Sold! The Lakers Remain Hollywood’s Team as Sale Sheds a Tie to a Storied Past

The HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” took a few liberties with the facts that irked some of those featured, but the show got one thing very right: playboy owner Jerry Buss turned the NBA franchise into Hollywood’s team, including the stars populating the court-side seats around the anchoring presence of Jack Nicholson, the embodiment of Hollywood cool.

Buss’ children — there are seven of them in all, led by Laker president Jeanie — haven’t exhibited his flair for marketing, showmanship or, for that matter, decadence. But there’s nevertheless a tinge of nostalgia in seeing the enterprise leave the family via a deal with billionaire Mark Walter, 46 years after the elder Buss planted his flag in L.A. — making what was then known as “the Fabulous Forum” more than just hyperbole — and a dozen years after his death.

Buss turned the Lakers into the hottest ticket in town, and positioned the team — around the magnetic figure of point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson — as celebrities among celebrities. At the time, he paid $67.5 million for the Lakers, which included the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum.

While it represented a major gamble for Buss, that figure seems almost quaint set against the staggering reported $10 billion price tag of the new deal, which is indicative of just how hugely valuable major sports franchises have become. Indeed, the Lakers can take considerable satisfaction in knowing the sale eclipses the previous record of $6 billion paid earlier this year for their rival, the Boston Celtics, fueled by the $76 billion the league’s TV partners committed to televise games over the next 11 years.

Buss probably couldn’t have envisioned those numbers, but he saw NBA’s growth potential, as well as the value of merging entertainment with sports. He not only wooed actors to attend (the cameras always dutifully found them) but turned the Forum Club into one of L.A.’s most exclusive night spots, while adding music and the Laker Girls to create a carnival-like atmosphere surrounded the games.

The Lakers’ flashy fast-break style of basketball not only dovetailed with that image but inspired a nickname, “Showtime,” which defined the qualities that Buss cultivated. (HBO opted not to use that name when producing “Winning Time,” even though it was the title of the book on which it was based.)

“Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today,” then-commissioner David Stern said when Buss died in 2013. “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.”

Buss’ legacy even included a “Succession”-like element of backstage drama, as his grown children engaged in a legal battle over control of the franchise, with daughter Jeanie eventually emerging as the victor and controlling owner after a dispute with brothers Jim and Johnny in 2017.

Johnson, for one, exulted over the latest deal, noting that Walter — one of the owners (along with Johnson) of the L.A. Dodgers — will “put in the resources needed to win,” which has certainly been true in terms of their stewardship of the defending World Series champions.

Walter will take over with a decided gift from Jeanie (who will maintain a role with the franchise) and the previous management thanks to this year’s midseason trade for Slovenian star Luka Dončić, the sort of charismatic player that not only puts people in seats but has helped fuel the NBA’s transformation into an international attraction.

Lon Rosen, who worked for the Lakers before becoming Johnson’s agent and subsequently joining the Dodgers, once described the Forum during the team’s championship-winning heyday as “the epicenter of where coolness was in the ‘80s.”

Through ups and downs on the court, the Lakers have never really lost that luster since Buss built it. But if Walter and company want to make good on their record-setting investment, they’re likely going to need the stars, and more, to continue to line up in their favor.

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