On September 22, Beijing time, a blockbuster news! Suns boss Robert Savo issued a statement: decided to sell the NBA's Suns and WNBA's Mercury. About a week ago, Savo was officially banned from participating in team affairs for 1 year and fined $10 million. He didn't want to sell the team at the time, how did he suddenly change his mind?
NBA star Shams said the reason on the show: "Savo did not want to sell the team, but the pressure from the outside world forced him to make a decision, especially the voices of James and Paul, which made Savo unable to resist." When Savo decided to sell the team, today James wrote again: "I am proud to be a member of the team committed to advancing the progress of the league"!
Seven days ago, when the league announced a 1-year ban for the Sun boss + a fine of 10 million, James was dissatisfied with the penalty result: "The NBA's punishment decision must have been wrong, and this league should not have a place for him (Savo) those behaviors!" Paul wrote, "I am shocked and disappointed! Savo's behavior against women is unacceptable! ”
James is the league's signature, Paul is the core of the Suns, and even they have stood up against Savo's continued leadership of the Suns. Savo wanted to be treated coldly, accept the penalty, disappear for a year, but now he was forced to sell the team.
In 2004, Savo spent $401 million to buy the Suns, the WNBA Mercury, and the Development League Diamondbacks. According to TA reporter Mike Vorkunov, Savo himself only gave 200 million at the time, and the other 201 million was borrowed.
In 2021, Forbes released the NBA team market capitalization rankings, and the Sun ranked the league midstream with $1.8 billion. Although Savo currently has only a third of the shares, he is still the big boss and has the right to decide to sell the entire team.
Shams said the Sun's price won't be less than $2 billion! That said, Savo still gets six or seven billion dollars. So the question arises: Does James or Paul have a chance to be the Suns Boss? The answer is no! The NBA doesn't allow active players to own the team, so Fenway Group, which works with James, can't buy the Suns.
This is the 4th time in Paul's NBA career that he has experienced a change of owner! Take a look at the previous three times:
1. From 2010 to 2012, Hornets owner George Sean suffered from cancer and planned to sell the team, and the Hornets were hosted by the league, during which there was the famous "basketball reason".
2. In 2014, Clippers owner Sterling was suspected of serious racial discrimination and was forced to sell the team by the league. Ballmer bought the Clippers for $2 billion!
3. In 2017, Rocket owner Alexander decided to sell the team due to his age, and Fertita bought the Rockets for $2.2 billion.
In the last decade, there have only been two appearances in the NBA where bosses have been forced to sell their teams (Sterling and Savo), and Paul has experienced both. Previously, Paul was president of the NBA Players' Union, and CJ-McCollum is the current president. CJ issued a statement on behalf of the players' union: "Thank you Savo for making this decision, it is in the best interests of the sports world. ”
What the hell happened to Savo? After 10 months of investigation, NBA officials visited 320 employees in the past 18 years and found that Savo said the word that began with the N word at least 5 times (racial discrimination), suspected of discriminating against female employees, and having improper physical contact with male employees. According to previous reports, Savo also sent a photo of his wife's bikini to employees.
Vince Carter, who has played for the Suns, said: "I returned to Phoenix as an away team player after I left the Suns, and I contributed 21 points on 8-of-13 in that game. Savo wanted the Suns players to hurt me and make me lie on the ground. Luckily, two of my former teammates told me about it! "When I met a boss like this, I was also drunk...
Savo may raise the Sun's selling price from $2 billion to $3 billion, and a number of billionaires have expressed their willingness to buy the Sun, Shams reported. Let's see how much Savo can sell?