Ishbia, the chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, would replace Robert Sarver as the teams’ majority owner. Sarver was pushed to sell amid a workplace misconduct scandal.
Mat Ishbia, the chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, and his brother, Justin Ishbia, have agreed to buy a majority stake in the N.B.A.’s Phoenix Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury in a deal that values the teams at $4 billion.
Mat Ishbia and Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the teams, announced the agreement Tuesday night. Sarver had said he would sell the teams in September, after an N.B.A. investigation found that he had mistreated employees over many years, including by using racist language.
The deal is for more than 50 percent ownership, including all of Sarver’s stake. It will not be finalized until it is approved by the N.B.A.’s board of governors.
“Mat is the right leader to build on franchise legacies of winning and community support and shepherd the Suns and Mercury into the next era,” Sarver said in a statement.
The valuation of $4 billion is about 10 times what a Sarver-led group paid for the teams in 2004 and would be a league record. The previous high price was Joe Tsai’s full acquisition of the Nets in 2019 that valued the franchise at $2.35 billion. It is the second-most expensive acquisition of an American sports franchise in history, behind only the sale of the N.F.L.’s Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion earlier this year.
In September, the N.B.A. suspended Sarver for a year and fined him $10 million — the maximum allowed — after an investigation found that he had used racial slurs and treated female employees inequitably over many years. The punishment generated significant backlash, with players and fans saying that it was not harsh enough. Amid that pressure, Sarver said he would sell the Phoenix basketball teams, citing an “unforgiving climate.”
Ishbia, 42, who played for Michigan State’s men’s basketball team, has wanted to buy a professional sports team for some time. Justin Ishbia is a managing partner at the Chicago-based investing firm Shore Capital. Last month, Mat Ishbia announced that he was interested in purchasing the N.F.L.’s Washington Commanders. He had also bid for the Broncos before they were sold in June to the Walton and Penner families.
Ishbia began researching the Suns organization after Sarver decided to sell his stake, and he spent time in Phoenix during the past two months to better understand the market, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Ishbia “fell in love” with the market and decided to aggressively pursue purchasing the team, the person said. Ishbia lives in the Detroit area, where United Wholesale Mortgage is based, and would not move to Phoenix if he is approved to buy the teams, the person said.
In a statement Tuesday, Ishbia said he was “extremely excited” about the deal to buy the teams. “I have loved experiencing the energy of the Valley over the last few months,” he said. “Basketball is at the core of my life.”
Ishbia was a guard for Michigan State, where he won a national championship in 2000. He told Crain’s Detroit Business in 2020 that he was the “14th best player on a 14-person team.” After graduating from business school at Michigan State in 2003, Ishbia began to work for United Wholesale Mortgage, which his father, Jeff Ishbia, founded in 1986. Mat Ishbia was named chief executive in 2013, and the company went public in 2021.
Now Ishbia hopes to take over the Suns organization, which has been in the spotlight since ESPN published a story in November 2021 in which several current and former employees accused Sarver of fostering an inappropriate work culture. The N.B.A. commissioned an investigation, conducted by an independent law firm, which found that Sarver “clearly violated common workplace standards.”
According to the investigators’ report, Sarver used a racial slur at least five times; told a pregnant employee that she would be “unable to do her job upon becoming a mother”; and often made crude jokes about sex and commented on women’s bodies.
In one instance from 2011, according to the report, Sarver brought a female employee to tears after berating her about a video she had produced. Later, Sarver asked the employee, “Why do all the women cry around here so much?”
Sarver said that while he disagreed with parts of the report, he accepted the league’s decision and apologized for his “words and actions that offended our employees.” Suns guard Chris Paul was among the players who called for a tougher punishment than the fine and suspension the N.B.A. issued. As pressure mounted, Sarver announced that he would sell the Suns and the Mercury.
The Suns have been among the best teams in the Western Conference for the past three seasons. Led by the star guard Devin Booker, they made the N.B.A. finals in 2021 and lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks. During the 2021-22 season, they set a franchise record for wins in a regular season with 64 but lost in the second round of the playoffs.
This season, Phoenix had a 19-12 record as of Tuesday afternoon, tied for the most wins in the West.
The Mercury, who share a practice facility with the Suns, have not missed the playoffs since 2012. They won the W.N.B.A. championship in 2014 and lost to Chicago in the W.N.B.A. finals in 2021. Last season, the Mercury went 15-21 as they coped with the absence of one of their stars, Brittney Griner.
Griner was in custody in Russia from Feb. 17 until Dec. 8, when the U.S. State Department negotiated her release through a prisoner swap. She had been detained outside of Moscow when customs officials said they found hashish oil in her luggage. Griner was convicted on drug charges and began serving a nine-year term in a prison colony this November. The State Department said in May that she had been “wrongfully detained.”
Upon returning to the United States, Griner was taken to a military hospital in Texas that helps soldiers and civilians dealing with trauma with their recoveries. Griner left to go home on Friday and rode home with three members of the Mercury organization who surprised her at the airport: Diana Taurasi, a fellow star player; Vince Kozar, the team president; and Jim Pitman, the general manager.
Source: Basketball - nytimes.com
