NBA looking into buying Hornets

NBA looking into buying Hornets

The NBA is looking into buying the New Orleans Hornets from George Shinn until a permanent new owner can be found, a person familiar with the discussions said.

The league intends to find an owner who plans to keep the Hornets in New Orleans, the person told The Associated Press Friday night on condition of anonymity because the NBA has not discussed the idea publicly.

Hornets president Hugh Weber declined comment on the NBA’s possible involvement, which was first reported by Sports Illustrated. NBA spokesman Tim Frank also declined comment.

Shinn has been in negotiations to sell the team to minority owner and Louisiana native Gary Chouest since last spring, but talks have been stalled for months.

If I were a Supersonics fan from way back, I'd be pretty miffed about the league going to that extent to keep a team from moving.

yea, I agree with that

just let it go and if a new owner wants to move the team can't the NBA just stop them?

or a charlotte hornets fan.
it is kind of hypocritical to try to protect new orleans and not seattle,charlotte, vancouver, and probably sacramento. las vegas or anaheim kings, anyone?

Reading the article again, it's probably more about a temporary solution to the problem of Shinn wanting to sell and there not being any buyers, with preference going to anyone who wants to keep the team in New Orleans when someone enters the picture to buy the team from the league. Despite what happened with the Sonics, I think it's the league's preference is to avoid relocation whenever possible, unless there are issues with finances, arenas and what have you. In the Hornets case, perhaps the league is more adamant that relocation be avoided seeing as though they've already moved once within the last ten years.

Yeah, I don't know why I still follow the NBA. Bullshit like this, plus the rigged games, plus the Blazers likely being lottery bound for the next five years, plus the fact that it is just a bunch of rich men getting paid millions to play a game (or in Eddy Curry's case, not play) makes me wonder why I don't stop following the NBA, get rid of the six NBA related bookmarks I have, and actually get a life.

Follow college hoops Lamrock. Huskies.

Seriously though, I know where you are coming from. If it wasn't for the annual NBA computer games, I probably wouldn't follow the league too much. I really hope league doesn't lock out, will hurt the league big time.

Is this even legal?

Presumably, though you'd think it'd be a conflict of interest for the league to own one of the teams. I'd say there must be a provision for it in case a team does run into financial trouble or whatever.

Exactly. What if the league fines a team that it owns? They would just be paying themselves the fine. There would be speculation of favoritism from transactions to officiating games, not to mention what you said about Seattle. Imagine the scrutiny that would come over the league if it couldn't even manage a single team well?

It'd definitely be a weird situation, one it seems is going to happen:

New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn has agreed to sell the club to the NBA and the transaction could be completed within a couple days, according to a person familiar with the decision.

The league has lined up New Orleans-born sports attorney Jac Sperling, vice chairman of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, to be the NBA’s administrator of the team and oversee its sale to a more permanent owner, the person told The Associated Press Sunday on condition of anonymity because the move has not been publicly announced.

Current Hornets President Hugh Weber will continue overseeing day-to-day operations of what will be the first NBA team to be owned by the league, the person said.

So the NBA won't be running the club per se, they'll just assume responsibility for Shinn's majority ownership until such time as that percentage of the team can be sold to a permanent owner, be it Gary Chouest or some other group or individual. One still wonders exactly how fines will be handled though.

Thinking about it a little more, it is a different situation to the one in Seattle, where you had new ownership that had bought the team fair and square (though not with the best of intentions towards its fanbase) and resolved to relocate due to their roots and issues regarding the arena. I think the league let Clay Bennett and his ownership group get away with some degree of shadiness/a half-hearted effort to keep the Sonics in Seattle, but there was no grounds for the league to step in and buy the team (and no reason for Bennett and co to sell, outside moral and emotional obligations).

With the Hornets, you've got the majority owner desperate to sell and no one committed to buying that controlling interest, so the league is stepping in until the situation can be resolved. Don't get me wrong, I'm not say Sonics fans aren't entitled to their outrage or that comparisons can't be made and questions can't be asked, but it's not quite the same situation. As far as finding a buyer who will keep the team in New Orleans, I'm pretty sure there's always a preference to avoid relocation when a team is sold and that was the case in Seattle too, but at the same time there's nothing to prevent the new owners from trying to relocate the team once it's theirs, if they can make a case for it.

Unfortunately for Seattle, the new owners were able to make a case with the arena dispute and the NBA for their part arguably looked the other way when those emails surfaced, bringing into question just how hard Bennett and co. had tried to make it work in Seattle.

Of course it's legal. The LEAGUE only operates at the behest of the owners, and only the rest of the owners can approve a change in ownership. You won't get a majority of owners to vote against Shinn because they don't want to be in the same situation.

And Shinn is stuck. He can't actually opt out of the lease despite the very clear terms because the other owners won't let him so he turns it over to the league until they find a viable owner. (lol)

Just like with the other major sports leagues there's no conflict of interest because there's 29 other teams that can override the league office. The NBA does not want to run the Hornets because it's a money losing operation it's only doing so in a desperate attempt to pretend someone wants them since we no longer allow teams to fold.

The league office never had any say in Seattle or Vancouver or Charlotte. It's the rest of the owners, and they'll always be loathe to vote against something that could come back to bite them. The only way to stop a team from moving is for there to be no other cities stupid enough to waste money on them.

Stern confirms league takeover of Hornets

I wonder if the NBA would be willing to spend some money to get CP3 some quality help, or maybe trade him so he can get a better shot at getting a championship. CP3 has done well, even if shit keeps happening to his team.

Ideally the team will have a new permanent owner by the time it comes to decide that.

rumors of them going to KC at hoopshype

Las Vegas anyone?

Nah. The league doesn't want to go there long term (they'll do All-Star Weekend and some exhibitions, but not 80+ games) for obvious reasons, and the casinos don't want them and will never allow a professional sports focused arena as competition. I think the only chance anyone has of moving in there is the Kings for still more obvious reasons and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the Maloof's would try and thwart anyone else's attempts to move there as much as they pushed for All-Star Weekend there as part of their decade long attempt to move the Kings to Vegas.

Moving it anywhere is actually only semi likely in my opinion. The only markets that want an NBA team and make sense nobody wants to move teams into. Oklahoma City only got the Thunder because it had already proven itself while the Hornets were playing there, Memphis is a failure and only happened because the owner couldn't get them into Chicago.

Nobody's headed to Seattle because people there aren't willing to throw taxpayer money into a pit (aka a new arena) which is why Ballmer either has to do it alone or convince more billionaires to join in.

Kansas City sucks as a market and it's out in the middle of nowhere. I'd imagine Louisville is about a billion times more likely, they really want an NBA team, the state loves basketball and it's about the size of OKC. It's also two hours from the Cincinnati market and three hours from Nashville (it's actually closer than Memphis) along with the smaller surrounding cities (Lexington, Evansville, etc.). Louisville is actually slightly closer to St. Louis than Kansas City is and overall the same distance away. Kansas City has Springfield and Wichita I guess, but Wichita is closer to OKC (which also has Tulsa) anyway. Kansas City is 2 million more or less on an island with two long existing sports franchises, Louisville is 1.5 million within three hours of two other million plus MSA's and a couple solidly sized ones with only college competition.

One interesting thing I heard is that with Seattle vacant, Vancouver may be back in the running again. As instead of three teams dividing the entirety of the Pacific Northwest, you'd only have two with the largest market (with both MLB and NFL teams) split between the Blazers and Vancouver.

Actually, make that two interesting things, as apparently San Jose is another high ranking option. Which would put five teams in California (their own division), three in Northern California and two in the Bay Area. While the Bay Area has MLB and NFL, San Jose itself only has NHL and already has a viable arena.

Anaheim wants a team too, but they never managed to convince Sterling to move there permanently even though the Clippers already played there. I doubt the NBA or the Lakers want three teams alone in the L.A. market. They (and the Knicks) weren't exactly pleased with the Nets moving to Brooklyn even though that had all kinds of obvious sense to it. Not to mention the meltdown over the Angels.

I'd figure Louisville and San Jose to be the most likely after the team staying in place. Then again, to be fair, NBA Owners are as stupid as the GMs and coaches. Memphis and New Orleans were both obvious failures that nobody there wanted and that anyone could see coming, yet they did it anyway. (While Louisville was basically begging for both teams.)

Las Vegas anyone?

Great Idea, this was discussed 4 years ago or more. Vegas has the most money or second to NY.
I think with the league buying teams there will be more game fixing... NBA has yet to put up more money and ask refs to call more T's.
Remember the 2 T's on Tim Duncan by Joey Crawford? Duncan was just smiling and talking to teammates on the bench then was Teed...
With the low tolerance rule now, the league can definitely afford the Hornets
Anyone will play against the Hornets will be thrown out.... Instant Championship baby