Michael Jordan Could Pocket Billions From Charlotte Hornets Sale

• Michael Jordan has agreed to sell his majority stake in his NBA team the Charlotte Hornets.
• The team said financiers Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall would take over the franchise.
• The Hornets are valued at $3 billion, per ESPN — more than 10 times the sum Jordan paid in 2010.

Michael Jordan could bag a billion-dollar windfall after he agreed to sell his NBA team for what’s likely be a huge premium on the price he paid 13 years ago.

Jordan, often hailed as the greatest basketball player of all time, has agreed to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets to a group led by the financiers Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, the team announced Friday.

Jordan previously sold a minority stake in the Hornets to Plotkin, who is the founder of investment firm Tallwoods Capital, and Daniel Sundheim in 2019. Rapper J. Cole is also part of the group that will buy Jordan’s majority stake, the Hornets said.

The team didn’t say how much the group had spent to acquire the team, but it’s likely to be considerably more than the $275 million Jordan spent for majority stake in 2010, when the team was called the Charlotte Bobcats.

ESPN reported that the Hornet’s valuation is now $3 billion, citing league sources.

The outlet added that Plotkin and Schnall, who is also a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks NBA team, will become governors when the sale is completed. 

Jordan will still be in charge of basketball operations for Thursday’s NBA draft and for the beginning of free agency on July 1, per ESPN. He’ll also keep a minority stake in the team, the Hornets said. The six-time NBA champion is the only Black majority owner in the 30-team league.

The sale will be the latest in a series of savvy business decisions that made Jordan the first athlete-billionaire. 

Most of Jordan’s estimated $2 billion wealth, per Forbes, is only tangentially linked to his playing career.

Jordan signed a lucrative deal with Nike as a rookie in 1984. The Air Jordan sneakers that followed have helped him earn $1.3 billion from the sportswear firm, according to Forbes estimates.