The Houston Rockets are one of the NBA’s most valuable franchises and owner Les Alexander made the stunning announcement earlier this summer that he would be putting the team up for sale. Houston figures to fetch close to $2 billion from a new ownership group, as the franchise was valued at $1.65 billion last year and has only helped itself with the extension to star James Harden and trade for Chris Paul to become a top contender to the Warriors.
The Rockets are the NBA team that is publicly for sale, but a recent report from the New York Post‘s Josh Kosman revealed that there’s another franchise, the Brooklyn Nets, that could be making moves towards a sale in private.
According to Kosman, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who has previously tried to sell a minority stake in the franchise, could be convinced to sell the team entirely, should they receive an offer of $2 billion or more. Kosman notes that they have already made contact with numerous potential investors for China, and that there’s one group that already has significant interest.
The basketball team owned by billionaire Russian Mikhail Prokhorov hoped to fetch around $2 billion, but we hear one interested party has been trying to box out others in the sale process.
A source told On the Money that Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai has expressed an interest in the team, though reps for his family office, Blue Pool, deny it.
Reports suggest the Nets want to find a Chinese backer — not surprising given the success of Yao Ming with the Houston Rockets, which are also for sale.
The Post’s Josh Kosman reported last month that Mike Zavodsky, the Nets’ executive VP of global partnerships, was in China with 20 meetings lined up.
The Nets were valued at $1.85 billion by Forbes this past year, so it’s more than reasonable to assume a prospective buyer would need to come in at that $2 billion figure to convince Prokhorov to sell his full stake. Both the Rockets and Nets have now been linked to prospective buyers in China, where basketball has become wildly popular and the league and its sponsors — especially shoe and apparel companies — have been spending more and more time tapping into the Chinese market.
The Rockets have also received interest from former star Dikembe Mutombo, who is interested in trying to put together a group, as well as Beyonce, a Houston native with possible interest in investing in a small stake in an ownership group. The Nets, however, appear to be focused on finding a buyer in China and doing so a bit quieter than Houston.
