Michael Jordan‘s successes as a player and as a Nike ambassador outshine his track record as an NBA team owner, but the transaction that allowed Jordan to buy a majority stake in the Hornets was one of the best deals the six-time NBA champion ever made, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.
As Windhorst details, despite a reported sale price of $275MM, Jordan put up just $30MM in cash to buy the then-Bobcats in 2010, in an arrangement the league likely wouldn’t approve today. Since then, Jordan has continued to purchase more shares in the franchise and now owns about 90% of the team. Forbes’ franchise valuations, released last Wednesday, suggest the Hornets are currently worth $1.25 billion.
While Charlotte isn’t a huge market and the Hornets haven’t had much postseason success since their inception, the NBA’s revenue sharing model has paid off in a big way for the club. According to Windhorst, league documents show that the organization received more than $130MM in revenue sharing money between 2012 and 2017.
Windhorst’s piece, which includes a look at how LeBron James wants to follow in Jordan’s footsteps when it comes to owning an NBA franchise, is worth checking out in full.
Here are a few more Hornets-related notes:
- In an interesting piece for USA Today, Jeff Zillgitt spoke to Hornets players and head coach James Borrego about what it’s like to have Jordan as the team’s owner. “It’s actually really cool,” Marvin Williams said of playing for Jordan. “It’s not like people think. For the most part from what I hear, most people think it’s a lot tougher playing for him than it really is. He’s the total opposite. … He just wants you to compete. That’s not a lot to ask. If you compete, he’s going to live with the wins and the losses.”
- After a fairly quiet trade deadline, Hornets president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak looked ahead to the rest of the season and the upcoming offseason in his comments to reporters, including Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Kupchak believes Charlotte can make the playoffs and spoke in positive terms about the odds of re-signing Kemba Walker in the summer. “I’m optimistic and I’m hopeful, as I always have been, that Kemba starts his career in a Hornets uniform and ends it in one,” Kupchak said.
- In a post-trade-deadline mailbag for The Charlotte Observer, Bonnell answered questions on whether a quiet trade deadline would have an impact on Walker’s free agent decision, why the Hornets elected to claim Shelvin Mack off waivers using their open roster spot, and why Kupchak didn’t make any deals at the deadline.
Kemba didn’t start his career in a Hornets uniform. They were still the Bobcats at the beginning of his career
With Charlotte captain obvious!