Latest / The Regulars / Emergency Lakers pod! Shocking sale to Iger and Kushner - what’s really going on?

Transcript

Emergency Lakers pod! Shocking sale to Iger and Kushner - what’s really going on? · The Regulars

0:09
Cody's entire rant is going to have to be redone. Not a big problem,
0:12
it's very simple, very, very, very simple. This is a crazy, crazy day here in
0:16
the sports world. I don't know what to say. Let us know if you can
0:18
hear the sound now. You should be able to hear us just fine. Um,
0:21
there we go, the sound is back on, we are all good. Ladies and gentlemen,
0:24
there is so much to discuss today, so much to actually break down today.
0:27
This is a batshit crazy, crazy day. It's our first ever emergency
0:31
podcast here on The Regulars. I'm Cody Decker. This is Tonya Rae
0:34
Fox, and we are The Regulars. And the reason why we are having an emergency
0:37
podcast today, frankly, is because today one of
0:40
the craziest, most out of nowhere,
0:43
batshit insane things has ever happened in the sports world happened
0:47
this morning. And I mean, when I got it, when it got announced, Tonya,
0:50
I was live on the air. I couldn't— my eyes nearly popped out of my
0:54
fucking head. Before we get into this, I need to— I need to tell people
0:56
what you said to me this morning. Because I, I went to bed at 1:30
1:00
in the morning, so I slept until like 7:45. I get a text from
1:04
Cody that says,
1:07
batshit, absolutely batshit. Lakers just sold again for $12
1:11
billion to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. And I just said, I'm sorry,
1:14
what? And he said, Tanya, yeah, Tanya, wake up. The world is on
1:18
fire. The world is fucking on fire. This is not performative. This is what he
1:22
does in, in his private conversations. Yeah. Is how
1:26
Cody acts. Just so we're all clear, this is the timeline of real life events.
1:27
The Lakers sold just one year
1:31
ago, in fact less than a year ago, over to Mark Walters, owner of the
1:34
Los Angeles Dodgers and of course the guy that oversees the Guggenheim Group. The Guggenheim
1:38
Group lately, as of a couple of weeks ago it was announced, is under federal
1:41
investigation for a lot of litany of things. And in that time,
1:45
of course, the Dodgers— Mark Walters specifically— purchased
1:49
the Lakers at an uptick of $10 billion. And by the way, the team's valuation
1:54
at the time was $7.5 billion, so he paid an extra $2.5 billion to
1:57
get the team. And he got the team and frankly changed
2:02
the entire evaluation of everything. And now within one year goes ahead and
2:05
flips the team over to Bob Iger, former Disney CEO,
2:09
and of course Joshua Kushner, the son-in-law of
2:13
the president's brother, of which I don't know what to say
2:17
other than the timeline of this is absolutely crazy. The way this has been done
2:21
is crazy. The timeline of how quickly this got done should be raising every
2:26
potential eyebrow humanly possible, right? And somehow people are
2:29
acting as though this is normal, and some people are acting as though this is
2:32
good. I don't know how people are coming up with the idea that this is
2:35
a good thing in any way, shape, or form. Well, I think— I genuinely think
2:39
a lot of the people who are saying that are trolls, and I do think
2:41
it's confusing a lot of people who are genuine, good faith
2:44
viewers who are trying to, um,
2:48
trying to parse through exactly what is different about this or what's extra
2:51
alarming about this, why a lot of people in sports media and even
2:55
like economists and stuff like that are like, hey, this is a really red
2:58
flag on top of the political implications of all of it. So that's
3:02
kind of why we want to actually do— I don't know how long this is
3:05
going to go on, but just an actual breakdown of everything that's going on.
3:09
Um, so, you know, might as
3:12
well. I think we'll go to the 2 box. We'll get into the,
3:15
the sort of initial part of the conversation, which is It
3:19
should be noted that this is by far
3:23
the largest sale of a team in
3:27
professional sports history. A pro sports franchise
3:31
prior to— prior to the Lakers being sold,
3:35
when was it? In originally to Mark Walter.
3:39
They were sold for in 2025
3:42
for $10 billion, which you mentioned, which, by the way, was a record at the
3:46
time. It was a record at the time and it was a record at the
3:48
time. By a suspicious amount, as you
3:52
mentioned. So the Celtics were sold for $6.1 billion.
3:55
Yes. Now account for the fact that Los Angeles is a bigger market.
3:59
Okay, fine. That's fine. But it's not $4 billion
4:03
in valuation different than the Celtics. So already a
4:08
real sort of head-scratcher.
4:11
The Washington Commanders in the NFL, one of the premier
4:16
teams in the NFL sold for $6.05 billion
4:19
in 2023. So we're talking about a valuation and
4:23
a sale price that doesn't make sense. Yes. That is where we're starting.
4:27
That's where we're starting on before we even get to who actually bought the
4:31
team. Yes. Now, I've had a couple of people. You've had
4:35
a couple of people insinuate that we
4:39
should— the sort of virtue signaling or fearmongering around the
4:43
Kushner name being attached to this is no big deal. Josh Kushner
4:47
has absolutely nothing to do with the Trump administration. Now, the running theme on the
4:51
internet, if you Google it, if you whatever, is that Joshua Kushner has purposely
4:55
stayed away from any ties to the Trump administration, that he's
4:59
an avowed Democrat, and that he built his own company on his own outside of
5:02
his family's business. Sure, sure, sure. And I always love when a billionaire related
5:07
to other billionaires says he built his own company. More importantly,
5:11
it is— I'd like you to go through
5:15
what you know about Jared Kushner and
5:19
his relationship to this entire deal. I'm sorry,
5:22
not Jared. Joshua Kushner. Kushner's relationship
5:26
to this deal, because you have a bunch of details I think that people don't
5:29
quite understand about his relationship to the financials.
5:33
I mentioned the FIFA thing earlier in the internet discourse.
5:37
Just lay it out as concisely as you can,
5:40
uh, why people are bringing this up. Okay, well, it's very simple.
5:43
Let's go through the entire list. Now, in case you don't know about Josh Kushner,
5:46
Josh Kushner's grandfather, uh, was basically
5:50
an owner of a lot of property in, in New Jersey. His father took it
5:54
over in the 1980s, and by the way, his father did go to prison for,
5:57
uh, multiple reasons at one point. He eventually, of course, got his sentence
6:01
reduced by half and then eventually got pardoned by the Trump administration. But I also
6:04
want to point out that that Josh Kushner, who has also inherited a ton of
6:08
these money, a ton of the money, and as well as other assets, and especially
6:12
during COVID and how his, his actual finances absolutely boomed through that, through,
6:16
you know, probably very normal means. Um, through the
6:20
most recent aspects is simply this: FIFA. Uh, the— you know
6:24
how FIFA was trying to be bought by private equity for $20 billion,
6:27
so much so that the entire world boycotted this entire thing?
6:31
To the point where not only did you get the entire European Union
6:34
and UEFA together, not only did you get CONCACAF together, not only did you get
6:38
all the Asian countries together, the entire world boycotted this so much so that Infantino
6:42
is being ousted very, very publicly as
6:45
we currently speak. So after that deal fell to pieces, him and Bob
6:49
Iger got together, getting ready to try to get ready to put in for the
6:52
Vegas expansion that's going to be happening in the NBA. Then all
6:56
of a sudden last week everything got really quiet. And if you believe current reports,
6:58
as it's being reported today, on Sunday is when the first phone call was
7:02
made. And now it's Wednesday and we have a deal for $12.5
7:06
billion, which, by the way, I don't think there is a current evaluation
7:10
of the Lakers since it was purchased by Mark Walters's group.
7:14
They were worth $7.5 billion when it was purchased. It was
7:18
purchased for $10 billion. Now, within one year, it's worth $12.5
7:22
billion. And all they had to do was get rid of a billion-dollar entity in
7:25
And I would also like LeBron James. I'd also like to point out that $12.5
7:29
billion. First of all, Bob Iger is not like buying in
7:33
so much as he is being tapped. Like, yes, he's going to have an ownership
7:36
stake, but he's not worth the kind of money that he could own a team.
7:39
So he's really the CEO type that's being tied to this in order
7:43
to get it sold. And he is going to have ownership, don't get me wrong.
7:45
But yes, I don't even know that he's worth $1 billion. I don't know if
7:48
he is either. He's a Disney CEO. He's— make no mistake.
7:51
Generational wealth, generational millions of dollars. No question. Let's just be honest about that.
7:55
And then Josh Kushner himself, this— these two
7:59
together are not even worth what they just paid for that team.
8:03
Something to consider as we move forward in the conversation. Yes, absolutely. So the thing
8:07
is, I know who Bob Iger is. Former Disney CEO, very successful at
8:11
what he does. He's also a majority owner of Angel FC. So at least he
8:14
has some aspect and skin in the game in Los Angeles as a sports guy.
8:17
However, Josh Kushner doesn't have any of that. Not to mention,
8:20
on top of that, the one thing he's actually been successful in is that he
8:23
got the world to successfully boycott FIFA. That is the one thing that
8:27
he's actually accomplished in the sports world. Let's address that specifically, because there's people who
8:31
are saying it's— who are saying it's disingenuous for us to act like the FIFA
8:34
boycott had anything to do with Josh Kushner because that last name is
8:38
not enough to tie him to the Trump administration and all of this stuff.
8:41
Now, I want to make it clear. Take Kushner out of it, take the last
8:45
name out of it, and the very clear ties to the Trump administration, whether he
8:48
wants to admit them or not. The idea that
8:52
you are trying to buy like private equity, buy your way
8:56
20% into FIFA while there was an established resistance
9:00
to that. This was not a new concept that the world did not
9:03
want privatization of FIFA. He still tried to
9:07
do it anyway. Yes. So going against the worldwide will of soccer
9:11
organizations globally. He tried to buy into it anyway.
9:15
It was shut down. You're bringing up the Vegas
9:18
thing. That's now all of a sudden he's— this is not a person
9:22
who is, who is operating in good faith in this system to say,
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oh, I'm going to go where I'm wanted and build some opportunities where they make
9:29
sense. This is a profiteer. This is profiteer behavior. Yes.
9:33
Am I wrong? No, not even a little. Now, those of you that want to
9:37
sit around and say, well, this is a business and business decisions. All right,
9:39
let's go through the business aspect of it because there's a lot more dirty and
9:41
ugly business involved. Just a few weeks ago, Mark Walters and of course his group,
9:45
the Guggenheim Group, it was announced that there is a federal investigation into
9:49
their money workings. A lot of, a lot of questions about how a lot of
9:53
money is being worked. They own the Dodgers. They own the Dodgers. So this is
9:56
fucking big. Very, very big. And this might get even uglier as time
10:00
goes forward. But let's be real clear. Just 2 weeks ago, Mark Walters went over
10:04
there to the White House and gave a World Series ring to President Trump,
10:07
literally. And I'm not saying figuratively. We talked about it on the show. And I
10:11
even said a little tinfoil cap going like, I wonder if this investigation
10:15
is going to go away. Not only do I think the investigation is going to
10:17
go away, he somehow got paid off $2.5 billion by selling
10:21
off the assets of the Lakers just 2 weeks after this. And he sold
10:25
it to the president's son-in-law's brother. Boy, that's not going
10:29
off any red flags for people. Say that slower so people
10:33
fucking hear it. 2 weeks ago, after just 5
10:36
days after it's announced that Mark Walters is under federal investigation,
10:41
He goes to the White House with the Dodgers, gives President Trump a
10:44
World Series ring, and then 2 weeks later makes a
10:48
profit of $2.5 billion by selling off this
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newly acquired Lakers team to the president's
10:56
son-in-law's brother. Okay, so we are supposed
11:00
to believe that that has nothing to do with Trump? Okay,
11:03
come on. So you and I are on record as saying there is no planet
11:08
on, on, and in any universe where that's
11:11
not connected to Trump. Billionaires,
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by the way, billionaires on this level are
11:19
all connected to Trump. I don't think that you
11:22
guys fully understand that every single person worth
11:26
multiple billions of dollars or a group worth multiple billions of dollars
11:30
in this country is, is in bed with
11:34
the Trump Organization for financial reasons,
11:37
at the very least, if not for, you know,
11:40
personal value reasons. It's not a— it's— you can't
11:44
be a billionaire in Trump's America without taking advantage of Trump being the
11:47
president. By the way, not exclusive to Trump. The United States has
11:51
been catering to billionaires for a long time. It's how we ended up here.
11:54
But it's extra— it's extra bad when you think about just how much collusion
11:58
and corruption is taking place here. So We— this
12:01
is 100% the shadiest sale,
12:06
not only because of the valuation, which makes no sense. This valuation has been inflated
12:10
by double in one year. The valuation that already, by the
12:14
way, when, when, when Mark Walter bought—
12:18
when you buy a team that, by the way, didn't— there's no reason
12:22
for it to have increased by $2.5 billion in the last year.
12:25
That's not a thing. Not at all. When you buy a team and then you
12:29
sell it the next year for $2.5 billion more than you bought it for,
12:32
Red flag immediately. Yeah. When you do it after having just
12:36
met with the president at the White House while you're under investigation,
12:39
red flag immediately. When you sell it to somebody who
12:43
is connected deeply to the president's son by way of blood,
12:47
red flag immediately. We're not ignoring any of this. This is
12:50
really bad. On top of that, returning back
12:54
to the fact that there's no evidence that these people can actually
12:58
afford this team. So I don't know where they got all that
13:02
money in 4— what did you say, 4 days? 4 days. 4 days. Sunday is
13:05
when allegedly the first phone call was made. Allegedly.
13:09
I don't know. Like, when you look up what Josh Kushner is worth and the
13:13
group he's worth, I don't even know how he was expected to buy into FIFA
13:17
at the, at the number that he was expected to buy into it for.
13:19
So that's shady as it is. So now we have NBA
13:23
owners who— and we should make it clear, I don't
13:28
believe the Board of Governors has voted on this. I don't believe the owners have
13:30
voted on this. It requires a supermajority, 23 of 30,
13:33
right, in the NBA, um, to actually do
13:38
the transition. But like, the fact that it's out there, it's been put out there
13:41
by the usual mouthpieces of these leagues, makes me think that
13:44
there's no reason to think that this is not going— the sale isn't going to
13:47
go through. But we should say that technically it Hasn't. Technically it
13:51
hasn't, but it's going to. I firmly believe it's going to. And now there are
13:54
other aspects of this that get even weirder and weirder, weirder as time goes forward.
13:57
But just the ballooning of the valuation alone, I think,
14:00
is— yeah, like, I just want to understand that, like, this isn't like,
14:04
oh, adjusted for inflation, it makes sense. This is one year.
14:08
Makes sense. Yeah. Like, this is— that's not— when the Celtics sold
14:12
for half of this one year
14:16
ago, the Celtics— I'm not talking about the fucking Kings. I would
14:20
understand if, like, the other most valuable
14:24
team in the league sold for half of this.
14:28
Yes. And it just so happened to make a billionaire tied to Trump $2.5
14:32
billion and give a billionaire who can't afford it a team
14:36
overvalued. It doesn't make any sense.
14:40
I want to address a couple of questions before we move on to some of
14:44
the, like, actual the actual sports, like NBA,
14:48
larger implications of this, because I think that there's broader
14:52
things outside of this specific sale that it's going
14:56
to affect. So I put out on, on Instagram
15:00
if people had any questions. There's me yapping.
15:03
Okay. The Lakers are a new front office.
15:06
Yes. Does this sale portend wholesale changes
15:10
again in the front office? Yes, it does. Well, actually, we don't know,
15:13
but I assume it does because you have to understand the influx of people that
15:17
have been put in the front office were Dodger people. Now that,
15:20
that consolidation apparently is coming to an end. And also,
15:24
there's another point I want to make on, on this whole thing. Okay. Like,
15:26
those of you— there was something that was said a little disingenuously that really bothered
15:30
me, and it was specifically said on ESPN, who did break the story and all
15:33
that. But it's like, well, when you're given an offer you just can't refuse,
15:36
an extra $2.5 billion— I'm sorry, the Dodgers have boasted
15:39
quite loudly that last year they made $1 billion in
15:43
profit. $1 billion in just one year of work.
15:47
So just because of that, you're telling me right now he got bought off by
15:50
$2.5 billion? Now make no mistake, $2.5 billion is just so much
15:54
money that I don't know what to do with myself. So much so that this
15:57
team couldn't have been bought for $2.5 billion like 10 years ago. It could
16:01
have been. That's how much probably the Lakers were worth 10 years ago. Now it's
16:04
$12.5 billion and there's no reasoning behind it. This is all funny
16:08
money. It makes no sense. But the thing about it that just is like maddening
16:11
to me, that you think that Mark Walters is going to be bought out by
16:14
$2.5 billion. Something about this stinks so much
16:18
because the amount of money that the Guggenheim Group and Mark Walters can make by
16:22
consolidating everything with the Lakers and the Dodgers under one umbrella— I'm talking sponsorship
16:27
deals, television deals, we're talking, we're talking a massive consolidation that can make
16:30
up to $2.5 billion a fucking year. The Dodgers made $1 billion
16:34
on their— by themselves a year ago. That's insane to me. So,
16:38
no, you can't convince me that a guy that just bought this team for $10
16:42
billion was easily swayed by $2.5 billion. I'll tell
16:46
you this right now. It doesn't make a ton of sense that Mark Walter would
16:49
sell off this team to— like,
16:53
when I just looked it up, right? Josh Kushner himself is worth $5.2
16:58
billion. Thrive Capital manages
17:01
$25 billion in assets. So if it's
17:05
just Josh Kushner and not Thrive Capital that bought the,
17:09
the team, which is how it's being phrased,
17:12
we have a major question. Because again,
17:16
Bob Iger's— it's just that he's a minuscule
17:20
part of this in terms of committing the money. He's like this. He's like in
17:24
the Walter Group. He is like how Magic Johnson is. Which, by the
17:28
way, yeah, Magic Johnson also is worth A lot of money, hundreds and hundreds of
17:31
millions of dollars, close to a billion if you look at everything. Okay, so I'm
17:35
trying to figure out, did Thrive— is Thrive
17:39
in on this? Because then now my second question is,
17:43
are you buying NBA teams with assets?
17:47
Yes, you're buying NBA teams with the $25 billion in assets
17:51
you manage. That's starting to sound a little pyramid
17:55
scheme-y. Is it not? Especially when it's
17:58
wildly overpriced. I mean, we're— this is fucking nuts,
18:01
Cody. Insane. Insane that somehow within one calendar year
18:05
the Lakers valuation has gone double that of the Celtics. I just don't know
18:09
what to say other than this, this smells like complete shit. And I can't
18:13
believe— I, I'm looking forward to Pablo Torre finding out, because if
18:17
I found out this much in just a couple of hours and was able to
18:20
just do it within 10 minutes of using just straight up Seeing what's been happening
18:24
these last few weeks, I can't wait for someone to actually dig in. Worried for
18:27
Pablo Torre to find out. Like, I mean, it's getting to the point where,
18:29
like, these ownership groups are starting to, like, seem almost
18:33
mafioso level. Like, almost like— no, to, like, some, like, you know,
18:37
even the reporters. I'm like, how much can reporters even
18:41
report anymore? Question back to the question.
18:44
I would be very worried about what the front office is going to look like
18:48
after all of this. I would. Now, the Celtics just sold to a private
18:52
equity firm and kept Brad Stevens in the front office.
18:55
They didn't make any, like, major change on that front.
19:00
But the shift in ownership was a huge— it made
19:04
it like a completely different organization. It made them into a completely different organization.
19:07
Brad Stevens essentially was stripped of power around keeping Jaylen
19:11
Brown in the building. Like, there's a lot that went down. So like, even if
19:14
they didn't fire the GM or, you know, change up
19:18
some of the major things. Like, we don't know what their aim is with this
19:22
team, but it's not to turn the Lakers into— okay,
19:26
this is a big point that we need to get to, which is that the
19:29
Lakers that you once knew, the Celtics you once
19:34
knew, the Knicks you once knew, they're— they don't
19:37
exist. James Dolan is the closest thing to a— to an establishment
19:42
old-school owner that we have in the NBA. And he's up
19:46
to his ass in Trump fraud, like up to his
19:49
ass in it. Right. That's at some— at this point
19:53
is relieving because he's not private equity trying to flip the team every
19:57
couple of years. That's a relief. That's the best we can do.
20:02
The Lakers being a premier team in the league
20:06
where they are competing every single year and they always have the best
20:10
star players and They have this homegrown, like, really, like,
20:14
like tight-knit appeal to the Los Angeles community
20:19
is gone. It's dead. It's over.
20:23
Jerry Buss built that team the way that a lot of these players
20:27
were— these teams were built from a, from a level of capital
20:30
that couldn't sniff a fucking single-A baseball team anymore.
20:34
It used to be that these owners became wealthy because
20:38
they bought into these teams and made them successful. That is
20:42
gone. It's over. It's done. It's dead. So all
20:46
of the Lakers fans who have— like, if you're on your high
20:50
horse about being the Lakers, being the Celtics, being whatever
20:54
premier fucking team you think you're a part of, every single one of these
20:58
sales is literally ripping the soul from
21:02
the team. You're done. It's fucking Over.
21:06
I promise you, I promise you,
21:09
nothing about Josh Kushner or Bob Iger gives
21:13
a fuck about winning your city a title. They don't give a fuck about honoring
21:17
Kobe. They don't give a fuck about honoring the Showtime Lakers.
21:21
They don't give a fuck about, about Magic Johnson.
21:25
They don't care about anything other than making a profit.
21:29
And that is what they're going to do. And it's going to tank your fucking
21:31
team. So just— I just want to make sure any fucking moron
21:36
Celtics, uh, Lakers fans Celtics fans are morons too.
21:39
Understand that. And as a Lakers fan, I will tell you, this is— she's
21:43
right. It's fucking over. This is, this is, this is funny money now.
21:47
We are now playing with legitimate funny money to
21:50
the point where you already said pyramid scheme. Yeah, it seems like a full-on
21:54
Ponzi scheme. Just literally shell, shell. And they will— they'll
21:58
do cute little shit to make you think that they're doing great. They'll do cute
22:01
little shit to make sure that they're staying in the mix. In the mix.
22:04
And then, you know, a couple of years from now, right after Luka finally wins
22:08
an MVP and makes a Western Conference Finals and all you need is a center,
22:12
guess what's going to happen? Luka is going to end up a fucking,
22:16
like, you know, Golden State Warrior. I promise
22:20
you it's going to happen. My favorite thing today has been this wonderful
22:24
thing from Luka Dončić 5 hours ago, what he tweeted. Being a Laker means everything
22:28
to me, and I'm excited to get back to the court and bring a championship
22:31
to L.A. I've gotten used to big changes over these last few years, but I,
22:34
I know that no matter what, there was no limit to the potential of this
22:37
iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob, and we can work to
22:40
building something special in LA together. Yeah,
22:43
I'm reading between the lines. He doesn't fucking like this one bit. You know why
22:46
he doesn't like this one bit? Because he was a part of this already over
22:49
there in Dallas, which led to him getting traded over here. This is actually the
22:52
5th ownership group he's actually had to deal with in his very short time.
22:55
His 3rd ownership group since he's been a Yeah, which,
22:59
by the way, like, Mark Cuban selling that team to Adelson
23:03
is like psychotic. I understand what happened, but like, the one
23:07
thing about Mark Walter was that because he was already in,
23:10
in Los Angeles and had bought and run a successful Los Angeles
23:15
team, yeah, of course it was ridiculous, but I didn't view it as a
23:20
move where he was only looking to profit
23:24
from the Lakers with no sort of desire to build them.
23:28
Now, that's a low bar, but he was clearing it. This ownership
23:32
group is not clearing it. You guys have to remember, like,
23:36
when you own a sports team back
23:40
in the day, part of that, part of that was you actually
23:44
gave a shit about the leagues. Like, you actually cared. We're not dealing with that
23:48
anymore. It's over. And you can tell me all you want that Bob Iger cares.
23:52
Bob Iger, as somebody who's been
23:57
involved with how Disney's been run for a very
24:00
long time now— yes. Yeah, Bob Iger doesn't give a
24:03
fuck other than making money. And by the way, the Disney aspect of this,
24:06
I think, is something very worthwhile because you have to understand Bob Iger being a
24:09
part of this, I don't think is by accident. I think Bob Iger being a
24:11
part of this is actually to bring in Disney to potentially bring in more billionaire
24:15
consortiums all throughout this entire process. Did he— because Didn't— did they bring—
24:18
I think they recently brought Bob Iger in to like fix something
24:22
at Disney. Like, yes, he came back in and retook over the CEO to fix
24:25
certain things. So he still has a tight relationship with the
24:29
company. Now, make no mistake, he's got a tight relationship with the company. That company
24:32
just went through a ton of new restructuring, especially through ESPN and
24:35
then the absorption— absorb— absorbing of NFL Network and everything under the
24:40
sun. ESPN laid more people off today. Naturally, they did. Damian Woody
24:43
gone. I saw that. I like when they call it a shakeup, by the way.
24:46
It's not a shakeup. It is a shakeup. This is firing people. Come on.
24:49
Like this. This is like, I don't know why you guys aren't seeing what's happening
24:52
to the sports world. It's happening in real fucking time right in front of your
24:55
face. Here's something else that you don't seem to understand that a lot of people—
24:58
this just somehow missed everybody. His brother, Jared Kushner,
25:02
son-in-law to, of course, the president, who of course has nothing to do with this.
25:06
He's a part of a $55 billion buyout of EA Sports.
25:09
So not only did his brother just buy the Lakers, he bought all
25:13
of sports video games. That's FIFA, that's Madden, that's fucking 2K.
25:17
That is all of those that is now owned by Jared Kushner and his group.
25:20
And now his brother now owns the Lakers. No, no, no, no. But Cody,
25:23
Josh is not tied into Jared Kushner and the Trumps. You're right. You're right.
25:26
It's not a coincidence that on August 4th— and today is August 12th— August
25:31
4th, that this sale went through of EA Sports that now Jared Kushner and his
25:34
group now own. Why are you guys not seeing this? This entire
25:38
party, this entire group in the White House is currently consolidating
25:42
all of professional fucking sports. You have the same
25:46
party that's trying to legislate the WNBA in the guise of protecting women. Like,
25:50
guys, it's all right in front of you. This isn't tinfoil cap shit.
25:53
This is just life. This is literally reality.
25:57
And it's fucking beyond gross and disgusting at this point. Another question
26:01
that we got was, what does it mean for the NBA that owners are flipping
26:04
teams like investors flip houses? And I think we have addressed a significant
26:08
part of that, but absolutely that. But also, I want you to think
26:12
about really the majority of house flippers that you've
26:16
met in your life. If we're going to stick with this metaphor, when you,
26:19
when you meet those people and you watch the TV shows about the house
26:23
flippers, as soon as you move into that house, you realize all of it is
26:27
made from like plywood and fucking like the cheapest
26:31
materials you can buy. Fake linoleum. And again, I'm not like shitting on,
26:35
on cost-saving materials, but what they do is they go in and
26:39
they build it with the cheapest materials that will not hold up, that will fall
26:41
apart within 5 to 10 years. And but it looks kind of
26:45
shiny and new on the outside. It is a fucking— it's a
26:49
house of cards. It's a mirage, right? And that's the whole thing is like new
26:53
construction and this house flipping, people just doing really shoddy work
26:57
and making a ton of profit on it, on it. And that's the whole deal,
27:01
right? That's— yes, yes,
27:04
that's what's happening to sports. Buying into
27:08
a, a professional sports team is meant to be
27:12
a lifelong commitment and investment
27:16
in not only this— by the way, this is not me being
27:19
like cute and quaint about the history of sports.
27:23
When you— a professional sports team is a, is a mini economy.
27:26
In and of itself in cities and towns. It is meant to
27:30
support the economy. It is not that— it's not just
27:34
your own business. Turning it into something
27:37
where it's like, this is just a business, we run it as a business,
27:40
and we disregard the employees and the city and the town and the
27:43
whatever else, the infrastructure around it,
27:47
is, is what— that, that is where we're,
27:50
where we're headed with basically everything now. And It seems like
27:54
that's normal because you feel like in the last 8, 9 years of this,
27:57
like, Trump experiment, 10 years of this Trump experiment, that everything has become this,
28:01
like that it was always this. It wasn't always this. It wasn't.
28:06
We're in bad shape. Flipping teams is going to
28:10
destroy teams. It's going to destroy fandoms.
28:13
It's going to destroy, like,
28:17
the fact that we've even been allowing these people to take taxpayer
28:22
money to build stadiums is bad enough.
28:25
But at least, at least at the very least, taxpayers were
28:29
like, hey, I'm willing to support this goddamn billionaire so my team doesn't move.
28:32
Now your team is up to the highest bidder
28:36
wherever they want it. And if you don't think that
28:40
some fucked up billionaire would move the Lakers or the Celtics out
28:45
of those cities, I have a fucking beachfront property to sell
28:48
you in Nebraska. They will do anything. They'll send it to Saudi.
28:52
They'll send it wherever the fuck they want. Just so we're
28:56
clear. Mm-hmm. I just don't know what else to say other than I,
29:00
I'm assuming Dr. Jerry Buss is just rolling and spinning in his fucking grave right
29:04
now. Is what it is. And it's fucking gross. But I don't know what to
29:07
say other than, like, I have a personal, like, very strong
29:11
feeling about this because of everything that's going on with Major League Baseball. I'm watching
29:14
exactly what's happening in the CBA. And you better believe if the PA is very
29:18
smart, they are literally taking everything that's going on with the Lakers and putting it
29:21
right on the fucking table when this goes on. They're also paying attention to what
29:25
just happened 2 days ago with the New York Yankees, who just got a $2.5
29:28
billion buy-in from private equity as well. So private
29:32
equity just bought into the Yankees. Private equity has bought the Celtics.
29:36
Private equity just, you know, is buying into all these premier institutions.
29:41
Do we— are we supposed to think that it is a coincidence that
29:46
the premier organizations in this country are being bought into
29:50
by profiteers? I don't think it is.
29:54
The Yankees are one of the most profitable, most recognizable
30:00
brands in the world in sports. Not just in sports, in the— just
30:04
in brands. The Cowboys, the Lakers.
30:08
You know, these teams are worldwide recognizable
30:12
and some of the most valued teams' assets
30:16
in the world. And they are institutions
30:20
that also garner a lot of power within the ownership groups
30:24
that they're in. So like when you look at whoever owns the Lakers, whoever owns
30:28
the Celtics, whoever owns the Cowboys or the Yankees,
30:32
they accumulate more power and control over the
30:36
rest of the owners because of the value of their team.
30:39
Especially in profit-sharing leagues. So these
30:44
billionaires aren't just buying into a league and a team that they can turn
30:47
for a profit. They're buying into a power structure where they are now
30:51
at the head of the table of 30 to 31 other billionaires
30:55
that they are interacting with, that they are, that they are controlling,
31:00
that they have a controlling interest. This is buying a seat at
31:04
the table of power. There is no other industry
31:09
in the country outside of tech and,
31:12
you know, AI at this point that where you can buy
31:17
into a seat of power as a billionaire except
31:21
for sports ownerships. And that's what they're doing.
31:25
What— there's absolutely no questions asked.
31:30
Josh Kushner and Bob Iger just became more powerful than people
31:35
who've owned NBA teams for 30 to 40 years. Yep.
31:39
Plain and simple. I wish there was another way of saying this. This is just—
31:42
this is the most ridiculous thing. And by the way, I'm wondering how this is
31:47
all going to come toppling down because this really feels like a bubble. This feels
31:50
like the housing market in 2008. This is literally what it feels like.
31:53
These evaluations make no sense. The money that's going in makes no sense.
31:57
The money that's going in isn't even backed by anything. It's backed by assets from
32:00
private equity right now, which is illegal, which I think just
32:03
is not legal. I'm just I'm baffled by how any of this is taking fucking
32:07
place. I'm not baffled. I know who's in the White House. It's simply that
32:11
it's just— I, I am. And I'm sad because I'm
32:15
a Laker fan, a lifelong Laker fan. Yeah. And I don't want to root for
32:18
this team. I really don't. I want you guys to go and look at the
32:22
NFL, for example, because that's where all the money is in this country in terms
32:25
of the most valuable teams in the, in the country are mostly
32:29
in the NFL, with an exception of Lakers, Celtics, Yankees,
32:32
Dodgers, Red Sox, right? They're all in the NFL. Yeah.
32:35
I want you to go look at who has the most
32:39
sway. It's all been reported among owners in those leagues.
32:44
It's, it's Jerry Jones, it's Robert Kraft,
32:48
and then it's the dude who owns the
32:52
Dolphins, and then it's Cronky, and then it's
32:56
Shad Khan. Why would the owners of
33:00
the fucking Dolphins and Jaguars be so influential?
33:06
Come on, guys. Like, it's— you'll get there.
33:11
I hate it. I hate it. Like, I can't stand it,
33:14
Cody. I can't stand that people don't see what is happening
33:18
in these spots. I'm more angry that they're just denying it. Like, I got one
33:22
guy on Twitter who's like, oh, you need a tinfoil cap. Why do I need
33:24
a tinfoil cap? This is literally what just took place. We didn't— we— some of
33:27
this stuff is like prognosticating, but everything we have laid out in
33:31
terms of how this went down and exactly what's happening is all
33:34
a pattern. It's all— but it's also all reported. It's a timeline.
33:38
Facts. No, like literally all I've done so far is give
33:42
you a timeline and now we're telling you what it actually means. Yeah, that's it.
33:45
By the way, I'm telling you what it actually means from a place of having
33:48
like sat and spoken with people in these leagues for the last
33:51
15 years. I'm not just telling you that Mark— that,
33:55
that Josh Kushner bought a major voice
33:59
in one of the biggest conglomerations of billionaires in the country.
34:03
I'm not just like guessing. I'm telling you, that's what he just
34:07
fucking did. Yeah. And this was after he just failed at buying the biggest worldwide
34:10
tournament literally 3 weeks ago. If you guys think that they're fucking— they're
34:15
going to all get together to figure out how to make your beers and ticket
34:18
prices more affordable. My God. My God, baby. Oh,
34:21
and by the way. Oh, but these greedy fucking players, like,
34:24
The shit that we're going to deal with— I'm not going to get fucking baseball
34:27
next year. Like, I don't get to watch the opening day next year
34:31
until maybe later in the season as these fuckers try to ram in a fucking
34:35
salary cap, as they try to make sure that the Dodgers are the villains and
34:39
the players are the villains, as if it's not all these fucking private equity firms
34:42
that are fucking destroying sports. And by the way, private equity
34:45
firms, I've never even been going like, oh, they're the root of all evil.
34:48
No, no, they've definitely ruined all youth sports. That's why when you take your
34:52
kids out to a tournament, It costs you thousands of dollars. That's why soccer is
34:56
unaffordable here. That's why baseball is unaffordable here.
34:59
That's why football is unaffordable here. That's why your fucking ticket prices are unaffordable.
35:03
That's why it costs $2,000 to basically go to a Dodger game. Like,
35:06
let's be real clear here. This is all not affordable
35:10
because of what these weird-ass evaluations are, not because,
35:14
God forbid, the players get a piece of the pie of the billions
35:17
that are actually out there. This is fucking maddening.
35:21
By the way, speaking of the MLB, as, as this
35:25
is looming, I think that's on a lot of people's minds. Yeah. And,
35:28
you know, I posted on Threads earlier that this is getting very dark very
35:31
fast and that the NBA is quietly in the most precarious position in men's team
35:35
sports right now, specifically because their 2 most—
35:40
2 of their most prominent franchises have just been bought by absolute nightmare situations.
35:44
And someone said more than baseball. And this was my take. You can tell me
35:47
how you feel about it. I said, I think so, only because the MLBPA is
35:50
genuinely strong and I don't think a lockout is going to kill momentum as much
35:53
as it used to because baseball will be a top story everywhere in a way
35:58
it normally isn't. I would agree with that. Now, if the MLB caves,
36:01
MLBPA caves to the owners, then baseball is fucked.
36:05
Fucked. And, and, and quite honestly,
36:09
then this is something you and I haven't talked about.
36:12
Not only is the MLB fucked, but if the MLB caves,
36:17
if the PA caves to owners with what they're
36:21
asking for, the ripple effect that it could have across
36:25
American sports is really
36:29
bad. We haven't even really talked about what it would look like
36:32
for no unions to have
36:36
the representative example of the MLBPA
36:40
to even draw from anymore. Like, we, we would be entering
36:44
the darkest timeline. We would. The ML— what the MLB does
36:47
here, just because the NFL is watched more and
36:51
more profitable, and just because the NBA might be more popular in media, does not
36:54
mean that the MLB doesn't have major power in what,
36:58
like, in what strong sports representation and sports
37:02
unions look like. And for that to fall apart in the middle
37:06
of fascism would be fucking devastating. This is like—
37:10
this is literally Major League Baseball Players Association is like the final stand.
37:15
Like, that's— that's literally the last line of defense. Yeah, I'm not saying
37:19
this as like being— no, this is literally it. This is like the last
37:23
moment to make sure that power is not completely taken in sports entirely
37:28
by billionaire equity firms. This is literally the final
37:31
one. If they get this, it's fucking over. So I,
37:35
I find it so ironic that, you know, LeBron just announced that he
37:39
was leaving. A lot of people are doing the thing where they're like, LeBron must
37:42
have known. LeBron didn't know. These dudes didn't know that the owners that
37:45
just bought the team didn't know that they were buying it. So no, that's not
37:48
what happened. But what I will say is, um, to the approximately
37:52
60% of Lakers fans who have coped their way out of fucking ever admitting that
37:56
LeBron was good for their organization, You just got bought by a bunch
38:00
of fucking losers, lost the most profitable NBA
38:05
player of the last fucking 20 years,
38:09
and he's now playing for the Sixers. So congrats.
38:12
Oh, you didn't need LeBron? I promise you, you're about to get a kick in
38:16
the ass. And LeBron himself is going
38:20
to be out of the league probably after next year. So you've got private equity
38:23
bought into all these goddamn teams, people who don't give a fuck about growing the
38:26
league, people who only want to grow their profits and collude with each other and
38:31
you're going to be left with what, Jalen Brunson and the cute little Knicks who
38:35
are going to be a fucking yesterday's story by November. This league
38:38
has— is going to have a massive post-LeBron problem that people have been
38:42
trying to diagnose for nearly a decade, prognosticating about
38:46
what it's going to look like when LeBron retires. And it's
38:50
like that. Yeah, dude, this is— boy, we're really reaching.
38:54
So we're picking new— we're picking new NBA teams until
38:57
those get bought by Uh, right now I'm,
39:00
I'm team— I've, I've— I'm on record as I will never root against Jaylen—
39:04
uh, sorry, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White. Okay, I'm gonna— I
39:09
hope they have a great time, a great life. I'm always gonna root for Jaylen
39:11
Brown. I'm rooting for players. And the reality is,
39:15
root for fucking players. Those millionaires are closer
39:19
to us than, than, than they are to billionaires.
39:23
Like In terms of— before we,
39:27
before we leave this show, I think it's really important to point out that
39:31
when people say we're talking millionaires versus billionaires, we're talking about people
39:35
who are hundreds of millionaires versus billionaires. The billionaire
39:39
economy is not our economy.
39:43
So like when you think about how we all operate
39:46
in the world with our money and like it, you can't do a 1-to-1 comparison
39:50
of my $200,000. How far would it go compared to someone else's
39:54
$2 billion. That $2 billion operates in an entirely different
39:58
economy than we operate in. So when you're talking about players
40:03
who are making $30 million a year, they operate
40:06
in an economy, in an economy that is much more similar to what we
40:10
understand to be normal financial operating
40:13
procedure. Billionaires don't,
40:17
because what I just told you, remember, I just told you People just bought
40:21
the Lakers who can't afford the Lakers. They don't have $12.5 billion.
40:25
Even, you know, Devin Booker's not buying something
40:30
that he is— that he is $12.5 billion or $5 billion short
40:35
of net worth. We are— they are operating in an entirely different
40:39
financial reality. Billionaires are than the hundreds of millionaires,
40:42
than the millionaires, and certainly than normal average people. Even if you like to
40:46
fancy yourself a cute little L.A. rich guy, Oh, you're worth $2 million. That's really
40:50
fucking quaint. We live and we operate in different financial realities.
40:55
So I'd like to let you know what other teams that Josh Kushner
40:58
already has purchased stakes in. He is— and by the
41:03
way, this is also through Thrive Capital— the Miami Heat in 2025.
41:07
So this is through Thrive? Yeah, it's all through Thrive. Through Thrive
41:10
in 2025, purchased a minority stake in the Miami Heat in
41:14
2026. Acquired a minority stake through
41:19
Thrive Eternal of the San Francisco Giants.
41:22
Also, the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019 held a 2.5%
41:26
minority stake before the divestment. But also,
41:30
I'd like to remind everybody that Jared and Charles Kushner, his brother and father,
41:33
tried to purchase the Miami Marlins for $1.9 billion in
41:37
2017, but backed out due to the political pressures of them being connected to
41:41
the thing. Now, luckily, Josh Kushner is completely unrelated altogether.
41:45
So he now owns stakes in now 2
41:48
NBA teams, owns almost entirely one of which, and the San
41:52
Francisco Giants. It's very interesting how no one's paid attention to any of this.
41:56
He hasn't. He still owns
42:00
how much in the Heat? According to this, he purchased
42:04
a minority stake in the NBA franchise a year ago. So I have no idea
42:07
if he's divested at all. It might just be through Thrive, of which
42:11
maybe that should be looked into. I'm so tired.
42:15
I'm so tired. And like,
42:19
then you have people, then you tell me he's the founder of Thrive. You turn
42:22
on ESPN and they say, what a deal. What? Like,
42:26
I'm going to lose my mind.
42:30
Oh my God. Like ESPN, guys, get a grip. Like,
42:34
We're not going to have anything to talk about when this entire bubble bursts and
42:39
the NBA folds. Oh my God. And people think I'm crazy, but I
42:42
really think that we are about T-minus 3 years from,
42:46
from these people rolling out AI-generated simulated
42:51
games. Yes, they're gonna strap Luka and,
42:54
and Austin Reaves to little tennis balls and make them fucking do
42:58
all the shit in practice, and they're gonna simulate games through EA
43:02
Sports and put it onto a fucking broadcast for pennies
43:06
on the dollar of paying a goddamn actual professional basketball player.
43:10
If you think that that's a far-fetched idea,
43:14
I'm sorry, it's not. Like,
43:17
we are going to be watching AI players in the next fucking 5
43:22
years if we don't get our shit together. Yeah, guys, this is about as bad
43:24
as it gets. And now I'm starting to wonder what's going to happen with the
43:27
Dodgers and their finances. Because now I have a lot of questions. I have— so
43:30
I have questions now that I didn't have in the past. Yeah. So we,
43:33
we were really giving the Dodgers like plenty of credit, whatever. But like now
43:37
we're talking about— I mean, we really kind of dropped the ball, quite honestly,
43:40
on not talking about the fact that Mark Walter is in the kind of trouble
43:43
that he's in while talking about the Dodgers while entering the NBA— the MLB lockout.
43:47
We all have our blind spots. I'm not going to fucking kill us over it.
43:49
But the reality is that's a fucking problem. Now I— now I have so many
43:53
more questions. I should— we should have had more questions before and we have way
43:56
more now. So well done, Mark. Well done. You had us forgetting
44:01
to talk about it, but now we're not going to. I have so many questions
44:05
and no answers. Literally no answers. Because now I'm
44:09
wondering where all this Dodger money actually is. I really want to know now.
44:12
I didn't want to know before. I was willing to give the benefit of the
44:15
doubt because you were making so much money and it was very clear how much
44:17
money this team is making. Now I just got a lot of questions about where
44:21
that money came from to actually invest to begin with. So this is— I
44:25
want you guys really bad. I want you guys to think about how quickly we've
44:29
gone from having like affordable housing and being able to buy a house and
44:33
being able to afford groceries to nobody being able to do that. That's how quickly
44:37
these leagues can start to fall apart in front of our eyes. So you might
44:40
see the Lakers do well next year and feel really, really good. You might see
44:44
the Yankees do really well next year with the influx of fucking investment and
44:47
do really well. Please, I am begging you.
44:50
I am begging you. To achieve pattern recognition. If it's not something that comes
44:54
to you naturally because you're not ADHD or autistic like most
44:58
of, like, the people I know, then, then read
45:02
about it. Read how to spot the signs because this is not
45:06
good. And little, little influxes of, like,
45:09
opportunity and, like, they're gonna suck you in, the propaganda,
45:12
it's not gonna fucking work. Nope. We're screwed. You're screwed.
45:15
I'm screwed. But we've lost both our basketball teams in a calendar year. Listen,
45:19
I'm telling you what this looks like and plain and simple. And I mean this
45:22
abundantly clear. And it's been said in the chat multiple times and said in the
45:24
chat also on Instagram. It's been said on YouTube. This just flat out
45:29
looks like— and I'm not even saying this is like a joke— this just looks
45:32
like money laundering. It looks like the most obvious, in front
45:36
of your face money laundering. He has $25 billion in Thrive Capital that he needs
45:39
to wash. I'm sorry. I just don't think that he's washing Thrive
45:43
money and shady investments through Thrive and then through that.
45:47
That's how— that's how money— if you've ever watched literally any crime show,
45:51
we know how this works. Mm-hmm. You know how it works. By the way,
45:54
if I'm Shohei Ohtani, I'm calling my agent and getting my money now.
45:58
Ooh. Just side note, if I'm Shohei Ohtani,
46:01
I'm calling my agent, maybe Major League Baseball, and I'm restructuring my contract away
46:05
from— that is not a bad call because I am actually starting to wonder where
46:08
this money actually is. Well, isn't that—
46:12
wait, hold on. You want a new can of worms? There's a new can
46:16
of worms. I— everyone on the Dodgers got deferred money. You might want
46:21
to get your money. Shohei's money doesn't exist,
46:24
does it? I am— I have a lot of questions. I officially
46:29
have a lot of questions that I didn't have before. Shohei's money.
46:32
I mean, it doesn't exist. That's why they deferred it, right? Like, we already know,
46:36
sort of like hypothetically, like right now. Right now they couldn't exist. Right now they
46:40
couldn't pay him. Right now I don't think they can pay him the money they
46:43
owe. But I don't know. But I don't think they can. Oh, no, they can't.
46:45
I think we already knew that they couldn't give him. But like his
46:49
money, he's not getting paid. If you— if
46:53
I was one of those people who did futures betting,
46:58
listen, you guys are— you guys are craven assholes. Stop doing that. But if you
47:01
are doing it, throw me 10% when
47:05
you win money on the fact that Shohei's not getting paid. Yeah, I just,
47:08
um, it's even in the chat right here. Damn, Shohei getting robbed twice.
47:13
Oh, funny. Hey, well done. Well done. Who said that?
47:16
I'm just— that was Zion the Mink. Uh, very, very funny.
47:20
You, you always say that his name wrong. Oh, is that not— yeah, I feel
47:23
like I read it. Oh, it's an L. It's, it's not a capital Y.
47:26
Yeah, yeah, Zillow. I apologize. Don't worry, I got you, buddy. Um, to be fair,
47:30
you have to read them and then I just look at it afterwards. I just
47:33
gotta say, man, this is, uh This is the beginning of
47:36
something really bad. Yep. Yeah. So it's already
47:40
been bad, but now I hope some of you can just finally see it.
47:46
I know I can, and I'm not enjoying it, Cody. I'm not enjoying it one
47:49
bit. Not— I plowed through my Aperol Spritz in the middle of a Wednesday.
47:52
This is not good. Day drinking. Needing— my God.
47:56
Well, we're back tomorrow. We're back tomorrow. We have another live show for you,
48:00
a normal show, not just on this one particular topic. This was our first ever
48:03
emergency podcast. We felt like it was very, very necessary and needed.
48:07
I'm glad we did it. I actually really, really enjoyed it. And if nothing else,
48:11
I thoroughly hope that some of you learned something through this
48:15
or starting to ask certain questions that we currently have.
48:18
Because here's the thing, we don't have all the answers. We really don't. What we
48:22
have is so many more questions that no one else is asking. We have some
48:24
answers that are based in our ability to, like, you know, our,
48:27
our, our ability to break down sports business
48:31
in a way that maybe the average person can't. But there are a lot of
48:34
questions, more questions than answers. And sometimes knowing that,
48:37
sometimes having someone not tell you that things are going to be answered when they
48:40
can't be is helpful. So we'd like to always extend that when we can.
48:44
Um, we will be back tomorrow at, at 8
48:48
PM Eastern time, 5 PM Pacific time. That will be our
48:52
last show of the week before Cody goes on vacation. Uh, so we'll see
48:56
you tomorrow. And in the meantime, we normally close the show out, Cody. Telling people
49:00
to like, share, and subscribe and fuck Curt Schilling.
49:03
I'm not— I can't find it in my heart to be mad at Curt Schilling
49:06
right now. You're off the hook today. Today, Cody, I have something new to
49:10
debut. It's fuck billionaires.
49:13
Fuck every billionaire. We're the regulars.