Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan is engaged in serious negotiations to sell his majority stake in the franchise to a group led by Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin and Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
No deal is on the table as of yet, however there is significant momentum on a sale that would eventually make Plotkin and Schnall the co-governors of the Hornets, sources said.
If a sale is completed, Jordan is expected to remain with a minority stake in the franchise, sources said.
Jordan, a six-time NBA champion and five-time MVP with the Chicago Bulls, is considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the game and has been the league’s only Black majority owner.
Jordan sold a significant minority stake to Plotkin, founder and chief investment officer of Melvin Capital, and Daniel Sundheim, founder, and chief investment officer of D1 Capital, in 2020, and sources said that Sundheim is part of the group working to purchase the team.
Selling a majority share of the Hornets would mark the end of an era of Jordan’s 13-year run as owner. He paid $275 million for a majority stake in the franchise in 2010.
Schnall, co-president at the private equity firm of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in New York, was part of a group that includes majority owner Tony Ressler and Grant Hill that purchased the Hawks in 2015 for $850 million.
Since Jordan, who is a Hall of Fame basketball player, became the majority owner of the Hornets, the team has struggled to find any consistent success on the court. In the 13 years that he has maintained majority ownership of the franchise, Charlotte has only appeared in the postseason twice, the last time being in 2016.
During Jordan’s tenure as team owner, the Hornets have run through five different head coaches, have moved on from franchise cornerstone players like Kemba Walker and have missed on several draft prospects. However, in the last few years there has been a ray of hope that the franchise was headed in the right direction after drafting LaMelo Ball in 2020, with the third overall pick. In Ball’s three seasons he has managed to take home Rookie of the Year honors and be named an All-Star in his second season. However, he has been bitten by the injury bug, including a fractured right ankle that ended his season back in February, and has stymied any sort of forward progress for the franchise.
