Who Will Buy The Los Angeles Clippers?
By Jason Gold
Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
2. Guggenheim Baseball Partners
Silently, the Guggenheim Baseball Partners have been trying to acquire other sports franchises in the Los Angeles market. They’ve already purchased the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and have been trying to acquire the majority stake in the Lakers for the past eight months; however, the Buss family isn’t budging.
GBP wants to expand it’s role in the Los Angeles sports market place and eventually make it a monopoly. They have the money. Mark Walter and the Guggenheim Partners have an enormous amount of money to go out and acquire whatever they choose. Plus, they would be welcomed with open arms into the NBA, especially with Magic Johnson once again acting as the face of the ownership group.
GBP’s purchase of the Sparks wasn’t made just because they wanted to acquire a WNBA team that was about to fold. They didn’t purchase the Sparks because they thought they could make money. They did it to show the NBA that they were willing partners so that when the time came to purchase an NBA team, they would be instantly approved and would have the inside track on purchasing a team.
Don’t be surprised if Magic Johnson trades in his purple and gold in order to take over the Los Angeles Clippers. It’s been his dream to buy an NBA team, though his first choice has and will always be the Lakers. Expect GBP to make an incredibly strong bid for the Clippers. However, I believe that GBP has a bigger goal in mind. I believe they want AEG to purchase the Clippers so that they can sneak in and purchase the 35% stake in the Lakers, at which point the will have right of first refusal should the Buss family ever decide to sell the Lakers. That, at the end of the day, is what Magic Johnson and the rest of his partnership really wants.