Was the Lakers sale the craziest moment in Sportico history? 🤯
Last week's news had it all, but can it top the Pac-12's collapse or the European Super League saga?
After a wild week, we’re trying something new today…
The Los Angeles Lakers sale bombshell truly had it all. One of sports’ most iconic franchises, a record-breaking price, connections to a federal investigation, ties to Donald Trump. What else could headline writers ask for? The inclusion of former Disney CEO Bob Iger in the mix was somehow like the fifth most notable part of the deal.1
Amidst the fallout, we were left wondering, was that the most stunning turn of sports business events in Sportico’s history (June 2020 - present)? We ran through six other recent moments that made us 😲😮😦🤯 to figure that out.
The NBA Meets the FBI (Oct. 2025)
Jacob: Less than a year ago, an active NBA head coach was arrested by federal agents in connection to an investigation into allegedly rigged poker games supposedly tied to New York Mafia families. Pretty crazy! That case also included links to a related federal investigation, codenamed Operation Nothing But Net, looking into players and coaches who were allegedly manipulating bets and sharing privileged information with gamblers.
While basketball fans continue to sort out just how close the worlds of betting, organized crime, and pro hoops might be, I’m still getting over the fact that this case is playing out in the Brooklyn federal courthouse on the other side of the plaza where I walk my dog. That’s New York for you!
The Price is What?! (Feb. 2022)
Eben: I can still remember where I was (and who I was talking to 🤐) when I got the tip in late 2021 that a group led by Todd Boehly2 was in talks to buy the Washington Spirit, the women’s soccer team in D.C. When the person told me the price—$25 million—I had to ask twice to make sure I heard it right. When I hung up, I still couldn’t believe it. At the time, NWSL franchises were selling in the $2 million range; $25 million seemed impossible.
A few weeks later, Spirit minority owner Michele Kang outbid Boehly, consolidating her ownership at a $35 million valuation. And even that deal aged incredibly well! Sportico valued the Spirit at $196 million in March, with the league average at $184 million.
We talk a lot about team sales with numbers that seemed crazy at the time—Dodgers in 2012, Bucks and Clippers in 2014, Suns in 2023, Lakers in 2025 and 20263—but on the merits of the prices, all of those pale in comparison to that Spirit deal.
The European Super (Controversial) League (Apr. 2021)
Jacob: Looking back, this story played out with shocking similarities to the more recent attempt to securitize the World Cup. First there was a stunning story in The Times by Martyn Ziegler, reporting that most of England’s biggest clubs planned to band together with Spanish and Italian giants in a breakaway competition from UEFA’s Champions League. Hours later, the clubs announced their intentions, with varying degrees of conviction. The next day, we learned about the money behind the deal—close to $4 billion from JPMorgan.
But by then, the backlash had the upper hand. Former players, political leaders, and mobs of fans voiced their displeasure. A day later, the Super League was effectively dead, though the 48-hour affair showed everyone just how powerful the right combination of motivated owners and money could be in the world’s game.
“For That Reason, I’m Out” (Nov. 2023)
Eben: If I felt a little bit of déjà vu last week, it’s because of Mark Cuban’s surprise decision to sell the Dallas Mavericks almost three years ago. The news first popped on a Tuesday morning from veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein, which sent us at Sportico scrambling to confirm the sale of a team we didn’t even realize was on the market.
Like this Lakers sale, that deal had intrigue about the seller (Cuban), intrigue about the buyer (casino magnate Miriam Adelson), intrigue about the financing (liquidated $LVS stock), and questions about the continued role of prior ownership (still in dispute). And like last week it spawned a million thinkpieces—from us included—about what the sale did and didn’t mean in the grand scheme of team valuations, bullish NBA growth expectations, and the future of sports team ownership.
A war. A man. A … merger!? (June 2023)
Jacob: For at least a day, it looked like LIV Golf won. Saudi Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan sat next to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on CNBC after nearly two years of hostility. They had just announced a plan to “unify the game of golf.”
The first question asked to them: “How in the world did this come about?” Monahan was instantly pilloried by players, reporters and fans for giving in.
And yet, the deal has looked better with age. In the days after, it became clear that the tie-up wasn’t a pure Tour-LIV merger but rather a broader PIF funding agreement. Of course, the final coming together never, well, came together. In retrospect, the biggest part of the agreement was the dropping of all lawsuits, which helped the PGA Tour collect $3 billion in new investments and orient itself on a new path. Today, LIV is looking for funding while the PGA Tour is aggressively chasing more growth. And yet the shock of 6/7/23 remains.
The Day the Pac-12 Disappeared (Aug. 2023)
Eben: In Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, an alcoholic is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he replies, “gradually and then suddenly.”
That’s how I think of the evaporation of the Pac-12 as we knew it, which happened slowly due to many macro developments, then very abruptly on a summer Friday in 2023.
We all knew the league was under threat. It had lost three teams (USC, UCLA and Colorado) earlier in the year, but by early August it looked like commissioner George Kliavkoff might succeed in keeping the remaining nine together. Many around the conference went to sleep on the night of Aug. 3 thinking their university presidents would all sign a collective grant of rights at a meeting the following morning.
That didn’t happen. Instead, members fled at a dizzying speed. In just a few hours Oregon and Washington announced a deal with the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State and Utah announced agreements with the Big 12. We played catch-up on the news all day (but with a good headline!).
Jacob: For me, this is the one. The Lakers sale was momentous, but the crumbling of the Pac-12 signaled to me, for some reason, a new day not just in college athletics but in all of sports. Push back all you want; money would win in the end.4
Others in consideration: Brittney Griner Is Detained in Russia, Dave Portnoy Buys Back Barstool for $1, Taylor Swift Shows Up at a Chiefs Game, Fanatics Takes Over MLB Cards Rights, Netflix Agrees to Buy Warner Bros.
What did we forget? What sports business news are you still getting your head around? Let us know in the comments!
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.
Somehow, the news also overshadowed Jeff Bezos buying part of Liverpool a couple days later.
Windhorst fingers: Mark Walter’s longtime business partner.
LOL. Just writing that out that sentence showcases how bonkers the Lakers deal is.
The section header date has been updated.