NBA Board of Governors approve Michael Jordan’s sale of the Charlotte Hornets

July 24, 2023 Times Europe

FILE – Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan speaks to the media about hosting the NBA All-Star basketball game during a news conference, Feb. 12, 2019, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NBA Board of Governors has voted to approve Michael Jordan’s sale of the Charlotte Hornets to an ownership group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on Sunday on condition of anonymity because the sale won’t become official for at least another week.

The decision ends Jordan’s 13-year run as majority owner of the franchise. He will remain on as a minority owner.

Jordan agreed to sell the team on June 16. However, when an NBA owner decides to sell it first must be approved by the league’s Board of Governors.

Jordan’s decision to sell leaves the NBA without a Black majority owner.

Plotkin has been a minority stakeholder with the Hornets since 2019, while Schnall has been a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks since 2015. He has been forced to sell his investment in that team.

The sale price is reportedly around $3 billion, according to ESPN.

As an owner, Jordan never came close to matching his success as a player, where he won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls while becoming one of the game’s greatest players ever.

Charlotte went 423-600 under Jordan, the 26th-best record over that span.

The Hornets never won a playoff series in that time and haven’t been to the postseason in the past seven seasons.

The owner members of the Hornets new ownership group include artist J. Cole, Dan Sundheim, Ian Loring, country music singer-songwriter Eric Church, Chris Shumway and several local Charlotte investors, including Amy Levine Dawson and Damian Mills.