L.A. Sports Sale

SAN DIEGO--Jack Kent Cooke is selling the Forum, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and the Lakers basketball team for $67 million, the biggest deal in professional sports history, according to published reports.

The expected buyer is Jerry Buss, a 46-year-old chemical engineer who made a fortune in Los Angeles-area real estate. Buss was unavailable for comment Monday.

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner said Monday that a $67 million deal was completed and that Cooke "is selling the building and the two teams for $44 million more than they originally cost him."

Cooke, 66, built the Forum sports arena for $16 million in 1967 and bought the Lakers from Minncapolis businessman Bob Short for $5 million in 1967. He paid $2 million to the National Hockey League for the Kings as an expansion franchise in 1967.

The Herald-Examiner said Cooke was pressured by National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle to sell either his hockey and basketball teams, or the Washington Redskins. He is majority owner of the Redskins, and NFL rules prohibit an owner from having interests in other sports franchises.