The sports world got sticker shock Wednesday when ESPN reported that the Buss family sold its majority stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a valuation of $10 billion. The Athletic later reported that the valuation could reach $12 billion.

Several factors contributed to the astronomical figure, as the Celtics just recently sold for $6.1 billion, and Walter and his partners had purchased 27% of the Lakers from AEG in a deal that valued the team at $5 billion in 2021.

How did the value of the Lakers double in just under four years? There’s a pie chart of reasons, led by the NBA’s lavish new TV deal.

$77 Billion Windfall

The NBA is starting an 11-year, $77 billion TV deal later in 2025. In a game of musical chairs where there were more bidders than spots, longtime partner TNT is out, and Amazon and NBC are in. Disney’s ESPN/ABC remains a partner, as the league is poised to triple its annual national TV revenue. 

“The new media deal super-charged the new $$,” Ringer founder Bill Simmons tweeted in the immediate aftermath of the Lakers deal.

Prime Luka

The Lakers are in the advantageous position of having a superstar in his prime. Luka Dončić, acquired from the Mavericks in a stunning trade this season, is just 26 years old. Photos of him appearing to have gotten in substantially better shape have already started to circulate on social media this season. Dončić is eligible for a four-year, $229 million extension later this offseason, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. 

Magic Number

According to the Los Angeles Times, each of Dr. Jerry Buss’s six sons and daughters owned an 11% stake in the Lakers. The significance of the $10 billion sale price is that each of their stakes is worth more than $1 billion.

Business Synergies

There are strategic benefits to owning multiple sports franchises in the same region. With Walter and his partners owning the Lakers and the Dodgers, they can find efficiencies in departments like sales and marketing. For example, they can carve out bundles for sponsorships that reach both teams and are relevant for a vast majority of the calendar year. Local TV rights can also be bundled down the road. 

Inflation

As the federal government printed trillions of dollars in an attempt to stave off the economic effects of COVID-19, $1 in 2025 is not quite worth the same as it was in 2021. The U.S. government’s CPI calculator claims that $5 billion in 2021 would be $5.92 billion today. That would be an 18% increase, but many Americans look at their expenses and think that number is low.

When the NBA showed player introductions at the NBA Finals for the first time in over a decade earlier this week, prolific social media personality “World Wide Wob” quipped that “NBA Twitter” might as well have a Board of Governors vote.

Showing the introductions was just the latest adjustment the NBA and ESPN/ABC made on the fly, after digitally superimposing long-lost “Finals” logos on the court beginning in Game 2 after a bevy of fans and media—including Front Office Sports—lamented the lack of pageantry on display in the sport’s biggest games. The logos had also been missing from the court for over a decade, and there has been a general celebration among the faces of “NBA Twitter/X” that, at least in this case, bullying worked.

“It does not take a genius to realize the most controversial trending Twitter topics about players were discussed on the broadcast, and the most viral complaints regarding the game presentation’s lack of pageantry were remedied the very next game,” World Wide Wob, a host for SiriusXM’s NBA channel and Bleacher Report whose real name is Rob Perez, told FOS. “I certainly commend the NBA for keeping the feedback line open and acting on what their fans desire, but also worry that they can be so easily influenced by a small, loud faction. The Board of Governors vote was obviously an exaggeration, but maybe an ambassador to Secaucus is not out of the question to streamline communication between the viewers and the business.”

Prior to Game 3, NBA commissioner Adam Silver appeared on ESPN and acknowledged he’d seen the chatter about the missing Finals logos on the court, saying that the decals were slippery for players but recognizing in old replays that they provided an extra aura. 

Frank Isola, a longtime reporter around the league who is also a SiriusXM NBA host, felt that the return of player introductions was a triumph of social media. 

“It’s kind of odd that they waited until Game 5 to do it, right?” Isola told FOS. “People like the player introductions. It gives the games a big feel. ”

Isola has been on-site for a lot of the Finals games in recent years, and hadn’t noticed the intros had been missing for more than 10 years. He compared the ritual to the Final Four, when announcing the players one by one makes the event feel special. 

“This was the one time where the pressure from social media has been good,” Isola mused. “Because it certainly influences how these teams and the league are covered. Everyone reacts to social media—I think the Knicks reacted to social media when they fired [Tom] Thibodeau.”

Isola referenced a viral video of former NBC analyst and N.Y. Post columnist Peter Vecsey grilling Karl Malone after several poor performances during the 1997 Finals. “Karl, you said after the first two losses that that was the low point of your professional career. Has this taken it down another rung?” Vecsey asked the then-Jazz great. In a follow-up question, Vecsey asserted that Malone didn’t play up to his MVP standards and asked him if he felt he let his team or the city down. 

“Reporters have backed off a little bit. They certainly don’t go all in like they used to,” Isola said. That [Vecsey video] was before social media. If that would’ve happened today, you would’ve had players, probably led by LeBron, condemning the reporter for asking really tough questions like that. And then all the ex-athletes in the media would be offended by the questions.” 

Isola brought the observation back around to the idea of the NBA adapting on the fly to social media pressure, saying, “Social media has too much of an impact—but in this case it was good.”

Laura Okmin, the third-longest-tenured sideline reporter in NFL history, is leaving Fox Sports.

During an exclusive interview with Front Office Sports, Okmin said it was her choice to leave her TV job so she could focus on her company, GALvanize, which trains and mentors young women entering the sports world, as well as projects inside and outside the football world. She says she’ll continue covering the NFL postseason and Super Bowl for the Westwood One radio network.

Fox offered her a new contract, according to Okmin. But she decided it was the right time to walk away—surprising her boss.

“They sent me the contract. I printed it out. I sat there. It was just my voice saying, ‘It’s time, this is it.’ I called my boss and my friend Jacob Ullman, who I’ve known as long as I’ve been at Fox Sports. I’m happy to say he was very surprised. I would have been very disappointed if there was any other reaction. It was a really nice call, because I got to have it with my boss and my friend.”

During the 2024 NFL season, the 30-year sports media veteran worked with play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and game analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston. 

Okmin joined Fox in 2002 as a host, anchor, and reporter. Over 23 years at Fox, she hosted the company’s digital coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and 2014 Sochi Olympics. She also founded LO Productions, where she developed the TV show, PROfiles, introducing viewers to personalities off the field. She served both as host and executive producer of the series. 

Prior to Fox, the Kansas graduate worked at TNT Sports and CNN. She also worked for SportsChannel in Chicago during the dynastic Bulls run in the 1990s. Over her career, she’s covered more than 20 Super Bowls, including the last five for Westwood One. The only sideline reporters believed to have worked more NFL games are Fox’s own Pam Oliver and the retired Michele Tafoya.

There are some things about her job she won’t miss, said Okmin, including the criticism of female sports journalists and sideline reporters and the cutthroat nature of sports media. “Honestly, it’s a tough job having to justify your job for 20 years. Having to fight for your job and having to justify it. It feels like there’s a bit of dog years with that job. There’s a wonderfulness that comes with it. But also a lot of other shit.”

One question now is who will succeed Okmin on the Fox sidelines. The network’s sideline reporters this past season included Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi, Pam Oliver, Megan Olivi, Kristina Pink, and Jen Hale. Fox could dip into its current bench of sideline reporters—or bring in new talent. After a challenging first season in Fox’s top NFL broadcast booth, Tom Brady says he will return as the network’s No. 1 game analyst alongside play-by-play partner Kevin Burkhardt, with Andrews and Rinaldi on the sidelines.

As the lead network on the NFL’s NFC game package, Fox boasts a loaded game schedule this season, including an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch in Week 2, Eagles-Cowboys in Week 12, and Lions-Packers on Thanksgiving Day. The network’s telecast of the 40–22 Eagles win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX averaged a record 127.7 million viewers, up 3% from the year before.