Michael Jordan reportedly in serious talks about selling majority stake in Charlotte Hornets

Michael Jordan parlayed his prolific basketball career as one of the greatest players ever to play the game into riches later in life, becoming one of the wealthiest former athletes on the planet. He used his millions to become the owner of the Charlotte Hornets for a cool $275 million back in 2010. On Thursday evening, it appears that the greatest to ever pick up a basketball is going to part ways with his beloved franchise. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi, Jordan is in serious talks to sell a majority stake in the franchise to a group led by Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin and Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall.

Plotkin was made famous during the “Short Squeeze” of GameStop stock in January of 2021. Plotkin had to close the hedge fund Melvin Capital after he made a disastrous bet in shorting the GameStop stock. Instead of GameStop’s stock price dropping, their stock price skyrocketed by 1,500% in January of 2021, which made Melvin Capital lose 53% of their assets, per CNN. The aftershock of the short squeeze forced Melvin Capital to close their doors for good in May of 2022.

It certainly won’t be quite the same without Jordan as the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. But it will likely be for the best of the franchise for him to step away as the majority owner. The team has struggled to find any sort of consistent success on the basketball court since he became the owner in 2010–when the team was then called the Charlotte Bobcats. The Hornets have only appeared in the postseason twice since 2010, the last time coming in 2016. During Jordan’s tenure as the owner in Charlotte, the team has gone through five head coaches, moved on from franchise players such as Kemba Walker, and missed on numerous draft prospects.

If he does indeed sell the franchise, Jordan would still own a minority stake in the franchise, according to reports. His tenure as an owner has been very disappointing, to say the least.

His career as an owner never would have compared to his unbelievable career as a player anyways, where he finished as the greatest player ever to pick up a basketball. He finished his spectacular career as a six-time NBA champion for the Chicago Bulls, where he demonstrated freon coursing through his veins time and time again as one of the most clutch athletes in sports history. Not only did Jordan win six NBA titles, but he also won six NBA Finals MVPs. He currently ranks as the fifth all-time leading scorer in NBA history (32,292 points).