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

(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone. Let me talk about the NBA, what you 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. I know you've been having this fabulous European vacation. - BST, British summer time. Joining us from Dallas, Texas is Ben McAughey. - Howdy, partners, I'd say you're 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 it while I was on about the 11th hole today. I was quite surprised. The Lakers being resold after a little more than a year to a group. I assume it will be a group because they'll continue to be selling pieces of this as my guest, but to a group with our old boss, Bob Eiger, and just a stunning turn of events for Ramona. How did the story come together and what's your viewpoint of it? - I had to take a minute too, 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. Is this right? But you gotta 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 then 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 owned the team for less than a year. Like it was 10 months. Like it's just, I understand the business aspect. I mean, let's go back to when Mark Walter first became a public figure to us when he bought the Dodgers, and that purchase for, was for $2.15 billion, 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 Eiker were one of the big 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, or at least where they were in that moment, was around 10. And that's the same price, you know, valuation Mark paid, Jeannie 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 $2 or $3 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, he says, denies blanket denial that this has anything to do with it. But you and I are smart and Tim, you're also here. I mean, I can't resist. Yes. Yes, Ramona. That made my summer. I know, I know, I know, I couldn't. You left one on a tee and I didn't swing, so I had to do this one. But-- Hall of Fame, who collective 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. 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 timetable that Mark had to think about this. I want to say a day or two that he had even think about whether he'd 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 going to get a yes or a no from Mark and then get back into the expansion bid, right? They had to have an answer to, hey, before we go on Vegas, let's make sure that we can't buy the Lakers instead. They're both from LA. Josh Kushner, you should all go and do a bunch of research on him. 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 Esquire article where you can read that. He's sort of on the record saying I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. And they're not politically affiliated. All of this is going to 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. There'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 Lakers from GE bust, the intention was to own them for a very long time. Of course, by the Lakers to flipple me, it's not like a house you buy into a quick remodel flip. This is the freaking Los Angeles Lakers. And it's just crazy. You see the top two purchase prices of professional sports franchises. This broke the record that Mark Walter set 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 Fertida paid for the rock. It's not that long ago. Yeah. Well, I get that. Hold on. Hold on. Let's just, let's, 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, OK? We know that Mark Walter is under investigation by the SEC. We are not insurance law specialists. We are not assistant US 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 are 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 so we're not going to go into that. We know that Mark Walter didn't want to buy the lakers for one year. 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, OK? So we know that that's a factor, OK? I also want to say 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. He bought his family owns 17 or 18. And Patrick Schoen-Schung owns about 7%. We don't know unless you do. And the little two, yeah. We don't know unless you do how much a percentage they're selling. I believe they're buying all of Mark's shares. OK, it's not-- he didn't actually make $2 billion because he didn't pay $10 billion for the team. But I'm not going to get into all that. It has to do with valuations. There's potentially reasons why he would want to get liquidity for his businesses. Again, this is not a financial forecast. 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 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 Eiger has 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 of the negotiations that have renewed multiple times to be the rights, this is our company at ESPN. We carry the NBA, Bob Iger has sat at negotiating tables that I'm 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. 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 resell the Lakers, it's not a bad time to sell a high asset when you've got all these ownership potential ownership groups who have been working for a long time to put money together. It's part of the reason why it happens so fast. Now Ramona, I want to refer to a quote that Bob Iger told the California Post, sorry, it's a new publication. You can give 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. 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 stake in the Lakers. A lot is in that sentence, I don't want to assume that that is like the iron clad 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. So I don't want to say that that's inaccurate or anything. And so I don't want you to either. Right. This is why we as reporters, you know, 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 R into the business, what Bloomberg reported was in the last couple of weeks, census 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 it was $12 billion or Mona 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 Busce 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 refusal, right, but it was the only deal. Yeah, but it was the only deal that she could like he, that 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 15, Mark could have then had the right to say, well, I'll bid 50. I agree. But I agree, but they were incentivized to work together because Walter's group was incentivized to work with Jeannie. Right. More who've collected podcast after this. I think you have also reported that Jeannie will remain as the governor. So I have not reported that. That was something that Eiger said to Kobe, and I have not confirmed that Eiger'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 going to do everything we can to honor the agreement that Mark had with her. But things could change. You know, there was a 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've hired all these new people, they just, you know, completely redid the team. Luca Donchez is looking up going, wow, I thought it was strange and Dallas. Yeah. Well, McMahon. So Luca gives this quote, which his savvy, he's very smart to come out with the quote. By the way, Lucas, Lucas, ultimately all that matters is what he does on the court. But Lucas management of his public profile, since he's become a Laker has been excellent largely. Well, Lucas priority or prioritizing of that has changed because he got 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 and front office and so on and so forth and his business manager, I'm Ramona knows you're well, Largest Saider, same business manager, I think Luca is allowing her to be more proactive and more aggressive. Well, whatever is happening with Luca, 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 moves he's made investing in the community in Los Angeles, I just think Lucas, everything, team Luca is operating well. Ultimately, player Luca has to win. But one of the things he says 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 LA, 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 Luca think about all this thing? I want to play basketball, I'm so excited because he was injured and everything, great, great championship, you know, the thing that fans want to hear, whether they're in Washington or LA or Siberia, 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 insane, okay, how many times we're going to sell is Lebron going to be on the team? No, okay, fine. You know, but this is him acknowledging forget that dude, big changes, Cuban sold new ownership. He got backstab traded in the middle of the night, Genie bus sold or the bus family sold now Mark Walter. I mean, it's just like this is his fifth ownership group. Okay, Brian, you like to do what we know versus what we think, okay. So what we let's just do the timeline, all right. We're going to worry 2025, Luke, I get blindsided in the middle of the night trade, okay, May, when he's just getting to know Laker fans and Laker ownership, Genie bus sells the controlling interest to Mark Walter, he goes to like the Backstreet Boys concert with Mark Walter and the team. Remember that? Like, okay, everything's cool. 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 through in October, but 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 I think it was either 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 the 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. Like he just had it and he wired it. As one, right. And he already, again, he'd already been a, as a 27% owner, him and his group had already been approved. Obviously, they had to show that they had the money. Yeah. They had to have a signed sales agreement. So, you know, like, look, I will something, 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 past, frankly, McMahon, you say he's had five owners in less than three years. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. But let me finish four. I use to the Cuban. No, Cuban, Dumont, the bus, Walter, Kushner Eiger. This is this would be his fifth ownership group in a pretty quick span. 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 going to finish 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 together. I don't even know these guys. I haven't met these guys, but it's an iconic franchise. Bob Eiger said to the California Post that this came together in three days and I believe them 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 going to 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 NBA like you can in baseball. But there was this excitement that the Lakers were sort of a mama pop operation and Rob Polinkas talked about this that they were going to, it is money was going to be injected into the Laker franchise. They were going to modernize and that this was going to potentially hopefully go down the Dodgers path. Now I have no idea what 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 going to be a little unsettling. I mean, I'm sure I mean Bob Eiger knows the NBA as well as anybody. Josh Kushner is 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 Zahiti, who is 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. When you say actions over words, all of their actions were of an ownership group that was taking over for the long haul. They signed guys to four year deals. They signed this team. They put together on Luca. This is a team that is built to stay together. They don't have a lot of flexibility now, after giving up the two draft picks for Walker Kessler. Quentin Grimes got a four year deal. Sandra Mamoukelish. Philly got a four year deal 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 got it. 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, $12.5 billion, I love that I just forget the half because it's $500 million. It's a lot of money. Didn't the book sell for that once? Not too long ago. Just to be clear, they're paying the valuation of $12 million. I hate to be a stickler on this. You're right. Okay. So 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 5 and then it will go up to 10. The first shares you bought really are worth a lot more now. Okay. And then that's right. The ones at 10 are worth a lot. Okay. So that's right. Yeah. Okay. Let's put it this way. It was a very good investment buying in the Lakers for Mark Walter and his group. And probably probably I don't know, but probably terribly disappointing that he's done to sell them. Yeah. And let's let's let's work on our our wording here because 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 just think we know that he did sell them. Does that make sense? Like I, you know, this is what this seems like before had 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 to conclude that to very smart businessmen saw another businessman who's dealing with some legal issues and took the opportunity to pounce. But they did not get it at all the time. But they did not get it at a as a disgrace that they did not get it at price. Right. Right. Without question. Okay. So now so we have a lot of questions that are unanswered. Yep. And we're just not going to 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 will be approved. Okay. Well, he just made everyone a lot richer too. And he's the eager and negotiated a lot of deals to send a lot of money to the owners over there. And let's also bring up one name. I think it's an important name to bring up. Okay. Chris Paul is a very good friend of Bob Igers. 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 asking how he would like to be involved. If you would like to be involved, et cetera. But I I certainly think that's a name to watch as we 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 on walks in the Hollywood Hills during COVID. Yeah. You know, they put it together. They talk about a partnership. You know, they would put at them. Then they would call at them 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 Will Obey, 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 fund that's now involved in the sports franchises, which is supposed to kind of value iconic brands. That's what they pitched this fund as. This is checkmark. Like this is an iconic brand. Yeah. Without question. I thought you would like that. I thought you would like this. Yeah. Well, I think because people, you know, this is not a political podcast. We don't do that. Yeah. 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. Made a lot of money. Jared Kushner has his own operations and political standings. Josh Kushner has a separate business. And I'm sure there's connections. I'm not trying to, whatever, but Thrive Capital is his business. He has been an investor in a whole bunch of companies. were that have gone public and he's worth $5 billion. Yeah. You know, so whatever that's worth to you, Bob Iger, was it one time planning or thinking about running for president as a Democrat? Well, and let's go back with Bob Iger. Okay. I got to know him. A, he was all of our bosses, but I got to know him because he would sit center court at 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 sought him out as a mentor. He 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 done in Carson. It was going to be the Chargers and the Raiders down there. They kind of got outmaneuvered by your guy, Jerry Jones and Stan Kronke and then they built the, the Rams and Chargers ended up building Sofie Stadium, which is this jewel of a stadium now in Los Angeles, but there was talk of Bob Iger as an NFL commissioner. I mean, he's, he's been talked about in many ways. He's been looking for his, his sports act for a long time. And he's just found it. That's a pretty amazing thing. I, you know, I wonder what he would say if, just if he was off the record, I wonder what he would say if you say, Hey, you're going to own the Los Angeles Lakers. I don't even know. I don't even think he would have believed it. Well, the funny thing is he's a Clippers fan, you know. He's also a mix fan, he's also let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's remind me of like Tony wrestler, who's the owner of the, I was talking to Tony and his son who's 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 they became Hawks fans, okay? But actually at, you know, because everybody's saying, you know, because he does have a relationship with J.J. Reddick because he was a Clipper fan, J.J. was a Clipper for all those years. When I talk to Bob, here's my name drop Ramona, I know you do it all the time. When I talk to Bob Iger before game one of the finals in San Antonio, he was talking about how he had been a New York Knicks season ticket holder for like years and years and years on end, even though he lived in LA, he had Knicks season tickets back when he worked in New York. So if you're going to say, and he's from New York, so if you're going to say that he was a Clipper fan, you might as well say he's a Knicks fan too. And he was very excited about the Knicks reaching the finals and, you know, in that, 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, you, I said, Bob, do you see what these, what these are going for, these these Knicks season tickets? I was like, if I were you, I'd sell game three, he's like, hell, no, you don't want to wait and to go to a finals game at the guard. More hoop collective podcast after this. All right. Now with all that going on, a tweet comes out and whatever post comes out. It was in the afternoon here in Scotland. I don't know what time it came out in the US. 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 had he represents clients across the board, football players. He's his company is worth billions of dollars because it does all kinds of other deals. Excel is his company. It makes a statement from Jeff Schwartz. I want to tell you Jeff's Jeff Schwartz is almost never quoted ever. All right. He is a extremely powerful, extremely distinguished, extremely respected guy who moves through his actions, not his words and doesn't seek to spotlight is, you know, a power broker, old school style. Okay. They put out a statement from him, which I can't ever remember Excel putting out a statement from Jeff Schwartz. Okay. Incredible. The Lakers sell for 12 billion, yet teams won't spend on older vets because of current CBA rules. Thank you, Union. And quote, Ramona, I was so stunned at this quote that I tried to determine whether or not it was actually from the correct account. Yeah. And then I just text Jeff and said, just to be clear, this is 2026 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 going to say anymore because I'm not necessarily Jeff Schwartz. But Ramona, this is incredible. Thunderbolt from Jeff Schwartz, basically saying 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 different rooms was a museum. Okay. 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. Yeah. That's, 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 Bay, Lake or 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 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 it had been. And I don't want to like throw any 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, I, Schwartz's tweet, if, 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 going to say that let me just, I'm not looking to get into a, a match and get involved with the Union versus the agents versus the, 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 are, as you said, McMahon, salaries don't have overall salaries are not actually decreasing. Dr. Wemba Nyama is taking less, Jalen Brunson is taking less, they're 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 Iger incidentally put a big chunk into with our company, do it 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 last in Dartmouth, he took last and that was a whole different CBA. It's like, the numbers are bigger now, but it's nothing, things haven't changed in terms of like, it's not some, oh my gosh, a player took last to benefit his teams. 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 Famer, redefined the triple double MVP, one of the greatest natural athletes I've ever seen. One of the most entertaining players in personalities, though certainly we've covered. And I was going to say, Russell is a first ballot Hall of Famer before he ever left Oklahoma City. If you just take the O.K.C. portion of his career's first ballot Hall of Famer. Yes, that's true. Look, 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 you call the entrance walk. He redefined that he had one of the most remarkable all-time-shade moments walk in the red carpet when he wore the photographer's vest. Oh, definitely. When they put him over the door. Also, it 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 Ramani you wrote the story. worry about his time in Denver, which went great for about a half a season, and then his welcome got worn out real quick. And the base, he said, Russ, if you pick up your player option, we're not going to bring you back. A lot of that stuff is his refusal to evolve, his refusal to adapt and all that stuff. He never, there are a few superstars who adapt to different roles throughout the course of their career. Vince Carter is one who did and played a long time because of it. Russ, very proudly refused to adapt, but that doesn't, and you can say, hey, good for him, but for doing it his way or you can criticize, it depends on your viewpoint. None of it diminishes what he did in Oklahoma City where he's, he's Shigilis Alexander's probably surpassing this point and delivered a championship. As great as Kevin Draen is, Russell Westbrook is going to be considered no less than the second best player in franchise history. Well, he's kind of a yin yang, right? He's a yin yang. He brings balance to the force. The season that he had where he averaged a triple double in the wake of Durant's departure was one of the most amazing tour to four seasons in modern NBA history and totally engaged everybody one over so many fans. You've talked many times big man about being there the night in Denver where he clinched. We were both there. You were there. Tams interactions with Westbrook 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 McMahon, like going back. I've never seen many games like that. There's many players who have been like that over the day. 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. I took it because our former colleague Roy Shiong had some unfortunate family circumstance. So they needed me to fill in for him. 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, many just unbelievable clutch closures where he scored, he had a clutch flurry of scoring, brought him back, incredible, incredible comeback win. But he was a rebound short of the triple double. Maybe it was an assist 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 him after his scum broke up and I said, "Hey Russ, I'm going to be on the cheapest one. I'll let you know you'll be seeing on the gracious trip of a flaw." And I said, "Okay, cool." I said, "And John Reed, who's staying right next to me, is one of the Thunder PR guys." I said, "John Reed said that we could sit down for an hour in Phoenix." I said, "I'm just mess with him, man." And so for at least temporarily Russ liked because of that moment. Now during the year in Houston, we had some ups and downs. I tried though in Denver, he came up to me. I should wear it in Minnesota. It was early in his year in Denver. I was at a shoot around in Minnesota. And I'm just sitting there and Russ very loudly across the gym says, "Hey Tim, so fast. I heard you've been talking." Anyway, so we had a long conversation about some of our podcasts and things that we said. And he felt like we were attacking his character and my thing was, "Hey, us saying that you refused to adapt and evolve is not an attack to your character." We had a 15 minute discussion about why he felt the way he did about he shouldn't have to adapt. He shouldn't have to change his game. They're not asking another Hall of Fame point guard who is in the league at the time who may have made a not-of-it-and-insurance podcast to change his game. Why did Russ have to change? Why did he have to go stand on the corner? All those. 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? I want to do a story?" He said, "Well, I had a size of time to write." So the rest of the season, at the time I saw him, I tried to convince him the time was right, I never did. Okay, so that season with the thunder is iconic. Yein and Yang. He gets traded to the Lakers and that season with the Lakers was not. Well, there was a washing in Wizards, you know? So I between that, yeah. Rockets and Wizards. Rockets, yeah. He was good for the Wizards. By the way, he was good. He put up some incredible numbers for the Rockets. He went there because Harden wanted them there. He wanted a team with Harden and then chemistry was weird. That's the year also that Dan Tony in large part to benefit Russ said, "Screw it. We're not going to 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 him to Washington where he put up great numbers for the Wizards. But then he wanted to win a championship and and the whole Lakers think did not result in a championship. It was complicated. It obviously did not work. So and, you know, the, you know, whatever. I don't want to 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 Raptors. I assume at some point this season in Oklahoma City. Yeah, they put out they put out a very a very hard felt statement from Sam Prestee and the phone. Right after now. Ramona, thank you so much for your time and your insight in your reporting. This is a big news break. I don't know where this one ranks in your career, but this one that's up there. That's one of those selling ones like that, you know, yeah, I don't know what this weeks. This tweets and hands shaking before you before you sent push send. Yeah, let me let me take a look at this exact moment where this where this tweet is at because this one though, this will be a big one. Let's see. Oh, we're 15 million views right now. In less than 10 hours. So that's a lot. Thank you for taking time. I know it's been a tiring day. It's okay. We're just getting started, right? 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 it's a little bit fraught and there's you know, some whiff of, you know, possible controversy. We don't know for sure. But I think the Lakers are going to end up being just fine with this. Like it's there's going to be some transition and stuff. But I don't think this is a bad day for the Lakers. That doesn't mean that was, you know, this is not, you know, this is not moving out an owner who was negative. Like he was sort of in, we didn't have a rating. He's, you know, but we'll see. I'll put it this way. If all the things that Mark Walter owned that he is going to sell for three days and three days, even the Dodgers, even his F1 team, even his insurance companies or whatever, I'll bet only one of them could go up 20% in value and be sold in three days. And because think I'll longer talk to sell the Dodgers the last time, my God. But it's an actually an indication of how strong the Lakers and their brand are that this could happen this way. I mean, I feel like that at 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 Mick Mann. Thank you for listening and watching who collected. We'll talk to you soon. Adieu for me, goes.