The change of ownership of the NBA team Phoenix Suns and the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury for four billion US dollars (around 3.8 billion euros) is as good as over.
The other franchises agreed to the sale to new majority owner Mat Ishbia, according to the NBA announcement. The transaction is expected to be finalized this week.
Most expensive team in the NBA
Businessman and former college basketball player Ishbia and former majority owner Robert Sarver agreed on the purchase price that will make the Suns the most expensive team in the North American professional basketball league NBA.
Sarver was banned by the NBA for a year and fined $10 million for his poor leadership of the organization. He is said to have made racist and sexist comments and treated basketball team members unprofessionally for years.
To date, the Brooklyn Nets have been the most expensive NBA team in the league. In 2019, Joe Tsai paid $3.3 billion for the Nets and the Barclays Center in New York. Sarver bought the Suns and Mercury, who play in the women’s professional league WNBA, in 2004 for $401 million. That was also a record sum at the time.