The American Mat Ishbia, a prominent businessman in the mortgage sector, is close to finalizing the purchase of the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Mercury of the WNBA in an operation valued at 4,000 million dollars.
The Suns were put up for sale last September by their still majority owner, Robert Sarverafter it was fined $10 million and suspended for a year by the NBA for labor mistreatment and racist and misogynistic comments.
“Ishbia is well known and well regarded within the league officeincluding by commissioner Adam Silver, and has developed relationships with various NBA owners,” renowned ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski said on Tuesday, who broke the news.
The businessman, president of the mortgage company UWM Holdings, “will have to submit to a Background Check already a vote of approval from the (NBA) board of governors, but it is expected to be a formality,” Wojnarowski added.
Shortly after the NBA legend Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson He confirmed the Suns’ plan to sell in a tweet about Ishbia, who played on the Michigan State team that won the 2000 college championship.
I had a big call with “Mat Ishbia congratulating you on your purchase of the Phoenix Suns,” Johnson, also a former Michigan State player, wrote.
The sale of the Suns would be the last chapter of the huge scandal generated by long years of inappropriate behavior by Robert Sarver, which were uncovered by an ESPN investigation and later corroborated by another from the NBA.
At first, Sarver received a one-year ban but ended up putting the franchise up for sale as demanded by stars like LeBron James and several important sponsors.
The Suns’ valuation at about 4 billion dollars It is a big leap compared to other sales such as that of the Los Angeles Clippers (2,000 million in 2014), the Houston Rockets (2,200 million in 2017) or the Brooklyn Nets (2,350 million in 2019).
The operation, however, also contemplates the purchase of the Phoenix Mercury of the women’s basketball league (WNBA)team to which the player belongs Brittney Grinerwho was held in Russia for 10 months on drug possession charges until her release in an exchange earlier this month.
The phoenix suns, runners-up of the NBA in 2021, they have never won the title and in the current season they occupy third place in the Western Conference with Devin Booker and Chris Paul as big stars.
