It looks like the Mark Walter era has truly begun for the Los Angeles Lakers. After the billionaire, who has been the Los Angeles Dodgers’ primary owner since 2012, officially purchased a majority stake in the Lakers a few weeks ago, Joey and Jesse Buss were fired on Thursday. Both members of the Buss family had held important front office roles for years.
As Walter starts to put his imprint on the Purple and Gold, he has brought in two executives who had served on the Dodgers. Per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, and Dodgers special advisor Farhan Zaidi are now working as advisors for the Lakers.
“Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman, two key executives with the Los Angeles Dodgers, have begun playing advisory roles with the Los Angeles Lakers as part of the ownership transition from the Buss family to Mark Walter, multiple sources told ESPN,” Shelburne wrote.
“Zaidi, currently a special adviser to the Dodgers and renowned for his analytics background, is functioning as Walter’s representative in helping with the transition, sources close to the situation said.
“Friedman, who currently acts as the president of baseball operations with the Dodgers, has played a lesser role. He mostly consults with Lakers president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka, sources said. Friedman has helped the Dodgers win three of the last six World Series.”
When Walter’s ownership group, which includes Lakers legend Magic Johnson, took over the Dodgers in 2012, they had been a laughingstock for roughly 20 years. Following the 2014 season, Zaidi and Friedman both came to the team, and it started a string of sustained success for the boys in blue. Under Walter’s leadership, the Dodgers are now considered the model of how to successfully run a Major League Baseball franchise, and that leadership has resulted in back-to-back World Series championships.
Advertisement
The Lakers once had a similar reputation in the 1980s under the ownership of Dr. Jerry Buss, but by the time of his death in 2013, the franchise’s reputation across the NBA had decayed. Now, with Walter running things and with a 26-year-old superstar named Luka Doncic taking his place as the franchise’s centerpiece, the Lakers’ immediate and medium-term future is looking fairly bright.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Farhan Zaidi, Andrew Friedman have begun advisory roles with Lakers