The news that Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger had agreed to purchase Mark Walter’s majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers shocked the sports world Wednesday. But while the sale, which is pending the approval of the league’s board of governors, would be Iger’s first foray into NBA ownership, the Lakers would be the third team of which Kushner has owned at least a small piece.
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Kushner, a billionaire venture capitalist, is the younger brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. In March of 2019, he became a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, purchasing a 2.5 percent stake that valued the Grizzlies at $1.32 billion, according to Forbes. He was only 33 years old at the time.
Kushner was brought into the Grizzlies ownership group by Robert Pera, The New York Times reported in 2021. Both Kushner and Pera were part of the New York tech scene, with Kushner founding Thrive Capital in 2009 and Pera starting the New York-based tech company Ubiquiti Networks in 2003.
In 2024, Kushner — who owns a home in Miami Beach — bought a 5 percent stake in the Miami Heat, according to the Miami Herald. Minority owners of NBA teams typically have very little impact on the day-to-day operations of the team, with majority owners usually serving as the team’s representative on the NBA’s board of governors. The New York Post reported that Kushner sold his stake in the Grizzlies in 2024 to “clear the way” for his investment in the Heat.
Kushner will similarly be required to sell his share of the Heat to purchase the Lakers, multiple sources with knowledge of the league’s ownership rules told The Athletic on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deal.
Kushner is using his own money to purchase his share of the Lakers and his investment firm Thrive Capital is expected to be involved in the purchase, The New York Times reported Thursday. NBA rules cap the percentage of an NBA team that institutional investors can own at 20 percent and the overall percentage of a team owned by those investors at 30 percent, although some private equity firms and other institutional investors can own parts of multiple franchises.
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There is no set timeline for when Kushner and Iger’s purchase will be considered by the governors for approval, but the process typically takes several months. When the Lakers were sold last year, Walter’s purchase was announced in June and the league approved the sale in October. That Tom Dundon intended to buy the Portland Trail Blazers from the Paul Allen estate became public in August 2025 and the governors approved the sale at the end of March of this year. The board of governors will meet again in September.