When Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter agreed to buy the majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, in a transaction that valued the NBA franchise at $10 billion, Walter wasn’t the only one who took on dual roles with his newest team.
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Last week, Dodgers Chief Marketing Officer Lon Rosen was announced as the Lakers’ new president of business operations. In a 20-minute call with reporters Tuesday evening, Rosen revealed that he’s bringing some other Dodgers personnel with him.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman — the architect of the Dodgers teams that have won three of the last six World Series — will have input into basketball operations, Rosen said. So will Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers’ former general manager and current special advisor.
Zaidi was seen at the Lakers’ practice facility Monday, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Rob Pelinka will continue to handle the Lakers’ basketball operations.
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As for Rosen, he’ll still have a role in the Dodgers’ operations. Per Dan Woike of The Athletic, “Rosen says people can work with the Dodgers, Lakers and Sparks.”
A group led by Walter purchased the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks in 2014.
The Dodgers already had one of baseball’s largest front offices. Friedman, Rosen and Zaidi were accustomed to sharing their respective workloads with others.
Ostensibly the same will be true with the Lakers, too, but it will be fascinating to see how the cross-sport pollination of Los Angeles’ two biggest sports franchises plays out.
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