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Magic Johnson joins financial group in hopes of buying the Dodgers

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LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Former Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson said today he has joined a financial team in hopes of purchasing the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Thrilled to announce that I’ve partnered with Mark Walter & Stan Kasten to form Guggenheim Baseball Mgmt in pursuit of purchasing the Dodgers!”

Johnson wrote on his Twitter page. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to be part of the Dodgers legacy & bring a World Series championship back to LA.”

Kasten is the former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals, while Walter is the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a private financial services firm that manages more than $125 billion in assets.

The trio have formed a group called Guggenheim Baseball Management, which envisions Kasten serving as the head of baseball operations for the Dodgers and Johnson as a business executive with a hand in recruiting players.

“I want to win,” Johnson told ESPN. “We want to win. No only do we have the guy who can write the check to buy the team, but we have to have somebody who can acquire quality people and talent, and Stan knows how to do that better than anybody. … We’ve got a great plan.”

Johnson, 52, recently sold his ownership stake in the Lakers.

“The timing is excellent,” he told ESPN. “We have the right owner, the right baseball man in Stan. I live here, I love it here. We want to make sure fans are safe and we want to give them a great experience. It might take us a little time, but we want to win.”

Former Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said last month that he had been approached by several would-be buyers of the team to become part of their ownership groups, but Torre said he had not signed onto any proposal.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball reached an agreement Nov. 1 to a “court supervised process” to sell the team, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June.

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