The NBA's Board of Governors has approved Michael Jordan's sale of the Charlotte Hornets to a group led by Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Sunday.
The deal was completed at a valuation of approximately $3 billion, a far cry from the $275 million that Jordan paid to purchase the franchise outright 13 years ago.
The sale was announced in mid-June and was waiting for the Board of Governors' go-ahead before it could be finalized.
The vote passed 29-1 per Wojnarowski. New York Knicks owner James Dolan was the only one to vote against the transaction.
The Associated Press has reported that Jordan will remain involved with the franchise as a minority owner.
Plotkin has been a minority owner of the Hornets since 2019 when Jordan sold 20 per cent of his position, while Schnall is currently a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks. Schnall is in the process of selling that stake.
Other notable members of the Schnall-Plotkin group are rapper J. Cole and country singer Eric Church.
The Hornets have endured some lean years under Jordan, going 423-600 under his leadership. They made the playoffs twice in that time but were summarily ejected in the first round each time. However, Jordan's ownership did a lot to mend relations between the franchise and the city of Charlotte, which had eroded under the previous two owners.
With Jordan's exit as majority owner, the NBA will now have no Black majority owners, an issue that Commissioner Adam Silver has blamed on the market.
Along with the Hornets, the new ownership will take control of the NBA G League's Greensboro Swarm and NBA 2K League's Hornets Venom GT, as well as managing and operating the Spectrum Center, each of which is included as part of the sale.
— With files from the Associated Press
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.