Michael Jordan sells majority ownership stake in Hornets

The Hornets have made the playoffs just twice in Michael Jordan’s 13 seasons as owner.

Ownership of the Charlotte Hornets is exchanging hands.

Hornets owner Michael Jordan reached an agreement for the sale of his majority stake to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, the team announced Friday.

In the agreed-to sale, Jordan will maintain a minority ownership stake in the Hornets.

Plotkin has been a minority owner of the Hornets since 2019 and has been an alternate governor on the NBA Board of Governors since then. He is founder and chief investment officer of Tallwoods Capital LLC.

Per the Hornets, Schnall is a “significant” minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks and has been an alternate governor on the BOG since 2015. He is in the process of selling his investment in the Hawks, which should be completed in the coming weeks.

The new ownership group also includes recording artists J. Cole and Eric Church and several others from the Charlotte area. The transaction is subject to the approval of the BOG.

In March, The Associated Press reported Jordan was considering selling the Hornets, but no deal was imminent.

“Four years ago, Michael Jordan sold a stake in the Charlotte Hornets to a Gabe Plotkin-led group,” Jump Management, which is Michael Jordan’s family office, said in a statement to The Associated Press in March. “As a natural step in a process due to that transaction, Michael and Gabe are in discussions about his group potentially buying an additional stake.

“At this time, it is unclear whether an additional sale will take place,” the statement read.

Jordan is the NBA’s only Black owner. He purchased the expansion team from Bob Johnson for $180 million in 2010. The team had a net worth of $1.7 billion after the 2021-22 season, according to Forbes.

Schanall is a partner with the private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice and previously worked in investment banking divisions before that. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Schnall is an avid basketball fan who is close to several college coaches.

In 2019, Jordan sold a portion of the Hornets to Plotkin, a founder of Melvin Capital, and Daniel Sundheim of DI Capital, but Jordan still controlled the majority of the team’s equity.

Jordan experienced plenty of success as an NBA player, leading the Chicago Bulls to three-peat championships twice while being named an NBA All-Star 14 times. He also has had success with his Jordan Brand line of merchandise and has a current net worth of $2 billion, per Forbes.

But the 60-year-old Jordan hasn’t had much success as an NBA owner.

Since 2010, the Hornets are 419-595 and missed the playoffs in 2022-23 for the seventh straight year. The Hornets have reached the playoffs only twice in 13 seasons under Jordan and have never advanced to the second round.

The Hornets are listed as the 27th-most valuable NBA franchise in the 30-team league.

Still, NBA franchises remain a hot commodity.

Mat Ishbia, a mortgage executive, purchased the majority stake of the Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from embattled owner Robert Sarver for $4 billion in December.

And Joe Tsai, the co-founder of Alibaba, agreed in 2019 to buy the remaining 51% of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center for about $3.4 billion. Tsai had previously purchased 49% of the team from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in 2018, with the option to become controlling owner in 2021.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.