Lon Rosen opens up about the challenges ahead as Lakers president

For Lon Rosen, being the Lakers’ president of business operations is a full-circle moment.

Rosen began his career with the Lakers as a college student before becoming an executive in the 1980s, eventually becoming an agent and business executive — including serving as the Dodgers’ senior vice president and chief marketing officer since 2012.

“To be able to go back to where I started, it’s a very exciting thing for me,” Rosen told several reporters Tuesday night. “And I love a challenge, and I’m looking forward to it. I have great people to work with, which makes things fun.”

Rosen added: “For me, it’s a challenge. It’s a new experience, but it’s like coming home. But because I still have my connection with the Dodgers, it’s exciting.”

“I’ve talked to others who do this kind of work. Luckily there’s a great team that works here at the Lakers that I met two days ago. And I have a really great team that works for the Dodgers and we all get together,” he added.

Download the California Post App, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletters

In a wide-ranging interview, Rosen addressed a variety of topics, including confirming the plan of president of basketball operations/general manager Rob Pelinka, and the opinions of special advisers Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, who will continue to lead the franchise’s basketball operations.

Pelinka told reporters that he and franchise governor Jeanie Buss will lead the expansion of the front office.

“Rob is empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “And you talked about it and I can talk about it; Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, they’ve been involved in helping Rob a little bit. It gives you a deep bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it’s different. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that’s really how we look at it.

“I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka since he represented Kobe [Bryant]. I met him many years ago.”

Friedman, Zaidi and Rosen are among those connected to the Dodgers who have been added to the legendary NBA franchise since Mark Walter, who is also the main owner of the Dodgers, bought majority ownership of the team from the Buss family in the fall.

Lakers icon Magic Johnson will not rejoin the franchise in an official role. Johnson was the team’s president of basketball operations from February 2017-April 2019 before he abruptly resigned.

“He’s always going to have some kind of involvement with every team, but he’s not going to be involved every day,” Rosen said. “It’s not going to be different since he left the Lakers. He’s obviously a big Lakers fan, but he’s not going to be, ‘Hey Rob go sign this player. Do that.’ He will stay in touch with all the groups he is involved in, but no, he will not be involved on a daily basis. He is a huge Laker fan and will continue to be a huge Laker fan. It’s not bad to have that.”

Rosen also had a message for fans following the increase in ticket prices for next season – including a 3% “director’s fee”.

“We hope they will renew,” Rosen said. “And it obviously shows what the market is now and the demand for tickets. You can look at how tickets are sold and what the prices are. You look at the primary and secondary market and you can see where the demand is.”

Rosen said he will spend “the majority” of his time working for the Lakers, but will still provide “some services” to the Dodgers.

“We will look at the best practices of both teams,” said Rosen. “I haven’t gotten into the weeds of how the Lakers work, but I feel like they work and work very well. There are things we do at the Dodgers that we do very well.

“Both organizations are going to learn from each other. I don’t know where it’s going to fall. People say, the Dodgers, this is the gold standard. And you know, we’re doing a really good job there. And the work here, I’ve been to a lot of games here. I know their business model is very successful, so I have to make sure I don’t mess it up.”