Woj: Michael Jordan to sell the Hornets

[Richard Miller]

Finally they may get a competent owner... I remember someone on Reddit made a list of nepotisms/people MJ employed there on important positions because they were close to him and holy crap, and that was probably not even the complete list

[The Rebel]

Imagine turning $30 million into $2 billion. Jordan bought the Hornets for $30 million on cash and signed for $200 million or so in debt when they were on the verge of bankruptcy now he can cash out after never paying to put a winner on the court.

[chuck_wagon44]

What a terrible executive (Wizards) and owner (Hornets) he has been.

Barkley was right all along.

[ConSarnit]

Plotkin is the guy who burnt though 6 billions in the GameStop debacle, great to see hedge funs managers and bankers suffering from their mistakes that required government bailouts and SEC intervention, life is so fair for the little guy.

Maybe it's just me but doesn't this seem like a bad idea by the NBA to let these two guys take over the team? As far as I can tell these guys aren't worth $1 billion combined and Plotkin's firm had to shut down last year because of the GME fiasco. Why are these guys good candidates to own an NBA team (especially Plotkin)?

[LofJ]

Daniel Sundheim is rumored to be the primary investor and he's worth about $3 billion.

[hyper316]

I guess it's a smart move, only thing that would turn their franchise around is landing Wemby. But it's no guarantee, so better to sell the dream than take the risk and missing out

[floppymoose]

Charlotte is not a great place for nba. Football and college sports are the thing there. Hornets should move to Seattle or Vegas or maybe San Diego.

Football and college sports are more popular because they actually win from time to time. When the previous iteration of the Hornets was winning they sold out every game and had some of the best fan support in the league. That doesn't exist anymore because the team has been mediocre to terrible for 20 years. Winning cures everything.

Agreed the Hornets for the whole entire 90's lead the league in home attendance and this was when Charlotte was a small market. I would say now Charlotte is a medium sized market.

People in seats is nice but isn't really what decides things. Revenue is. Hornets don't get the ticket revenue a lot of clubs get even when they fill. For example, last year the Clippers filled fewer seats at home than the Hornets, but had over twice the ticket sales revenue.

Every team can fill their arenas if they sell tickets cheaply enough.

[SK21209]

Conspiracy theorist in me think the league will pair Wembanyama with the new ownership in Charlotte to completely revitalize that franchise.

[LofJ]

Football and college sports are more popular because they actually win from time to time. When the previous iteration of the Hornets was winning they sold out every game and had some of the best fan support in the league. That doesn't exist anymore because the team has been mediocre to terrible for 20 years. Winning cures everything.

Agreed the Hornets for the whole entire 90's lead the league in home attendance and this was when Charlotte was a small market. I would say now Charlotte is a medium sized market.

People in seats is nice but isn't really what decides things. Revenue is. Hornets don't get the ticket revenue a lot of clubs get even when they fill. For example, last year the Clippers filled fewer seats at home than the Hornets, but had over twice the ticket sales revenue.

Every team can fill their arenas if they sell tickets cheaply enough.

That's nice, although it doesn't tell the whole story. The cost of living in California is more expensive, ticket prices are higher to account for that.

All that said the rest of the league has been benefiting from North Carolina basketball talent for decades. The Pelicans exist off the backs of Carolina talent. Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy, and Zion Williamson all grew up in the Carolinas. And your Warriors have the Hornets to thank for Steph growing up around the NBA and developing his game right outside of Charlotte.

The argument that the NBA shouldn't have a presence in North Carolina is based on pure ignorance.

[HartfordWhalers]

Agreed the Hornets for the whole entire 90's lead the league in home attendance and this was when Charlotte was a small market. I would say now Charlotte is a medium sized market.

People in seats is nice but isn't really what decides things. Revenue is. Hornets don't get the ticket revenue a lot of clubs get even when they fill. For example, last year the Clippers filled fewer seats at home than the Hornets, but had over twice the ticket sales revenue.

Every team can fill their arenas if they sell tickets cheaply enough.

That's nice, although it doesn't tell the whole story. The cost of living in California is more expensive, ticket prices are higher to account for that.

All that said the rest of the league has been benefiting from North Carolina basketball talent for decades. The Pelicans exist off the backs of Carolina talent. Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy, and Zion Williamson all grew up in the Carolinas. And your Warriors have the Hornets to thank for Steph growing up around the NBA and developing his game right outside of Charlotte.

The argument that the NBA shouldn't have a presence in North Carolina is based on pure ignorance.

That argument feels like it is missing a logically piece to connect it. As far as I can tell it is
[former high schoolers/college players are from area] = [nba team should be in area]

Is there a real argument to match where players come from with NBA team locations? I'm open to hearing it, but if there were no NBA players coming out of New York City and plenty coming out of Alaska (hat tip to Trajan Langdon who played there in high school), would we want to move the Knicks to Alaska?

Even if I try to make your argument for you to support that logical bridge, the best I can do is something like "nba players come out of NC because there is an NBA team there, so we need the NBA team there to keep getting recruits".

But that argument would support moving all teams to the most populous areas so even larger areas would have more recruits, so it doesn't make a strong case.

[Devils_Advocate]

Read on Twitter

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[LofJ]

People in seats is nice but isn't really what decides things. Revenue is. Hornets don't get the ticket revenue a lot of clubs get even when they fill. For example, last year the Clippers filled fewer seats at home than the Hornets, but had over twice the ticket sales revenue.

Every team can fill their arenas if they sell tickets cheaply enough.

That's nice, although it doesn't tell the whole story. The cost of living in California is more expensive, ticket prices are higher to account for that.

All that said the rest of the league has been benefiting from North Carolina basketball talent for decades. The Pelicans exist off the backs of Carolina talent. Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy, and Zion Williamson all grew up in the Carolinas. And your Warriors have the Hornets to thank for Steph growing up around the NBA and developing his game right outside of Charlotte.

The argument that the NBA shouldn't have a presence in North Carolina is based on pure ignorance.

That argument feels like it is missing a logically piece to connect it. As far as I can tell it is
[former high schoolers/college players are from area] = [nba team should be in area]

Is there a real argument to match where players come from with NBA team locations? I'm open to hearing it, but if there were no NBA players coming out of New York City and plenty coming out of Alaska (hat tip to Trajan Langdon who played there in high school), would we want to move the Knicks to Alaska?

Even if I try to make your argument for you to support that logical bridge, the best I can do is something like "nba players come out of NC because there is an NBA team there, so we need the NBA team there to keep getting recruits".

But that argument would support moving all teams to the most populous areas so even larger areas would have more recruits, so it doesn't make a strong case.

If the state of Alaska had a population comparable to NC, was just as basketball obsessed, and had a legacy of producing elite talent hell yeah the NBA should push to have a presence there. Investing in future talent by increasing the presence of your product/brand in markets proven to support it is a recipe for success.

That said using hyperbolic examples doesn't help your argument. NC is the 9th most populous state and Alaska is near the bottom. And the Knicks are one of the oldest franchises in the country's biggest city. The league is folding if the Knicks ever moved away from NYC. We aren't comparing apples to apples here.

[DoctorX]

Agreed the Hornets for the whole entire 90's lead the league in home attendance and this was when Charlotte was a small market. I would say now Charlotte is a medium sized market.

People in seats is nice but isn't really what decides things. Revenue is. Hornets don't get the ticket revenue a lot of clubs get even when they fill. For example, last year the Clippers filled fewer seats at home than the Hornets, but had over twice the ticket sales revenue.

Every team can fill their arenas if they sell tickets cheaply enough.

That's nice, although it doesn't tell the whole story. The cost of living in California is more expensive, ticket prices are higher to account for that.

All that said the rest of the league has been benefiting from North Carolina basketball talent for decades. The Pelicans exist off the backs of Carolina talent. Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy, and Zion Williamson all grew up in the Carolinas. And your Warriors have the Hornets to thank for Steph growing up around the NBA and developing his game right outside of Charlotte.

The argument that the NBA shouldn't have a presence in North Carolina is based on pure ignorance.

Agreed it's a bunch of nonsense. Charlotte is currently ranked 22 in Metro area population and by the end of this decade it will end up in the top 20 for metro population in the US. It's big enough to support an NBA team. It also has an NFL team. The panthers are consistently in the top 10 for home attendance.

[floppymoose]

That it has an nfl team hurts rather than helps.

[DoItALL9]

Before they draft Victor Wembanyama?

Sent from my LM-G710 using RealGM mobile app

[Onlytimewilltel]

That it has an nfl team hurts rather than helps.

Why does it hurt?

[Hornet Mania]

The ignorant calls for relocation are to be expected I guess, but it's nonsense.

The 21st century Charlotte franchise has been arguably the least successful and worst managed in North American professional sports over the course of its existence. Within the NBA only the Kings are in that discussion (sorry Sacto, not trying to throw shade). The new team has made three playoff appearance in 20 seasons and won a grand total of 3 playoff games in those appearances (all those wins in 2016 during a 7 game series against Miami). They have never had homecourt advantage in a playoff appearance, their highest seeding was 6th. They have never won 50 games, their highest win total is 48. Their biggest box office draw was either Kemba Walker or LaMelo Ball. The next closest are Al Jefferson and Gerald Wallace. They also had the worst team in NBA history during that stretch with the 2011-2012 Bobcats.

Despite all those compelling reasons not to attend a game the team has only been in the bottom 5 of NBA attendance four times (04-05 expansion season, 08-09, 17-18, 19-20 after Kemba left). During the season in which they set the record for losses in a season they were 25th out of 30. They have exceeded their expected attendance, as calculated by market size, more times than they have finished bottom 5. They have never had the worst attendance in the league during any season.

Over the last three years they were 8th in 2020-2021 (fair to throw that out, Covid restrictions), 15th in 2021-2022 as a play-in team, and this year are 23rd despite having yet another season from hell. They reside in the 20th largest market in the league and on average that is roughly where they sit in attendance, which considering the team's record of failure should be considered punching above its weight.

Merch sales are harder to find, NBA tends to only share top 10. It will shock no one that modern-era Bobcats/Hornets merch is not among league leaders. Retro Hornets merch is consistently among the best-selling in that category, for what it's worth. It is likely the consistent popularity of retro Hornets merch reduces sales of modern Hornets merch, just walk around Charlotte and see which is more common.

So in conclusion, no, the franchise is not floundering financially and does not need to be moved. If we compiled a list of franchises that should move Charlotte would not be the best choice based on objective criteria. If you want a team in Seattle, I suggest you volunteer your own.

[the sea duck]

Good time to sell. Wonder where he's putting the money.

Probably to make more money. It’s damn near perpetual motion after you earn a certain amount off of investments.

Right. Just wondering what his advisors are telling him is a better investment, or if he values something else for non-financial reasons.

[Woodsanity]

He’s going to make a fortune, but knowing him it probably eats at him that his teams weren’t successful during his tenure

It might bother him a teeny bit but he should be happy considering how much of a windfall he is getting. He bought the team dirt cheap.

Gonna be nigh impossible now for nba players to buy teams as a majority owner now since they are all 1.5b or more.

[Eyeamok]

Finally they may get a competent owner... I remember someone on Reddit made a list of nepotisms/people MJ employed there on important positions because they were close to him and holy crap, and that was probably not even the complete list

I can completely understand MJ's thinking on that. You buy into a billion dollar business, without any prior experience or even working in the front office. Who are you going to trust to help you run your business? People you know and trust and the people they know. It's only natural. Eventually/hopefully you will gain some knowledge and hire more competent people, but starting out I can see this.