Former Disney CEO Bob Iger emerged as a partner in a surprise acquisition of the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter yesterday, joining forces with Josh Kushner in a $12.5 billion purchase. But as it turns out, Iger is far from a lifelong fan of the Lakers.
During an appearance on The Old Man and the Three podcast in 2021, Iger revealed that he actually grew up as a New York Knicks fan and couldn't root for the Lakers on principle. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he wound up rooting for the Clippers as his adopted NBA team. He said that one of the reasons was that Clippers tickets were cheaper at the time.
“I’m a Clippers fan. Having moved from New York to Los Angles back in 2000 and being a big NBA fan, I needed a team to root for... Lakers were a big rival of the Knicks, the team I grew up rooting for. So I couldn’t root for the Lakers very easily; just was not in my DNA," Iger said in 2021.
Iger vs. His New Fans
Lakers fans were pretty upset to learn that their new owner has actively rooted for their bitter crosstown rival:
"A clippers fan shouldn’t be running the greatest franchise in sports. He could’ve waited till Ballmer was forced to sell his (expletive) team," one user remarked.
"Excited to see Bob Iger try to walk this one back," wrote another.
"We got a Clippers fan as our owner, its BEYOND cooked now," a third lamented.
© Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images.
Iger is far from the first person to be a fan of one organization and then buying a different one.
Countless athletes who made their bones with one organization went on to become executives or owners of another - Michael Jordan, Jerry West and Pat Riley are just a few examples in the NBA alone.
If the wins keep coming and the trophy cabinet keeps getting larger, fans will forgive Iger's prior loyalties fairly quickly.
