The Lakers introduced Lon Rosen as their new president of business operations on Tuesday, and the message was clear right away. This isn’t a power shift. It’s an expansion.
Rosen, a longtime Dodgers executive hired after Mark Walter took majority control of the franchise, made it clear that Rob Pelinka remains firmly in charge of basketball decisions. Rosen said his role will stay on the business side, with Pelinka empowered to run the front office as he sees fit, as relayed by The Athletic’s Dan Woike.
“I just run the business side. Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said, noting that Dodgers executives Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi will provide support and perspective rather than oversight.
The comments align with Pelinka’s recent remarks about building a deeper basketball operations department modeled after the Dodgers’ structure. Pelinka, governor Jeanie Buss, and Walter will continue to be the final decision-makers.
Rosen also addressed speculation about Magic Johnson, calling him a close friend but stressing he will not return to a day-to-day role. “He’s a super Laker fan,” Rosen said. “That’s not a bad thing.”
Stability matters, because the Lakers have a busy summer coming. They can open significant cap space, control up to three tradable first-round picks, and face major decisions on Austin Reaves and LeBron James, whose contract is expiring.
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