Bob Iger just paid a chunk of $12.5 billion to become one of the controlling owners of the Los Angeles Lakers. He’ll show up to games at Crypto.com Arena and sit next to celebrities. He’ll wear the purple and gold and act like the most famous franchise in basketball has always been his team.
There’s just one problem. Bob Iger is a Clippers fan.
The Podcast That Never Went Away
In January 2021, the former Disney CEO went on “The Old Man and The Three” with JJ Redick and admitted it plainly. He grew up a Knicks fan in New York. When he moved to Los Angeles in 2000, he needed a new team, and rooting for the Lakers was off the table because they were his childhood team’s biggest rival.
So Iger picked the Clippers. He liked that the tickets were cheaper and the atmosphere was easier to navigate.
Then he stuck with them through the Cuttino Mobley years, the Blake Griffin peak, the Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan Lob City run, and the Kawhi Leonard era.
Why the Clip Resurfaced Now
The internet does not forget. The moment Iger and Josh Kushner agreed to buy the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation from Mark Walter, that 2021 podcast interview started circulating everywhere. NBA Twitter and Lakers fan accounts made sure everyone saw it.
JJ Redick himself has confirmed the Iger allegiance was real. Redick told stories about Iger being courtside for basically every Clippers home game between 2013 and 2017. Casual fans do not do that.
Does This Actually Matter?
Depends on who you ask. Owners are allowed to have complicated fan histories. Mark Cuban wasn’t born a Mavericks fan. Steve Ballmer wasn’t a Clippers guy before writing the check.
What it does mean is the Lakers just handed keys to a guy who spent 20 years cheering against them. Lakers fans have a long memory for that kind of thing. Kobe famously kept receipts on every executive who ever doubted him, and that energy still lives in the fanbase.
The Clippers Angle Is Awkward Too
Steve Ballmer, the current Clippers owner, has spent years trying to build the Clippers into a real threat to the Lakers. He built a shiny new arena in Inglewood and handed massive contracts to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Competitive is an understatement.
Now the guy who was actually a Clippers fan through all those losing years is walking across the hallway to run their crosstown rival. The optics are strange, and Ballmer has to be at least a little annoyed.
What Lakers Fans Should Actually Care About
Iger’s fandom is a fun story, but the real question is whether he’ll be a good owner. He ran Disney for 15 years and turned it into one of the biggest entertainment companies on the planet. He knows how to build a brand and how to run large organizations.
If he brings that operational discipline to the Lakers, most fans will forgive the Clippers past by opening night. If he starts making bad basketball calls, that old podcast clip is getting replayed every single week.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
