NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked Tuesday, at his news conference following the league’s Board of Governors meetings in New York, whether the NBA did enough homework before it handed Mark Walter the Los Angeles Lakers last October.
His answer was that the league did the work, and that he stands by it. The NBA spoke with government agencies and other professional leagues as part of its review of Walter before approving him as controlling owner, Silver said.
Adam Silver says the league found "no red flags" in regards to Mark Walter
"We spoke to governmental agencies, we spoke to in the case of Mark Walter in a heavily regulated insurance industry. We spoke to other leagues in which he has investments, and we found no red flags." pic.twitter.com/QGmJf1gru9
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) September 15, 2026
“We found no red flags. To this day, these are — I call them allegations. There are issues to look into,” Silver said.
The question was on the table because Walter is not staying. Less than a year after the league signed off on his purchase, he agreed last month to sell his stake to venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney chief Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation, and that agreement arrived while Walter’s investment empire is under federal investigation tied to disclosure problems.
Silver’s phrasing was careful. He drew a line between allegations and findings, and he did not say the matter was closed. What he said was that the process the league ran at the time was the standard one, and that it produced no reason to say no.
The league’s own words from last October
The reason the vetting question carries weight is that the NBA did not approve Walter quietly. On Oct. 30, 2025, the league announced a unanimous Board of Governors vote and attached a statement from Silver that read as an endorsement rather than a formality.
Silver pointed to Walter’s years as a Lakers minority owner and as principal owner of the WNBA’s Sparks, and said he had “no doubt that he will be a committed steward of the team and a great addition to our league.”
That release also committed the league, in writing, to a structure that has since come apart. It stated that the Buss family would keep an ongoing interest and that Jeanie Buss would remain the team’s governor for at least five years after the transaction closed.
Silver added that he was thrilled Buss would stay on in that role.
11 months later, the man the league vouched for is exiting at a $2.5 billion markup on paper, the governor the league said would stay is fighting her own siblings to keep her seat and the second sale of the franchise in 14 months has not been approved.
Silver’s “no red flags” answer speaks to the first of those three problems. It does not touch the other two.
Why the question was being asked
Walter’s flip would have drawn scrutiny on speed alone. The federal investigation is what turned it into a question for the commissioner, because the NBA’s approval process exists precisely to surface that kind of exposure before an owner is seated.
Silver’s response Tuesday was, in effect, that the league looked where it was supposed to look and found nothing at the time. The reference to government agencies is notable, because it suggests the NBA’s review went beyond the financial and background checks that are routine for a new controlling owner.
Whether those agencies had anything to share in the fall of 2025, or whether the issues now under investigation postdate the approval, is not something Silver addressed and not something this site can speak to.
The distinction he drew matters for the Lakers because of what comes next. Kushner and Iger have to clear the same Board of Governors process Walter did.
If the league’s position is that the Walter approval was sound and the current matters are allegations rather than findings, that argues for treating the Kushner-Iger review as a fresh evaluation of the buyers rather than a re-litigation of the seller. Silver did not say that explicitly, and it should be read as an inference from his framing, not as a statement of league policy.
What Silver has not addressed: Jeanie Buss
As of publication, none of the reporters relaying Silver’s remarks in real time had reported an answer from him on Buss’s future as governor or on a timeline for the board to take up the Kushner-Iger sale.
That silence is itself relevant, because the Buss question is the one the league’s own October language most directly bears on. The Buss family trust holds 17.8 percent of the Lakers, and some of Buss’s siblings have said they intend to sell that remaining stake, while Buss maintains they cannot force the family out.
On Aug. 23 she filed a petition in California state court arguing that a 2017 court order requires the family to “take all actions reasonably available” to keep her in the governor’s chair.
The family dispute is not expected to hold up the sale to Kushner and Iger, but that the timing of league approval remains unclear. Buss attended this week’s meetings as the Lakers’ governor, which she remains until the trust stake is actually sold or a court says otherwise.
The five-year commitment in the October release was made to Buss, with Walter as the counterparty and the NBA as the announcing body. Walter is now leaving, and the siblings who could take Buss below the threshold that keeps her eligible are not bound by anything the league wrote.
If Silver was asked about that on Tuesday and chose not to engage, it would be consistent with a commissioner who has a long relationship with Buss and no interest in prejudging either the court case or the board’s eventual vote. If he was not asked, it is the most obvious question left on the table.
What it means with Media Day 13 days out
The Lakers hold Media Day on Sept. 28, which means the basketball side of the organization will be fielding ownership questions in less than two weeks with no resolution in sight. Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick will be asked who they answer to, and the honest answer is that it depends on a board vote that has no announced date and a court fight that has no announced end.
Silver’s remarks do not change that timeline, but they do clarify the league’s posture. The commissioner is not conceding a vetting failure, is not calling the Walter matter resolved and is not, so far, saying anything about the governor question the league itself put in writing 11 months ago.
For a franchise that has been sold twice in a little over a year and has finished neither transition cleanly, Tuesday was the first time the league’s top official addressed any of it in public.
The answer covered the past. The Lakers are still waiting on the future.
