Michael Jordan to sell majority stake in NBA’s Charlotte Hornets

NEW YORK – The city of Charlotte is unlikely to miss National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Michael Jordan, who has agreed to sell his majority stake in the Hornets to an investment consortium, the team announced on Friday.

The buyer group is led by Gabe Plotkin, chief investment officer at Tallwoods Capital, and Rick Schnall, co-president of private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

The group also includes musicians J. Cole and Eric Church, said a press statement from Hornets Sports & Entertainment that did not disclose financial terms.

Jordan will retain a minority stake in the franchise, the team said. The transaction is subject to NBA approval.

The former Chicago Bulls star acquired a controlling investment in the Hornets in 2010 for US$275 million (S$367.8 million).

The franchise have been the league’s sole team with black-majority ownership.

Under the terms of the deal, the Hornets as a whole were valued at US$3 billion, according to the New York Times.

Other outlets have valued the team at closer to US$1.7 billion.

But it was not clear how much of Jordan’s initial stake he would retain.

News of his decision to sell went largely unlamented by commentators in Charlotte.

Charlotte Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler said that Jordan’s departure marked the “end of an era” as the NBA’s only black-majority owner of a team.

“But he failed as the Hornets owner in the way he would consider most important – he never turned Charlotte into a winner,” he wrote on Friday.

“Jordan’s reign as Charlotte’s most famous sports owner ever was ultimately a PR success but an on-court failure.”

Often considered the greatest basketball player, Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA titles, won the league’s Most Valuable Player award five times and garnered two Olympic gold medals.

He played his last game professionally in 2003. However, his tenure as an owner of an NBA team has been less successful.

During his 13-year reign, Charlotte reached the play-offs just three times, losing in the first round on all three occasions.

Last season, the Hornets finished second last in the Eastern Conference at 27-55.

Speaking on the eve of the NBA Finals in May, league commissioner Adam Silver said Jordan had “the absolute right to sell”.

But he admitted he hoped to see more black team owners in future.

“I would love to have better representation,” he said.

“I know that increasingly our governors are focused on diversity in their ownership groups just as they are in their front office, so the trend lines have been positive over the last several years.”

The Hornets sale marks the third change of franchise ownership in the NBA in the past year.

The Phoenix Suns were taken over in December by a consortium led by billionaire Mat Ishbia, while Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry sold his 25 per cent stake in the club to Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the owners of the Cleveland Browns National Football League team. AFP