Mark Walter is already making an imprint on the Los Angeles Lakers’ entrance workplace, nearly three weeks after his record-setting purchase of the franchise from the Buss household was unanimously approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors.
The Lakers reportedly fired executives Joey and Jesse Buss on Thursday as half of majors adjustments being made to the group’s scouting division. Then on Friday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that Los Angeles Dodgers executives Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman have taken on advisory roles with the Lakers.
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Walter, the CEO and chairman of diversified holding company TWG Global, is notably additionally the Dodgers’ major proprietor. He’s occupied that position since 2012 when he spearheaded Guggenheim Baseball Management’s buy of the MLB franchise from Frank McCourt.
Since Walter began his run on the forefront of the Dodgers’ possession consortium, the group has returned to prominence and gained three World Series, including two straight.
Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, has been instrumental throughout that stretch, and now he is reportedly consulting with Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.
The Dodgers introduced Friedman aboard to go up the group’s baseball ops three seasons into Walter’s possession. At the time, Friedman was often called an analytics-inspired normal supervisor who constructed the small-market Tampa Bay Rays right into a group that reached the World Series in 2008 and remained extremely aggressive in the heavyweight-themed American League East.
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Since, Friedman’s helped assemble an impeccable participant growth pipeline in L.A., the place he is constantly constructed title-worthy rosters, because the Dodgers have gained the NL West in all however one of his seasons with the franchise.
Per ESPN’s report, Friedman’s involvement with the Lakers is much less vital than that of analytics guru Zaidi, who’s “functioning as Walter’s representative” throughout the possession transition, per ESPN.
Zaidi is at present a particular adviser to the Dodgers, and he is reportedly working with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, too — Walter purchased a stake in the Sparks in 2014. Both Zaidi and Friedman are performing as senior executives of Walter’s sports-holdings entity TWG Sports, which the Dodgers and Lakers are anticipated to turn out to be half of, in accordance with ESPN.
While Jeanie Buss will stay the Lakers’ governor for no less than the following 5 years, Walter’s affect as majority proprietor is obvious.