wants to have a career beyond being a model and I think she is really bright, you know, she's as a whole background in business as well. She befriended Willow Bay, who is the wife of Bob Iger.

And I think they've had a close friendship for several years and as the wives get close, sometimes the husbands become friends too.

And when Bob Iger retired from Disney the first time,

he worked at Thrive Capital. He was an advisor there, they were doing deals. And then when he retired from Disney for good, I guess the second time, he became very involved in what is the new fun Thrive Eternal,

which is this fun that's now involved in the sports franchises, which is supposed to kind of value iconic brands. That's what pitch this fun does. - This is Czech Mark, like, this is an iconic brand. - Yeah, without question.

- I thought you were like that, I thought you were like this. - Yeah, well I think, because people, you know, we this is not a political podcast, we don't do that. People hear the name Kushner, they get, you know,

their father, you know, this is just surface level here. I'm not trying to do an in-depth thing. Their father, Charles Kushner, was involved in real estate and made a lot of money. Jared Kushner has his own operations

and political standings. Josh Kushner has a separate business. I'm sure there's connections, I'm not trying to, whatever, but Thrive Kappa was his business. He's been an investor in a whole bunch of companies

where they've gone public and he's worth $5 billion.

- Yeah. - You know, so whatever that's worth to you.

or thinking about running for president as a Democrat? - Well, let's go back to FIger, okay. I got to know him, he was all of our bosses, but I got to know him because he would sit, center court or clipper games

and we just would go up and talk to him.

“He was a big fan, that's how he got to be friends”

with Chris Paul and Chris kind of saw him out as a mentor, they've developed a genuine friendship and mentorship over the years. But Bob also tried to bring the NFL to Los Angeles about a decade ago, he was involved in a project

down in Carson, it was gonna be the chargers and the raiders down there. They kind of got out maneuvered by your guy, Jerry Jones and Stan Kronke and then they built the Rams and chargers ended up building so-fi stadium,

which is this jewel of a stadium now in Los Angeles, but there was talk of Bob Eiger as an NFL commissioner. I mean, he's been talking about in many big roles over the years. - Yes, he has been looking for his sports act

for a long time and he's just found it.

That's a pretty amazing thing.

I wonder what he would say if, tell you if he was off the record, I wonder what he would say if you say, "Hey, you're gonna own Los Angeles Lake, Chris, "I don't even think he would have believed it."

- Oh, the funny thing is he's a clippers fan. He's also in this fan. He's also in this fan, let's see what he's talking about. - This reminds me of Tony Ressler, who's the owner of the NFL Fox.

I was talking to Tony and his son who was involved with the Hawks and Tony's lived in LA for decades. His son was born and raised a Laker fan, grew up on the Kobe Lakers. Of course, they were Laker fans.

“Then they bought the Hawks and then it became Hawks fans, okay?”

But actually at, 'cause everybody's saying, 'cause he does have a relationship with J.J. Reddick, because he was a clipper fan and J.J. was a clipper for all those years. - Mm-hmm.

- When I talk to Bob, here's my name drop Ramona, I know you can do it all the time. When I talk to Bob Iger, before game one of the finals, in this season in Tony Ressler. Now when he was talking about how he had been a New York

Nick season ticket holder for years and years and years on end. Even though he lived in LA, he had Nick season tickets back when he worked in New York. So he, so if you're gonna say, and he's from New York,

so if you're gonna say that he was a clipper fan, you might as well say he's a Nick's fan too. - True. - And he was very excited about the Nick's reaching the finals and, you know, in that.

- Yeah. - So whatever. He was telling me about how he had season tickets for all these years and so, and I said, you know, I said, "Bob, you see what these are going for?"

These Nick season tickets, I was like, "If I were you, I'd sell game three." He's like, "Hell, no, you don't want a bit of waiting "to go to a finals game at the guard." - More who'd collect it podcast after this?

- All right, now, with all that going on, a tweet comes out, and whatever, toast comes out. It was in the afternoon here in Scotland. I don't know what time it came out in the U.S.,

a statement from Excel basketball. Oh, now, Jeff Schwartz is one of the top three-eight. I don't want to get into all this stuff. CAA, Rich Paul, WME, whatever. He's one of the top agents in all of sports.

He represents clients across the board, football players. He's his company is worth billions of dollars 'cause it does all kinds of other deals. Excel, is his company, it makes the statement. From Jeff Schwartz, I want to tell you,

“Jeff Schwartz is almost never quoted ever, all right?”

He is a extremely powerful, extremely distinguished,

extremely respected guy who moved through his actions, not his words, and doesn't seek the spotlight is, you know, a power broker, old school style, okay? They put out a statement from him, which I can't ever remember itself

putting out a statement from Schwartz, okay? Quote, incredible. The Lakers self are 12 billion, yet teams won't spend on older vets because of current CBA rules. Thank you, Union, and Quote.

(laughs) Ramona, I was so stunned at this quote that I tried to determine whether or not it was actually from the correct account. And then I just text Jeff and said,

"Just to be clear, this is 26, deep fakes, what have you?" Did you actually say this? I know, I know it was from his company account, but I just wanted to be sure. And he said, yes, and, you know, he said,

frankly, he's been upset for a while about this. All right, I'm not gonna say any more because I'm not gonna switch off Schwartz,

but Ramona, this isn't incredible, Thunderbolt,

now Jeff Schwartz represents dozens of players, but one of the players he's represented for several years is Russell Westbrook,

“who retired officially with a heartfelt video”

that was obviously went along to a lot of planning in this video. It's him going through a house or, you know, a building or in different rooms. Was it a museum?

- It's a museum of his career. - Different rooms of his career, different phases, and then he goes into the last room and it's unfinished, you know, that represents his future. It's narrated by Michael B. Jordan.

- You have. - That's a good get. So I don't know when they're planning on announcing this, but they decided to announce it today,

the same day like her soul for 12 billion,

but just the fact that an agent would come out of this caliber and say this publicly is another indication of something else going on in the league. - So, I mean, you know what? The reason there wasn't a market for us

was not related to price. The price was the minimum and had been.

“And I don't want to like throw in kind of shade at us,”

but he's a very stubborn, headstrong guy who, you know, there's a reason why he bounced around the league at the end. He didn't want to adapt to roles or evolve in his career. And so that, I, Schwartz's tweet, if that was like a way of complaining

about the lack of market for us, like, I'm sorry, I don't buy that. - Well, this is what I'm gonna say. That, let me just, I'm not looking to get into a match in getting involved

with the union versus the agents versus the players, are guaranteed 51% of the basketball revenue. You know, for every $100 that is made in basketball, related income, the players get 51 cents. They hold some of their salaries back in escrow

to make sure that it all works out. Some years, the players get all of their money back, plus more to equal it out some years. They have to give some of their money back. The salaries are not,

definitely the way the teams are making decisions. And the way certain things are getting squeezed. The second apron is operating like a hard salary cap, which is what the, what any union doesn't want. - Right.

- But salaries, as you said, McMann, salaries on that, overall, salaries are not actually decreasing. Victor Wembanyama is taking less, Jalen Brunson is taking less there, making those decisions based on these rules

to try to help their teams. But the overall amount of money going to the players

is growing every year and because of the $77 billion

media rights deal, which Bob Eiger incidentally put a big chunk into with our company, do a Disney, will continue to grow significantly. I just want to say that so that I don't, so I present a more well-rounded thing.

- And Tim Duncan took less and turned, and Vince took less and that was a whole different CBA. It's like the numbers are bigger now, but it's nothing, things haven't changed in time. - I understand.

- It's not some, oh my gosh, a player took less to benefit his team. It's not some revolutionary concept. - Correct. I do not want to get bogged down in that though, Ramona.

I just think it was amazing that Jeff Schwartz made that comment. I want to acknowledge that Russell Westbrook

will be a first ballot hall of favor.

- Yes. - To redefine the triple double MVP, one of the greatest natural athletes I've ever seen. - One of the most entertaining players in personality is that certainly we've covered.

And I was gonna say, Russell is a first ballot hall of favor. Before he ever left Oklahoma City. If you just take the OKC portion of his careers first ballot hall thing. - Yes, that's true.

He looked, he was in an era where social media very largely defined the NBA, Russell Westbrook contributed a lot to it with his, he helped make the red carpet or whatever we call the entrance book, like, he redefined that.

He had one of the most remarkable all-time Shade moments walking the red carpet when he wore the photographer's vest. - Oh. - After when they came over for it. - I don't forget, St. Jenkins, Cupcake story, I mean.

- Yeah. - All timer. - And yes. And also was, you know, a complicated player.

“- And again, I think the complications clouded the end”

of his career. And like there's a reason and Ramona, you wrote the story. About his time in Denver, which went great for about a half season. And then his welcome got worn out real quick.

we're not gonna bring you back.

“A lot of that stuff is his refusal to evolve.”

His refusal to adapt and all that stuff.

He never looked, there are few superstars

who adapt to different roles, of course, their career, Vince Carter's one who did and played a long time because of that Russ very proudly refused to adapt. But that doesn't, and you can say, hey, good friend, for doing it his layer, you can criticize.

Well, it depends on your viewpoint. None of it diminishes what he did in Oklahoma City, where he's she goes to Alexander's probably surpassed him at this point in deliberate championship. As great as Kevin Drain is, Russ Westbroke is going

to be considered no less than the second best player of franchise. Well, he's kind of a Ying Ying, right? He's a Ying Ying, he brings balance to the force. The season that he had, where you have your triple double

in the wake of Duran's departure, was one of the most amazing tour de force seasons in modern NBA history. And totally engaged everybody won over so many fans. We've talked many times, big man, about being there,

the night and Denver, where he clenched. We were both there. Well, you were there too. 10 interactions with Westbroke in that locker room. I got to tell you, that was one of my favorite things

to just be a spectator for. Like, Russ didn't like the media, okay?

“That's not a secret, but Tim could take it.”

He could give it, Russ appreciated that. Like, he loves sparring with Tim McMan, like going back.

I've never seen any games like that.

There's many players who have been like that over the game. I'll tell you a quick story about that trip. I took that whole trip. And it was when he was on the verge of breaking the triple double record. And I took it because our former colleague, Royce Young,

had some unfortunate family circumstance, so they needed me to fill in form. And his trip started in Memphis. Okay, and Russ, off the top of my head, I want to say, he ended up with 45 points, 13 assists, and nine rebounds.

But he had one of many, many, just unbelievable, clutch closures where he scored a clutch flurry of scoring, brought him back, incredible, incredible comeback win. But he was a rebounds short of the triple double. Maybe it was in his sister or whatever it was.

And so he does his media. And I didn't know Russ real well at the time, but I went up to Matt for his scumbroke up and I said, hey, Russ, I'm going to be on the trip.

“I just want to let you know you'll be seeing the duration.”

It's trip of a flaw. And I said, he said, okay, go, I said. And John Reed, who is staying right next to me, is one of the Thunder P.R. guys I said. John Reed said that we could sit down for an hour in Phoenix.

What do you want to do? What do you want to do? I said, I'm just messing with you man. And so that's, you know, for at least temporarily, Russ liked you because of that moment.

Now, we are during the year in Houston, we had some ups and downs. I tried though in Denver, he came up to me. Actually, where in Minnesota was early in his year in Denver, I was at a shoot around in Minnesota.

And I'm sitting there and Russ very loudly across the gyms, and he says, hey, Tim, so close. I heard you've been talking to him anyway. So we had a long conversation about some of our podcasts, and things that we said.

And you know, he felt like we were attacking his character. And my thing was, hey, I was saying that you refused to adapt and evolve as an attack to your character. And we had like a 15 minute discussion about like why he felt the way he did about,

he shouldn't have to adapt. He shouldn't have to change his game. You know, they're not asking, you know, another Hall of Fame point guard who is in the league at the time, who may or may not have been insuring the podcast.

To change his game, why did Russ have to change? Why did he have to go to stand in the corner, all those? You know, we had a 15 minute conversation. It was really interesting.

And at the end, I said, Russ, would you ever be willing to talk about that on the record one to a story? (laughs) He's when I decided to time, right?

So the rest of season, at the time, I saw him.

I tried to convince him the time was right, I never did.

(laughs) - Okay, so that season with the thunder is iconic. Yang and Yang. - Yeah. - He gets traded with the lakers,

and that season with the lakers was not. - Season that happened, and the second one. - Well, there was a washing and wizards, you know, and so I went between that. - Yeah.

- Rockets and wizards. - Rockets, yeah. - Yeah. - I mean, he was hearing it all that.

- He was good for the wizards.

“- By the way, he was good to go into the playoffs, right?”

Like, he put up some incredible numbers for the Rockets.

It was just weird, like, he went there because hardened wanted in there. He wanted a team with hard, and then Kim's true is weird. That's you're also the dantoni in large part to benefit Russ and screw it.

We're not gonna play a center period. They traded Capella. They cut this young big name, Isaiah Hardenstein, by the way, at the time. PJ Tucker's six foot five played center form,

and they won a lot of games and Russ put up some incredible numbers, and then asked for a trade

after the season, and they shipped them to Washington

where he put up great numbers for the wizards. - But then he wanted a championship,

“and the whole lakers thing did not result in a championship.”

- It was complicated, and obviously did not work. So, and you know, whatever, I don't wanna go into it. He had a great career, and he goes into retirement with a lot of people's respect and millions of fans. - And that number zero will be up in the Raptor,

as soon as at some point this season in Oklahoma City. - Yeah, they put out a very, a very, hard felt statement from Sam Presti and the thumb right after now. Ramona, thank you so much for your time, and your insight and your reporting.

This is a big news break. I don't know where this one ranks in your career, but this one-- - That's not fair. - That's what I'm saying. - That was the Sterling ones, like that, you know.

- Yeah, I don't know where this comes from. - This means a hand shaking before you, before you sent push send. - Yeah, let me take a look at this exact moment where this tweet is at,

because this one though, this will be a big one.

Let's see, oh, where it's 15 million views right now.

- And less than 10 hours, so that's a lot. - Thank you for taking time. I know it's been a tiring day. - Yeah, it's okay. We're just getting started, right Brian?

It seems like there's a lot more for us to report on. - I agree, I agree, it's actually, in all honesty, like, obviously, it's a little bit fraught, and there's some way of possible controversy

“we don't know for sure, but I think the lakers”

are gonna end up being just fine with this. Like, there's gonna be some transition and stuff, but I don't think this is a bad day for the lakers. That doesn't mean that this is not moving out and owner was negative, like he was sort of

and we didn't have a rating, he's, you know. But we'll see, I'll put it this way. If all of the things that Mark Walter owned, that he is gonna sell for three days and three days, even the Dodgers, even his F-1 team,

even his insurance companies or whatever, I've been only one of them could go up 20% in value and be sold in three days. And, 'cause they got along and took the sell, the Dodgers the last time, my God.

But it's actually an indication of how strong the lakers and their brand are that this could happen this way. I mean, I feel like that, this moment, but that's true. All right, thank you to our producers,

especially to Jackson, who has been producing this from O'Hare Airport as we deal with this Jackson, we're enrolled, thank you to Miles, thank you to Mark, thank you to all of our producers, thank you to Nick Mann, thank you for listening

and watching the hoop collective, we'll talk to you soon. See you soon, amigos. (upbeat music)