Michael Jordan is no longer the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. According to ESPN, the NBA legend has agreed to sell his majority stake to a ground led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall for around $3 billion valuation. Schnall, a minority owner with the Atlanta Hawks, and Plotkin, who was already a minority owner with the Hornets, will become the majority owners once the NBA completes its vetting and approval process. Jordan, who has been the majority owner for 13 years, will continue to oversee basketball operations through the NBA draft and the start of free agency on July 1. He will still have a minority stake in the Hornets once the sale is complete.
In March, Jordan was in talks to sell the team with Plotkin and Schnall. The six-time NBA champion originally purchased a majority share for $275 million in 2010 and at the time, the franchise was called the Charlotte Bobcats. “Purchasing the Bobcats is the culmination of my post-playing career goal of becoming the majority owner of an NBA franchise,” Jordan said in a statement in 2010, per ESPN. “I am especially pleased to have the opportunity to build a winning team in my home state of North Carolina. I plan to make this franchise an organization that Charlotte can be proud of, and I am committed to doing all that I can to achieve this goal.”
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“We are pleased that Michael Jordan‘s purchase of majority ownership of the Bobcats was approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors and closed in such a smooth and expeditious fashion,” then NBA commissioner David Stern said. “We look forward to the continued growth of the Bobcats, on and off the court, under his leadership.”
In 2020, Jordan sold a significant minority stake to Plotkin, the founder and chief investment officer of Melvin Capital, and Daniel Sundheim, founder and chief investment officer of D1 Captial in 2020. ESPN says Sundheim is part of the group purchasing the Hornets.
Jordan’s run as the Hornets owner has not been a strong one. Since taking over in 2010, the Hornets have reached the playoffs just twice (2014 and 2016) and lost in the first round each time. This past season the Hornets finished with a 27-55 record, the second-worst in the Eastern Conference.
