Barack Obama Reportedly Playing an Intricate Part in the Largest NBA Sale in History
For months, there has been speculation and rumors flying around about a possible sale of the NBA team the Phoenix Suns. According to the most recent rumors, former President Barack Obama may even be involved.
Bill Simmons, a sports analyst and podcaster, first mentioned the possibility of Obama’s involvement when talking with Charles Barkley on an episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on Tuesday.
“I heard Obama’s involved in one of the groups. That’s the one guy I feel like, they would make him the actual face, and the money guys would be so happy to have him at the front that they would just be like, ‘Cool,'” Simmons said.
Aside from Simmons’ comments, there has been no other information about Obama’s involvement, but there have been lots of celebrities and billionaires talked about in connection with the deal, NBC Sports reported.
The current owner of the Suns is Robert Sarver. But he is currently suspended and announced his plans in September to sell the team, according to Bleacher Report.
Sarver has been largely disgraced after the NBA investigated, suspended and fined him $10 million for using racially insensitive language and making a difficult and perhaps hostile workplace for the staff, CBS News reported.
With the Suns on the market, the sale is predicted to be the most expensive sale in NBA history.
Marc Stein, a sports reporter with an inside track on the NBA, reported that many are expecting the Suns to go for close to $4 billion.
Up to this point, the most expensive sale in NBA history was in 2019, when Joe Tsai bought the Brooklyn Nets for $2.4 billion, Bleacher Report noted.
Other big names have been thrown around as possibly interested buyers, or at least parts of groups interested in buying.
Larry Ellison, the co-founder of the software-making giant Oracle, has reportedly been thinking about buying an NBA team for some time, CBS reported.
There have also been rumors about Jeff Bezos, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shaquille O’Neal and others having possible interest, CBS added.
Charles Barkley told Simmons that people have even been tossing his name around, but he has no interest.
“Well you know the problem is that my phone has been blowing up, but I’m telling them like, ‘Guys. I am very well paid, but I don’t have $4 billion just sitting around,'” Barkley joked.
Barkley noted that with such a huge sale, it’s almost impossible for a single buyer to buy the Suns franchise, but a lot of groups are interested.
As NBC Sports noted, “There is no shortage of high rollers potentially courting Sarver and the Phoenix fanbase.”
If Obama does somehow become a part of a group of buyers, he would become just the second U.S. president ever to have partial ownership in a pro team, Bleacher Report reported.
Former President George W. Bush broke that mold when he had partial ownership of the Texas Rangers for 11 years, from 1989 to 1998, according to Bleacher Report.
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