Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z may be making major moves with the Brooklyn Nets, but now the Roc Nation emcee has a little friendly competition from fellow hip-hop legend Will Smith and his wife, acclaimed actress Jada Pinkett Smith. According to reports, the Hollywood power couple have now acquired a minority stake in Will’s hometown NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers.
According to Comcast Sports Network, the Sixers held a press conference on Oct. 18 at the Palestra to announce that the team had been sold from Comcast-Spectator to a group of investors led by multibillionaire Joshua Harris, with the Smith’s being minority stakeholders in the investment.
“My partners and I are thrilled to have become owners of the Sixers,” Harris said in a statement released by the team Tuesday morning. “It is an honor to become part of this storied franchise. We have a lot of work to do, but we have a rich history, a strong foundation and a bright future.”
Unfortunately for the Smith’s, the NBA is still under a lockout and the first two weeks of the NBA season were recently cancelled.
Despite the NBA lockout, Sixers guard Evan Turner recently announced that he’s glad that the “Fresh Prince” emcee is one of his team’s owners and hopes he can provide the Sixers with a special guest performer.
“I think it’s dope that the fresh prince is one of our new owners. Maybe Willow can perform at halftime,” tweeted Turner.
While the Smiths wait for NBA to get back in full swing, Will is keeping busy working on a musical comeback and recently entered the studio to work on new music with longtime friend and collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff.
“He came down like two weeks ago and was like, ‘Yo, I wanna get back into the studio, and we just knocked out some stuff,’ ” Jeff told XXL. “I just think more than anything there is no set pattern, no set plan, but we just wanna go into the studio and see what we come out with. If I can get it back to the way we used to make music, you know, it used to be just me and him in the room. You don’t need no entourages and cameras and all of that and see what happens. He hasn’t decided exactly what he wants to do.”
Well, Will may not (always) be in it for the money, but with his and Jada’s current NBA venture well underway, their growing piggy bank will undoubtedly give the power couple something to smile about. –nicholas robinson
