The NBA Just Rewrote Its Own Rulebook to Let the Lakers Sell

Keypoints:

• The NBA is amending its private equity ownership policy to accommodate the Lakers' record sale
• The change lets a private equity executive invest personal money alongside their own firm's capital in the same team
• Bob Iger and Josh Kushner reached a deal last month to buy the Lakers at a record $12.5 billion valuation
• The amendment also lets other owners, like the Atlanta Hawks' Tony Ressler, sell stakes to firms he co-founded
• Owners tied to private equity funds now hold stakes in 20 of the league's 30 franchises

The NBA is rewriting its own private equity rules specifically to clear a path for its most expensive sale ever. The league is amending its policy to let an investment firm and its own executives invest in the same franchise simultaneously, according to people familiar with the change who weren't authorized to speak publicly.

The rule exists because of one specific deal. Bob Iger and Josh Kushner agreed last month to buy the Los Angeles Lakers at a record $12.5 billion valuation, but the NBA's existing rules forbid an institutional investment firm from backing a purchase led by its own manager. Kushner runs Thrive Eternal, the firm expected to help fund the deal, which created exactly that conflict under the old rules.

The fix comes with a tradeoff built in. Under the new amendment, if a firm holds money in a team alongside one of its own executives, that firm can't hold ownership in any other franchise at the same time. That's a real limit on how far private equity money can spread across the league, even as the league opens the door wider for this specific transaction.

The change ripples beyond the Lakers deal too. It clears the way for owners like the Atlanta Hawks' Tony Ressler, who co-founded both Apollo Global Management and Ares Management, to sell ownership stakes to either firm going forward. Private equity involvement in the NBA has grown fast regardless, owners tied to PE funds now hold stakes in 20 of the league's 30 franchises, a trend accelerating as team valuations keep climbing faster than most individual buyers can afford to keep pace with alone.