Beyoncé Rumors | Hoops Rumors

New Rockets Owner Open To Selling Shares To Beyoncé

October 11th, 2017 at 8:00pm CST by ChrisCrouse

New Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta isn’t planning on bringing in any shareholders, but he indicates that he would make an exception for Houston native Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Scott Soshinick of Bloomberg.com relays.

“I prefer to own 100 percent,” Fertitta said. “If somebody as special as a Beyoncé or somebody like that wanted to come in for a tiny percentage because they wanted to be an ambassador for the team because this is their hometown — would I sit down and discuss it with them? Yeah, I would sit down and discuss it with them. It’s a compliment to have somebody like Beyoncé to want to be a part of your team.”

Beyoncé considered an investment in the franchise when former owner Leslie Alexander put the team on the market over the summer. It’s uncertain whether or not the pop icon has interest in an arrangement with Fertitta.

It’s also unclear whether or not the NBA would allow Beyoncé to become a stakeholder in the team since her husband Jay-Z currently runs the Roc Nation Sports agency, which represents several NBA players. Jay-Z was forced to sell his minority stake in the Nets when he started the agency

It’s fair to speculate that the league would at least sit down with the power couple to discuss the potential issues with Beyoncé owning a slice of the Houston franchise. While there have been no reports indicating that the 20-time Grammy winner would face obstacles from the league on her way to owning a share of the Rockets, the potential for conflict of interest would exist.

It’s becoming more common for North American franchise owners to sell minority shares to celebrities. Justin Timberlake currently owns a piece of the Grizzlies, while Will Smith has a minority stake in the Sixers.

Southwest Notes: Rockets Sale, Grizzlies, Smith Jr.

September 9th, 2017 at 6:57pm CST by Austin Kent

The sale of the Rockets to a Texas billionaire will impact the entire NBA landscape, Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider) writes. The $2.2B price point, $550MM more than Forbes’ 2017 projection, may encourage other team owners to start exploring the idea of cashing out.

Until outgoing Rockets owner Les Alexander announced he’d be selling, team owners had, for the most part, been standing pat on their investments, letting their franchises slowly appreciate over time. When the Clippers sold under duress for a record-breaking $2B, the public got its first glimpse of just how valuable the teams have begun.

As Pelton writes, the fact that the Rockets, a team projected to be the eighth most valuable in the league, sold for over $2B could mean that the average price of an NBA franchise is now close to $1.5B.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Ownership of the Rockets will be transferred to Tilman Fertitta but what does that entail? Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle broke down the next steps in the process, including the $1MM application fee Fertitta will have to pay to cover all the administrative costs associated with the sale of an NBA franchise.
The Grizzlies will be a team in transition, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes. With Zach Randolph and Vince Carter now members of the Kings, the Grind House era could be coming to a close. Powell wonders if Memphis would look to shop Marc Gasol at the deadline if the team gets off to a rough start.
Fear not, world, Tilman Fertitta has said that he’d be happy to have Beyoncé join his team in Houston, Alysha Tsuji of USA Today writes. The singer had previously been said to have had an interest in purchasing the Rockets.
Just how well Dennis Smith Jr., widely regarded as a darkhorse candidate to win the Rookie of the Year award, fares in his first NBA season could determine how the Mavs transition into the post- Dirk Nowtizki era, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes.

Beyoncé Interested In Buying Stake In Rockets?

August 1st, 2017 at 2:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Pop star Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is mulling the possibility of investing in the Rockets, reports Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg. The club announced just over two weeks ago that team owner Leslie Alexander was putting the franchise up for sale.

Beyoncé is a Houston native, making her connection to the Rockets a logical one. If she were to invest in the franchise, she wouldn’t be the first person in her family to have owned a portion of an NBA team. Her husband Jay-Z previously had a small stake in the Nets before selling his share of the team in order to launch his Roc Nation agency. Elsewhere in the NBA, Justin Timberlake owns a piece of his hometown Grizzlies.

As Sochnick details, Forbes placed Beyoncé second on its 2017 list of highest-paid celebrities and estimated her net worth at $350MM. While that’s a significant sum, it will fall well short of the Rockets’ eventual sale price, which should easily exceed $1 billion and could approach $2 billion. As such, if Beyoncé were to get involved in a bid for the team, it would have to be as a minority investor.

The Rockets have generated “a bevy of global interest” among potential buyers since Alexander made his decision to sell the team, per Soshnick. While a handful of would-be investors have expressed public interest in buying the franchise, it doesn’t appear there’s a frontrunner yet.