Lakers’ Rosen: Pelinka ‘Empowered’ To Continue Running Basketball Ops

The Lakers introduced their new president of business operations to the media on Tuesday, with longtime Los Angeles Dodgers executive Lon Rosen speaking to reporters for the first time since being hired by the NBA team.

As Dan Woike of The Athletic writes, there has been speculation around the league since Mark Walter took over majority control of the franchise about whether the new leadership group might make front office changes that impact Rob Pelinka‘s future with the Lakers. However, Rosen made it clear on Tuesday that he envisions Pelinka remaining in his position as Los Angeles’ president of basketball operations and general manager.

“I just run the business side, Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “(Dodgers executives) Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, they have involvement helping Rob a bit. It gives you a deeper bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it is unique. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that’s really how we look at it.

“Look, I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe (Bryant). I met him many, many years ago.”

Rosen’s comments line up with the remarks Pelinka made to the media in the wake of this month’s trade deadline. He said at that time that the Lakers would be expanding their basketball operations department in the coming months and want to build a deep front office like that of the Dodgers, the MLB team Walter owns. But Pelinka also stressed that he, governor Jeanie Buss, and Walter would continue to be the ones making basketball decisions, and Rosen confirmed as much.

Pelinka was originally hired as the Lakers’ general manager under president of basketball operations Magic Johnson in 2017. He took over control of the front office in 2019, was promoted to VP of basketball operations in 2020 and was eventually promoted again to president of basketball operations in the spring of 2025, receiving a contract extension at that time as well.

Notably, before joining the Dodgers in 2012 as the team’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Rosen was the longtime agent for Johnson, the former Lakers star and lead basketball executive who unexpectedly resigned from his role in 2019 and accused Pelinka of disparaging him behind his back.

Johnson and Pelinka have mended fences since then and Rosen referred to Johnson on Tuesday as one of his “closest friends,” but the Lakers’ new president of business opreations said the Hall-of-Famer won’t be returning to any sort of day-to-day role in the organization.

“Earvin’s involved with all types of things,” Rosen said, per McMenamin. “He owns football teams, baseball teams, soccer teams, insurance companies, a lot of things. He’s always going to have some type of involvement with all the teams, but he is not going to have a day-to-day involvement. It’s going to be no different since he left the Lakers.

“Obviously, he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not going to be, ‘Hey, Rob, go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not going to have day-to-day involvement, at all. He is a super Laker fan and he’ll continue to be a super Laker fan. It’s not bad to have that.”

The Lakers have an eventful offseason on tap in 2026. They’re in position to create significant cap room and will be able to trade up to three first-round picks after having just one tradable first-rounder at this year’s deadline. Austin Reaves will also be up for a new contract, while LeBron James‘ deal is set to expire too. The four-time MVP has yet to confirm whether he plans to continue his career — and if he does so, whether he still wants to be a Laker.