CHARLOTTE, NC – Michael Jordan is finalizing a deal to sell a majority stake in Charlotte’s Horna move that would end his 13 years of executive oversight of the organization, the group announced Friday.
Jordan is selling to a team led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, Hornets said. Plotkin has been a minority shareholder of the Hornets since 2019. Schnall is a minority owner of Atlanta Hawks since 2015 and is in the process of selling its investment in that team.
It is unclear how long the sale will take to be finalized by the NBA’s Board of Governors. Jordan is expected to keep a stake in the Hornets, which he bought in 2010 for about $275 million.
Jordan’s decision to sell leaves the 30-team NBA without any Black majority ownership.
“Just as it’s great that one of our greatests, Michael Jordan, can become the primary governor of a team, he has full concurrent selling rights,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. know earlier this month in the NBA finals. “The value has gone up a lot since he bought that team, so it’s his decision.”
During that same press conference at the Finals, Silver said the Board of Governors focuses on diversity in ownership groups.
“I want better representation in terms of key governors,” Silver said. “It’s a market. It’s something that if we were to expand the league would be able to focus directly on that, but in the individual team’s transactions, the market would take us to where we are. we.”
The selling price was not immediately announced; ESPN, citing sources, said the franchise is valued at $3 billion. The most recent sale of the NBA team was when Mat Ishbia bought it phoenix suna deal when struck in December valued that franchise at $4 billion.
Through spokeswoman Estee Portnoy, Jordan declined to comment.
For how great Jordan is on the court — national champion at North Carolinatwo-time Olympic gold medalist, six-time NBA champion, and in the never-ending conversation about the best player ever – the Hornets have never reached championship level. enemy during the time he was the owner.
Charlotte hit 423-600 in 13 seasons as an owner, the 26th best record for that period in the 30-team league. It has never won a playoff series in that time, and hasn’t even entered the postseason in any of the past seven seasons.
Other members of the group that owns potential new Hornets – pending approval – are recording artist J. Cole, Dan Sundheim, Ian Loring, country singer-songwriter Eric Church and a number of local investors Methods in Charlotte include Amy Levine Dawson and Damian Mills.
Associated Press report.
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