Lance Legends

30+ years of sports handicapping/ D-1/ Professional Athlete/ Entrepreneur

[George Jarjour @GeorgeOnTap]

The Los Angeles Lakers just sold for $12.5 billion, the most expensive sale in American sports history. And there’s some for a lack of better words, interesting connections. The seller is Mark Walter, who is under active federal investigation.

The buyer is Josh Kushner who’s brother is Donald Trump’s son in law and the man whose firm tried to buy the FIFA World Cup. The most famous franchise in sports just passed straight from a man being probed by the feds to a man who tried to privatize the world's biggest tournament. Let’s take a look at the full picture, because the full picture is ugly.

Let’s start off with some of the facts because this story is LOADED.

Mark Walter bought the Lakers 14 months ago at a $10 billion valuation. He didn't buy them to just flip them. He tore up the front office, rebuilt the scouting department, overhauled the business side, all the moves of a man planning to own this team for a decade. Then, 14 months in, he sold the Lakers?! Nobody does that. You don't buy your dream asset and unload it before you've finished redecorating, unless something changed and changed drastically.

Here's what happened. Walter is under federal investigation, a probe into the insurance companies he controls, the same case where the FBI reportedly seized his phone and laptop off a private jet at a Chicago airport. Separate investigations by U.S. prosecutors and the SEC are underway.

Now there is no proof of guilt yet. No one has pointed out for sure that the investigation forced this sale. Walter hasn't been charged with anything. The teams themselves are not named in the probe. Every serious outlet says the connection is unproven, and it is.

But you're allowed to look at the picture, and the picture is ugly. A man under federal investigation does not sell his trophy asset 14 months after buying it, at $2.5 billion above what he paid, in a matter of days, for no reason. That's not a normal exit. That's a fast, wildly profitable, remarkably clean getaway from the spotlight, executed at the precise moment the spotlight turned into a liability. You don't liquidate the Los Angeles Lakers this quickly unless you have a reason to want out. What that reason is, only the investigation knows. But the timing is not small.

But then who is buying it is a whole new story.

The buyer is Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital. Weeks ago, that same firm was the lead investor in Gianni Infantino's $20 billion plan to sell off the commercial rights to the FIFA World Cup, the scheme that collapsed under a global revolt and nearly cost the FIFA president his job. Same man. Same firm. Different sport, different continent, weeks apart.

And there's a layer under the Kushner name that makes this bigger than sports. Josh Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump. Which means the most famous franchise in American sports is now owned, in part, by the sitting President's son-in-law's brother. Not the President himself, to be clear. He has no stake in this and no role in it. But the Lakers just became connected by marriage to the First Family, at the same time the seller is under a federal investigation run by that same administration's Justice Department. You don't have to allege anything to notice that's a crazy plot twist.

Two of the biggest money scandals in sports right now, a federally investigated owner on one side and the private equity operator who tried to buy the World Cup on the other, just resolved into a single transaction. The investigated man sold America's most famous team to the FIFA guy, in days, at a record price, and most people are reading it as a fun headline about the Lakers getting a new owner.

Here's the thing about the money at the very top of sports. Fans watch 30 teams, 30 owners, 30 separate franchises with their own colors and cities and rivalries. But the capital behind all of it is a small room. It's the same few dozen people, and they keep turning up in each other's deals. The Lakers, the Dodgers, the Giants, the Heat, Liverpool, the World Cup itself, pull the thread on almost any of them right now and you find the same handful of names, buying from and selling to one another.

That's the lesson that runs underneath all of this. At the level fans watch, sports is a game. At the level that actually owns it, sports is an asset class, and it is a far smaller and more connected world than anyone lets on. The Lakers didn't just get a new owner. They moved one square on a board most people don't know they're looking at, from a man under federal investigation to a man connected by marriage to the President.

The Buss family owned the Lakers for 46 years. Mark Walter owned them for 14 months. The next chapter belongs to the man whose firm tried to privatize the World Cup, and whose brother is married into the White House. That tells you everything about how fast the money moves at the top now, and how very few hands it moves between.

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@PavlovicNBCS Go Dodgers!!!!

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@sportslarryk He gone

[Jerry Weinstein @JWonCATCHING]

First move steal by Nat’s Curtis Mead verses a LHP. Picked at 1B & takes an extreme inside route to screen the SS & gets hit in the back by the 1B’s throw. Totally legal route. You set your own base line & are only out of the line when you go out of your base line to avoid a tag.

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@MLB It’s all fun and games Until someone hits a rocket 🚀 off the back of his head.

[West Coast Preps Sacramento @WCPSacramento]

Every time Bryce Kurihara comes to the plate, he's introduced as "Bryce Ichiro Kurihara."

The nickname tells only part of the story.

The sophomore helped lead Rio Americano to its first section title in 30 years, and he's just getting started.

Story: https://t.co/K4gU5m0ZgD

[Dan Coccimiglio @NorCalSportsNW]

The real strength of the Bay Area should be diversity of thought, not demanding everyone think alike. If players are free to support Pride Night, they should also be free to follow their own religious convictions without being attacked. That’s what tolerance looks like. Let players wear the Giants cap and play baseball. If players of faith see how these Giants are being treated, don’t be surprised if some future free agents think twice about coming to San Francisco.

[Kirsten Moran-Kellar @kirstenlizmoran]

A title 30 years in the making. 🏆⚾️

Rio Americano (@rahsbsbl) shuts out El Capitan 3-0 to win the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Division III championship… the Raiders’ first section crown since 1996. (@FOX40)

[Evan Abrams @EvanHAbrams]

How rare was Knicks (-6.5) cover?

Favs of 6+ pts who…
+ trailed by more than 20 at any pt
+ trailed by more than 10 enter 4Q

…were 3-379 ATS last 20 yrs. 4th cover now.

[Trey Howell-Chase @TreyHowellChase]

Thank you for the nice write up @SacBee_JoeD @sacbee_news @rahsbsbl @JoeyDormann2027 @jacksonh_2027 @bryce__kurihara @tullyP811 @ConorFlynn56155

[Joe Davidson @SacBee_JoeD]

The Rio Americano Raiders have two aces and a fierce catcher. They combined for back-to-back perfect games in the @cifsjs D3 playoffs, impressing a man who once tossed a big-league perfecto in @DALLASBRADEN209
https://t.co/0g5FuXqvbo

@rahsbsbl

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

The 10 Truths Parents Rarely See

1. Coaches lose sleep.
2. Decisions aren’t personal.
3. Playing time is complex.
4. Culture matters more than stats.
5. Accountability is care.
6. Coaches invest emotionally.
7. Development isn’t instant.
8. Hard feedback is intentional.
9. Wins don’t tell the whole story.
10. Coaches remember kids forever.

Perspective matters.

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@GiantsTheory 🤡

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@egbaseballdad He’s a dude

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@MarcoFoster_ You lost me at “telling you to vaccinate your kids”

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@Chase_Senior Another reminder they should have never left San Francisco. You can thank @CAgovernor Newsom

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@endtl_ @Chase_Senior Hater

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@LyleLongGTR @RossTuckerNFL Relax with the lack of respect bullshit

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@samriegel Take the mask off

[Lance Legends @LanceLegends777]

@GuntherEagleman Gtfo of the country 🇺🇸