Michael Jordan is reportedly set to move on. The Charlotte Hornets majority owner is in “serious talks” to sell his majority share of the team, according to a March 16 report from ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“No deal is imminent, but there’s significant momentum on a sale that would eventually install Plotkin and Schnall as the co-governors of the Hornets,” Wojrnarowski wrote.
If the sale is completed, Jordan is still expected to keep a minority stake of the franchise.
Jordan has been the Hornets’ owner for 13 seasons. He is the only current Black owner in the NBA. The first Black team owner was Bob Johnson, who owned the Charlotte Bobcats before Jordan took over in 2010. Jordan is also the first former player to own an NBA team.
The NBA legend paid $275 million for majority stake of the franchise in 2010. The franchise is now worth $1.7 billion, according to an October 2022 Forbes report. The face of the team is all-star point guard LaMelo Ball, who gained mass popularity in high school as the youngest of the three Ball brothers and son of the outspoken LaVar Ball.
Jordan was a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls and is widely regarded as the greatest player ever. At the center of the extremely popular Jordan Brand under Nike, Forbes has Jordan’s net worth at $2 billion. In 2016, he became the first billionaire player in NBA history, and is still considered the richest retired athlete, according to the Forbes‘ 2022 Billionaires List.
