Pelinka Calls First Talks With Kushner and Iger 'Really Positive'

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said he has held "preliminary discussions" with the franchise's new owners, Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger, and described the early talks as "really positive."

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has begun talking to the people who now sign his checks. Pelinka said he held "preliminary discussions" with new owners Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger and characterized those early conversations as "really positive," according to Forbes Business.

It is a small disclosure with outsized meaning for a franchise that has spent decades under a single family's control. In professional sports, the first months after a change of control are when the operating culture is set: who decides on payroll, who signs off on trades that carry luxury-tax consequences, how much rope the basketball department gets before ownership starts asking for a plan. Pelinka's word choice — "preliminary" — says the answers are not settled. His other word choice — "positive" — says he expects to be part of settling them.

Why a general manager's tone matters in a control change

When a team changes hands, the front office is the most exposed layer of the organization. Coaches are hired and fired on results; general managers are hired and fired on philosophy, and philosophy is exactly what new owners tend to want to review. Every incoming ownership group inherits a set of commitments it did not make: contracts, draft assets already traded, arena and media obligations, and a roster whose competitive window may or may not line up with the buyer's payback horizon.

So the first meetings are diagnostic in both directions. Ownership is learning what it bought. The general manager is learning how much capital — financial and political — he can expect. Pelinka describing the talks as "really positive" is the public signal that the diagnostic has not turned adversarial. It is not, on its own, a guarantee of tenure. It is a statement that the two sides are still in the introductions phase and that nothing has gone wrong in it.

For the Lakers specifically, the stakes of that phase are unusual. The franchise is among the most recognizable brands in global sport, with a commercial reach that extends well beyond the standings. Decisions made in the first year of a new ownership era — on payroll tolerance, on front-office structure, on how aggressively to monetize the brand — tend to compound.

What Kushner and Iger bring to opposite sides of the building

The pairing is notable because the two names point in different directions. Joshua Kushner's career has been built in investment management — the discipline of underwriting an asset, modeling its cash flows, and holding it against a return target. That lens treats a basketball team as a scarce asset with pricing power: limited supply, rising media value, and a rights cycle that resets periodically.

Bob Iger's background is in media and entertainment operations, in running businesses whose product is intellectual property and whose growth comes from distribution. That lens treats a basketball team as a content engine — a library of live programming, characters, and archives that can be pushed through more channels than a local broadcast deal.

Neither view is in tension with winning basketball games; both are improved by it. But they produce different questions in a front-office meeting. A capital allocator asks what a marginal dollar of payroll returns. A media operator asks what a marginal star does to global engagement. A general manager who can answer both tends to survive ownership transitions. That is the test Pelinka has now entered.

The commercial questions that sit behind the basketball ones

Sports franchises have repriced sharply over the past decade as media rights values climbed and institutional capital was allowed deeper into team ownership. That has changed the profile of who buys teams and why. Buyers increasingly underwrite the asset the way they would underwrite infrastructure — long-duration, contracted revenue with inflation protection — rather than as a trophy with hobby economics.

The practical consequences show up in places fans rarely see:

• Payroll philosophy. Whether ownership treats luxury-tax payments as a cost of contention or as a line item to be defended.
• Front-office structure. Whether a president of basketball operations is layered above the general manager, or an analytics and strategy function is built out alongside it.
• Arena and matchday economics. Premium seating, hospitality and sponsorship inventory are the parts of the business an operator can move fastest.
• Media and content. Behind-the-scenes programming, documentary rights and international distribution are the areas where an entertainment executive's instincts show up first.
• Player relations. Stars increasingly weigh ownership stability and ambition when deciding where to sign or extend.

Each of those is a lever the new owners can pull without touching a single basketball decision — and each of them shapes the environment in which basketball decisions get made.

What to watch over the next several months

The tells will be structural rather than rhetorical. Watch whether the basketball operations reporting line changes, whether new executives are hired above or beside the current front office, and whether the team's spending behavior in the next transaction window matches or departs from its recent pattern. Watch, too, for hires on the business side — a chief commercial officer or a media executive brought in from outside is a clearer statement of intent than any interview quote.

Also worth watching is whether Pelinka's public posture changes as "preliminary" talks become working sessions. Front-office executives are careful with language during transitions for good reason; a shift from process language to plan language usually means decisions have been made.

The backdrop is a market that has been treating live sports as one of the few reliably scarce assets in media. Equities themselves were flat on the session: the S&P 500 tracker (NYSEARCA: SPY) closed at $767.18, down 0.08%, with the Nasdaq 100 proxy (NASDAQ: QQQ) at $741.10, off 0.01%, and the Dow tracker (NYSEARCA: DIA) at $512.68, down 0.32%, as of the close on Sept. 24, 2026. Franchise valuations do not mark to market daily the way those do, which is precisely their appeal to buyers with long horizons — and precisely why the people running the team day to day now have a new set of stakeholders to convince.

Key facts

• Who spoke: Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka
• New owners: Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger
• Stage of talks: "Preliminary discussions," described as "really positive"
• Market backdrop: SPY closed $767.18, -0.08%, as of 20:00 GMT Sept. 24, 2026

Frequently asked questions

What did Rob Pelinka say about the Lakers' new owners?

Pelinka, the Lakers' general manager, said he had held "preliminary discussions" with new owners Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger and described those early conversations as "really positive." He did not detail the substance of the talks, and the language suggests the relationship is still in an introductory phase rather than at the stage of firm operating decisions.

Who are the Lakers' new owners?

The new owners are Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger. Kushner's professional background is in investment management, while Iger's is in media and entertainment operations. The combination pairs a capital-allocation perspective with an operator's view of content and distribution, two lenses that tend to produce different priorities inside a sports franchise's business.

Does a new owner usually replace the general manager?

Not automatically, but control changes are the most common moment for front-office turnover in professional sports. New owners typically review basketball philosophy, payroll tolerance and reporting structure before deciding whether to retain existing leadership. Public statements that early talks are positive indicate the review has not turned adversarial, though they are not a guarantee of tenure.

What should fans watch for next?

Structural signals matter more than statements. Key indicators include whether the basketball operations reporting line changes, whether executives are hired above or alongside the current front office, how the team behaves in the next transaction window, and whether new commercial or media hires arrive on the business side. Those moves reveal ownership intent more clearly than interviews.

Why are sports franchises attractive to investors?

Franchises are scarce assets with long-duration, contracted revenue from media rights, sponsorship and matchday sales. They do not reprice daily the way listed equities do, which appeals to buyers with long holding periods. Rising live-sports media values over the past decade have drawn increasingly institutional capital into team ownership structures.

How did the broader market close on the day of the report?

Equity benchmarks were essentially flat. The S&P 500 tracker SPY closed at $767.18, down 0.08% from a prior close of $767.81. The Nasdaq 100 proxy QQQ finished at $741.10, down 0.01%, and the Dow tracker DIA closed at $512.68, down 0.32%, as of 20:00 GMT on Sept. 24, 2026.

Sources

• Lakers’ Rob Pelinka Had ‘Preliminary Discussions’ With New Owners — Forbes Business