Michael Jordan’s Sale of Charlotte Hornets Approved

The NBA Board of Governors has voted to approve Michael Jordan’s sale of the Charlotte Hornets, the team he’s owned for the past 13 years. The sale is valued at about $3 billion and is expected to be finalized in the next two weeks. 

The vote to approve Jordan’s sale to a group led by Rick Schnall and Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin was 29-1, with New York Knicks owner James Dolan the only outlier, according to ESPN. Rapper J. Cole and country music singer Eric Church are also part of the new group. 

Schnall runs Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private equity firm in New York. He was part of an ownership group that bought the Atlanta Hawks in 2015 for $850 million, but he’s no longer a minority owner of the Hawks. 

In 2010, Jordan became the league’s only Black majority owner when he paid $275 million for a majority stake in the Hornets. He will maintain a minority stake in the team and some influence. Charlotte reportedly relied on his insight to select Alabama’s Brandon Miller with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft in June. 

The Charlotte Hornets, then named the Charlotte Bobcats, were added in 2004 as part of NBA expansion. The franchise, under Jordan’s ownership, rebranded as the Hornets in 2014 after the original Charlotte franchise, which played from 1988-2002 before its relocation to New Orleans.

The Hornets are coming off a 27-55 season and haven’t made the playoffs since 2016. Charlotte went 423-600 under Jordan, the 26th-best record in the NBA over that span.