After 13 years of his tenure as an owner, Michael Jordan has decided to sell the Charlotte Hornets. Having purchased the North Carolina side for $275 million in 2010, the Hall-Of-Famer has managed to make almost 11x his initial investment. Selling the team for $3,000,000,000, His Airness has made a $2.75 billion profit. Aakash Gupta’s tweet helped us unravel just how insane this deal was considering the franchise made $269,000,000 in revenue in 2022 compared to the $93 million they generated per year nearly 13 years ago.
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Despite MJ’s ownership, the franchise never won a playoff series. In fact, the Hornets would only make two postseason appearances in the 13-year span. While the franchise wasn’t successful in winning any hardware, it did benefit Jordan financially. With his friend Bob Johnson (also the previous owner of the franchise) being in desperate need of cash, Mike ended up paying merely $25 million initially and assumed debt payments. Making a $2.7 billion profit, Jordan sure is a smart businessman.
Did Michael Jordan actually fail as an NBA owner?
As surprising as it sounds, back in 2020, the franchise was valued at $1.5 billion when the Black Cat aimed to sell 20% of the stake.
Further, Forbes valued the franchise at $1.77 billion nine months ago. Jordan managed to sell the team at a $3 billion valuation. A 70% jump from what they were valued by Forbes.
This 11x revenue multiple is much higher than we can imagine. Have a look at the tweet by Joe Pompliano.
Yes, according to their win-loss record, the Hornets have been one of the worst-performing franchises in the league. Having finished 10th or worse nine times in the Eastern Conference standings, the team has constantly been a lottery-bound side.
However, having boosted the team’s valuation by being a part of the 7th most expensive sports sale in history, we cannot conclude that Michael Jordan failed as an NBA owner.
Jordan spoke about owning a franchise in Las Vegas
Jordan’s love for basketball is pretty well-known. Right after his stint as a player, Air Jordan was announced to be the part owner and president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. Several years later, Jordan went ahead with the purchase of the Hornets franchise.
While several analysts and enthusiasts predict Mike’s next move, we look back at the time the Bulls legend expressed a desire of owning a franchise in Las Vegas.
“I’d love to own a franchise in Las Vegas. But who wouldn’t? The opportunity it provides just from being in Las Vegas creates a great economic situation. But it’s not just Michael Jordan who would find that attractive. You could find a lot of other potential owners or investors who’d like to own a team in Las Vegas. Will it happen? I don’t know.”
While LeBron James is one of many to also express a similar interest, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not MJ would pursue a Nevada side if the league decided to expand.
