The Brooklyn Nets are about to be sold! It is the biggest news of the day in the world of sport. The NBA franchise from New York will have one owner in the near future, and it will be Joseph Tsai, the Taiwanese-Canadian businessman.
Tsai, 55 years, is the chairman and co-founder of Alibaba, one of the biggest if not the biggest e-commerce company. According to various sources, he is close to making a deal with the majority owner of the Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov.
Some of the media are saying that the deal should be announced at the end of this week, probably Saturday. Tsai will buy the remaining 51% and that transaction will be worth $2.35 billion, and will be the biggest in the history of the sport when looking at all the prices for one sports franchise.
Previously, David Tepper and Tilman Fertitta held that position. Tepper paid $2.2 billion his ownership over the Carolina Panthers, the same as Fertitta once he bought the Houston Rockets in 2017.
Tsai already had 49% of the Nets. He bought them last year for one billion dollars, and added an option into the deal to buy the remaining share before 2022 for an additional $1.35 billion. He used it before the deadline, probably because he didn’t want to risk anything regarding the price and the future of the franchise. The Nets are becoming one of the ruling force in the NBA, and their market share will only get bigger and bigger after Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving landed to the Barclays Center.
According to various financial experts, their marketing revenue and the overall profits are about to get 15% higher this season when comparing it to the last one. If we add that they have one of the most powerful teams in the entire league, Tsai’s move makes perfect sense. Alibaba’s worth is around $10 billion, and the businessman has enough financial resources for this transaction, so he doesn’t have to be worried even if something unexpected comes up in the future.
As for Prokhorov, he made the deal of the century. Ten years before he bought the control part of the Nets for less than $400 million. Along with that, he had a significant share of Barclays Center. Now, he got back his money and earned five times more, all that because of his long vision. The franchise had some troublesome years, but eventually, they became one of the healthiest in the league, all because of the Russian.
After years of being at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Brooklyn was finally in the playoffs last year, with a team led by D’Angelo Russell. The young guard left New York and headed for Golden State, but he had to do it because of Kyrie Irving’s arrival. Besides Irving and Durant, the Nets signed DeAndre Jordan also. Along with the core of the team from the previous year, which includes Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen, Spencer Dinwiddie they just might be the next dynasty of the NBA league.
