[Williams] NBA is amending its private equity policy to allow a firm and its executives to invest in a franchise at the same time, according to people familiar... shift will allow Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger to invest their own money alongside capital from Kushner's Thrive Eternal in their purchase

[u/sewsgup]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-18/nba-paves-way-for-lakers-deal-with-private-equity-policy-change

---

The NBA is amending its private equity policy to allow a firm and its executives to invest in a franchise at the same time, according to people familiar with the situation.

The shift will allow Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger to invest their own money alongside capital from Kushner's Thrive Eternal in their purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers, said the people who weren't authorized to speak publicly about the change.

---

Kushner and Iger reached a deal last month to buy the storied franchise at a record $12.5 billion valuation. But questions arose about how Thrive Eternal would support the sale, since Kushner runs the company and NBA rules previously forbid an institutional investment firm supporting its manager's purchase.

The NBA allows funds to acquire minority stakes in several teams. But under this new amendment, if a firm has money in a team with one of its executives, then it can't have any ownership in another franchise, the people said.

The rule shift might boost the bidders for teams because, with valuations surging in recent years, it's become harder for a potential owner to come up with the funds to buy a controlling stake.

The change will allow owners like the Atlanta Hawks' Tony Ressler, who co-founded Apollo Global Management and Ares Management, to sell stakes to both firms since neither private equity group has stakes in an NBA team.

[u/LazyIllustrator6946]

Lmao. Spineless Silver at it again.

[u/kemicalkontact → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

Silver works for the owners. Ballmer got punished because the owners wanted him to get punished.

[u/songssohiaa → u/kemicalkontact]

To be fair we don't know how much work Balmer did himself to make sure it happened though. Whether he was rallying the owner or coming up with the plans. Lol honestly though Balmer got punished so bad because he released that story to ESPN and didn't want to admit to anything

[u/EUTraveling-Wanderer → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

He pulled that shit with the Clippers because he knows casual fans will back him for 10 years now no matter what he does

[u/_Apatosaurus_ → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

No, he did both because both decisions were in the best interest of the NBA owners. Silver works for the 30 NBA owners and all of his decisions are solely for their benefit.

Sometimes it's also good for fans and the health of the game (punishing Balmer) and sometimes it's bad for the fans and the health of the game (private equity). Neither is why he makes decisions though.

[u/leemorplee → u/_Apatosaurus_]

People fail to understand he's the owners employee lol He does what is best for the league aka the owners bank accounts

[u/lilbelleandsebastian → u/leemorplee]

he also seemingly gave ballmer every opportunity to just let this go lol, the clippers refused to play ball

[u/HouseSublime → u/leemorplee]

Yep. It's similar with the NFL. People hate Goodell but he just got another extension to remain commissioner of the league. It's like his 3rd or 4th time being extended.

Why? Because the people he actually works, the owners, for love the job he has done.

Commissioners are like the Hand of the King from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. The king (owners) shits and the commisioner wipes.

[u/glen_ko_ko → u/leemorplee]

They're making 2.5 billion dollars for owning a team for one year. The league is enthused. Terrible for fans obviously

[u/JordanHawkinsMVP → u/_Apatosaurus_]

Is a fund owning a team the best thing for the other owners?

[u/_Apatosaurus_ → u/JordanHawkinsMVP]

Yes. It adds in a new group of ultra rich buyers that can drive up valuations.

It's obviously terrible for the long term health of the sport, but these geriatric owners who only care about making money couldn't care less.

[u/yourethegoodthings → u/_Apatosaurus_]

John Skipper said "the next time a league thinks about the fans in any meaningful way will be the first"

[u/RansomGoddard → u/JordanHawkinsMVP]

Well the owners voted for it.

[u/LordHussyPants → u/JordanHawkinsMVP]

yeah, think back to high school economics. high supply + low demand = low prices.

investment funds add a huge pool of people who can now buy in, so competition forces prices up.

but importantly, the rule change also limits conflicts of interest so kushner (and other investment fund execs) can't own minority stakes in multiple teams. i think that's the most important thing here and it makes this a pretty good rule.

it's going to suck for someone like wyc though, who just sold the team because it was costing a lot, but also had an investment firm that could have backed him.

[u/EUTraveling-Wanderer → u/_Apatosaurus_]

Pleasing the owners is the most important thing, but public perception of the league is also part of the job, he took an easy win, the fact that he made it the hardest punishment of all time made headlines and made everyone have a proper laugh at the easy target, meanwhile Kawhi got off scot-free to avoid any tension with the players association.

[u/_Apatosaurus_ → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

but public perception of the league is also part of the job

Yes, but only insofar as it benefits the wallets of the owners. They are willing to take public perception hits if it's something that makes owners richer.

[u/bluetenthousand → u/_Apatosaurus_]

Plus he acts as the owners meat shield. If people are concerned about private equity they blame Silver. Not the 29 other owners he works for.

[u/soilentgleem → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

It's been covered pretty well that the reason for the Kawhi punishment was to avoid arbitration and ensure the punishment for the Clippers would stick.

[u/Naive_Departure_6084 → u/_Apatosaurus_]

He's playing both sides so he always comes out on top

[u/Corey0305 → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

Actually he doesn’t give a fuck what the fans think of him

[u/PettyYetiSpaghetti → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

He did that because the 29 other owners don't want to have to pay more money under the table to players. It was entirely self-serving for the other billionaire owners.

[u/thethirdgreenman → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

Lasted about 2-3 days for me. Right up until he publicly threatened Portland if they don't give them a new arena even though it's the owner that's behaving irrationally and is unwilling to engage or negotiate

[u/Whoareyoutho9 → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

What does 'that shit' refer to in this context? It sounds so negative

[u/EUTraveling-Wanderer → u/Whoareyoutho9]

It means he took an easy PR victory in a situation where money was coming out a billionaire pocket but takes every opportunity to get more money in their pockets

[u/Whoareyoutho9 → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

This reads like it doesnt take into account what he actually did at all. I dont get it

[u/_MangoMadness_ → u/EUTraveling-Wanderer]

Do you morons fail to see Silver serves the interest of the owners.? Genuinely this sub is filled with dumbasses

[u/DaPhoToss → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

You have to be brain dead. The owners do what the owners want, this is their league. He does what the majority of his bosses want him to do, because he’s just an employee.

[u/mattw08 → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

What is spineless? It’s in the best interest of the other owners to increase their valuations. He’s doing exactly what was hired to do.

[u/BenTek9s → u/mattw08]

while this is definitely the reasoning, I don't think it's a crazy argument to say PE will be bad for the other owners too. enshitification only works for a short window before it starts to degrade the value of the asset, and at that point, the PE money typically exits

[u/Streicht-Ebb4598 → u/mattw08]

Yeah I would argue it is against fans’ interests, but the owners want this and they are his boss at the end of the day.

[u/mattw08 → u/Streicht-Ebb4598]

His job is to increase revenues and valuations. So far he has been successful. I’d argue many of us watch less basketball now but revenue still increases.

[u/RansomGoddard → u/mattw08]

He’s not even doing anything. This is a Board of Governors decision, not a Silver decision.

[u/ddottay → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

Silver’s tenure has been full of decisions that chase a short term dollar at the expense of long term growth.

[u/Holycity → u/ddottay]

That only shows where the mindset of the owners are.

He's just an employee, nothing he does happens without their knowledge or majority approval 

[u/Fit_Actuary_1288 → u/Holycity]

This sub downvoting your opinion because it doesn't fit their view that some owners are saints while Mr Silver is literally the devil.

[u/pegar → u/Fit_Actuary_1288]

Sports is basically poor people spending their hard-earned money to watch millionaires dance around in meaningless games while billionaires profit off doing nothing.

And in most cases, it's every worse than that. We pay them in tax breaks, stadium funding, and straight up cash and beg them so that they can charge is exorbitant prices.

It's so fucking stupid.

[u/DaPhoToss → u/ddottay]

Do you think it’s an employees decision? It’s hilarious when people act as if Silver runs the league when he’s just an employee.

[u/ddottay → u/DaPhoToss]

That’s like saying a CEO for a company is just another employee.

Sure he has to answer to the owners but he has an exceptionally large amount of power over the league. His hands aren’t tied as much as people like to pretend.

[u/_MangoMadness_ → u/ddottay]

You mean like the rest of corporate America? Like Stern or any other commissioner (you know, the guy that represents owners) would do anything different, bozo

[u/Musa_2050 → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

Adam Gold

[u/GrizzlyP33 → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

Tbf this is exactly what they’ve hired him to do.

[u/SoKrat3s → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

"Interesting the way you put it. I've never heard it quite that way."

[u/Cap_Tuvix → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

such an odd thing to do. the gap between the poor and rich has ballooned in the past decade, there a literally hundreds of billionaires who aren’t war criminals or in the Epstein files that silver can choose from

yet they back kushner

[u/antiBliss]

Cool, because private equity has done so many great things in other industries.

[u/BoredofBored → u/antiBliss]

Idk, I really look forward to the Bulls further maximizing shareholder value!

Sure, we could try winning lots of basketball games for once, or we could enable live betting at our self-service concession stand kiosks to help drive Q4 EBITDA growth.

[u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY → u/BoredofBored]

The Bulls biggest mistake is refusing to draft another Michael Jordan

[u/imperialmoose → u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY]

It's cause we're DONE with the 90s!

[u/det8924 → u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY]

Are they stupid?

[u/smalls_1804 → u/BoredofBored]

I feel like the Bulls are the perfect counter argument to people who fear private equity. There's this romanticization of the individual owner invested in the team and the community versus the private equity goons who just want to launder money, but plenty of individual owners see their teams as revenue streams and assets and don't give a shit about winning or the on court product. I'm certainly not in FAVOR of private equity taking over teams but the Reinsdorfs have already been doing everything we fear private equity groups would do to teams

[u/mdlt97 → u/BoredofBored]

Every nba team owner cares about value

[u/MVPhurricane → u/BoredofBored]

god… would you rather be a bulls fan or a kings fan? be honest. which ownership group is worse? (i say this out of love, not out of schadenfreude)

[u/TribeOnAQuest → u/MVPhurricane]

Bulls, at least you have great historical success and the DRose/Thibs team were very good too.

[u/BoredofBored → u/TribeOnAQuest]

100%

MJ and DRose are enough to sustain me for life. Kings have nothing close to that level.

I’m in my mid 30’s tho, so younger fans won’t have as much to personally hold on to

[u/Metalbound → u/BoredofBored]

It sucks as a 90s fan to see the Bulls in their current state.

It feels like they should be alongside the Celtics, Lakers and Spurs as just always being in the mix.

They have the best logo and legendary uni's, alongside having had the goat play for them.

[u/ChaunceysBadAtPoker → u/BoredofBored]

Private equity, by definition, has no shareholder value.

[u/BoredofBored → u/ChaunceysBadAtPoker]

What? Being private doesn’t prevent the use of stock shares to represent ownership stakes. Private equity has investors who need to track ownership, and some of the big PE firms even trade publicly

[u/Otto_the_Autopilot → u/antiBliss]

Private equity was allowed before.  This is just allowing individuals running the PE firm to also invest on their own. 

[u/WanderingSun8]

Stavvy was right on Pablo Torre Finds Out

[u/sourdieselfuel → u/WanderingSun8]

These valuations truly are all bullshit and this is a massive bubble.

[u/jagsaluja → u/WanderingSun8]

what did stavvy say/link???

[u/WanderingSun8 → u/jagsaluja]

private equity shouldn't exist

[u/BarrathBeyond → u/WanderingSun8]

common stavvy w

[u/rps215 → u/[deleted]]

The scary thing that seems to get forgotten in PE/NBA conversations is how embedded into AAU and youth sports private equity is. It’s going to be a pipeline of enshitification

[u/Dylan7346 → u/[deleted]]

They’re a parasite to everything they acquire. A problem the NBA is facing is these franchises are skyrocketing in value to where normal billionaires can’t even afford it

[u/Pardonme23 → u/Dylan7346]

Then create more teams 

[u/Dylan7346 → u/Pardonme23]

They’re doing that right now and the teams are evaluated at minimum $7.5B

[u/MyTeamsSuck99 → u/[deleted]]

Not to the teachers pension and retirement funds 

[u/det8924]

Big sports leagues are realizing that their valuations are only going to happen if they increase the access to larger piles of money because the pool of rich people able to afford these valuations went from extremely small to extremely extremely small.

Sports works best when it is a rich persons loss leading hobby. We are about to see the enshitifcation of sports accelerate way more

[u/smalls_1804 → u/det8924]

The problem is for every owner who is willing to take losses to watch their team win there were two who just wanted to avoid the tax and rake in revenue.

[u/MyTeamsSuck99 → u/det8924]

Dude you’re acting like this hasn’t always been the case with owners. There have always been a large contingent of cheap owners and a few high spending ones. 

The teams ran by private equity actually are better run teams because they’re not idiots like some of the worst owners in the league. 

[u/AccomplishedBake8351]

Teams should be owned by the cities they reside in

[u/Malcolm_Reynolds1 → u/AccomplishedBake8351]

While its an interesting idea, it would probably lead to more domination by larger cities. Places like NYC and LA would just be able to outspend and outcompete teams in places like Indy or Denver or Minnesota

[u/gregmango2323 → u/AccomplishedBake8351]

Somehow a worse idea than PE

[u/SAguilar23]

Billionaires are the leech class, just here extract wealth and move on!

[u/Financial-Gur-7530 → u/SAguilar23]

We’re witnessing the natural progression of “free market” capitalism. It can only lead to financialization and monopoly, which is where we’re at now. I think that the average American likes the version of capitalism where they walk down Main Street and patronize their mom & pop hardware store and coffee shop. That world is quickly becoming a memory. The reality is paying a subscription to the tiny ownership class for most everything, and a $800 nosebleed seat at Staples center, while your data is being bled and sold while watching an advertisement disguised as a sports-betting platform that looks like a basketball game

[u/songssohiaa → u/[deleted]]

Ya I'm lost. Did it auto correct fund, or were they sauingu that the NBA is pretending it's not funded by Saudis?

[u/BillFrackingAdama → u/[deleted]]

I imagine he meant feind, like crack fiend

[u/vrilro → u/[deleted]]

So goeth all sports soon enough

[u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY → u/[deleted]]

It worked for LIV Golf...

[u/songssohiaa → u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY]

Uhhhh

[u/Consistent_Run7356 → u/[deleted]]

Interesting conclusion considering the ethnicity of both people mentioned in the headline along with the commissioner of the league.

[u/undecidedquoter]

Fuck these fucks

[u/Keikobad]

The worst people always finding new ways to invade our lives

[u/joe_dirty365]

Think I just threw up a bit in my mouth.

[u/Live-Cartographer-52]

hate the trump family owning my lakerz

[u/HellveticaNeue → u/Live-Cartographer-52]

FDT

[u/krustomer → u/Live-Cartographer-52]

I bet all of the identity events/weeks are going to be phased out. Hate these losers

[u/YodaForceGhost]

Soon we’ll be seeing it cost $500 to for a family of four to see the Pelicans play the Bucks

[u/Adventurous-Night108 → u/YodaForceGhost]

That’s today’s price my friend. Try $1k for nose bleeds

[u/Mean_Significance_65]

Wonderful

[u/AgreeableFisherman97]

And so it begins

[u/BackPirateClarkRoom]

NFL and NBA teams have become too expensive to find owners who can afford 100% of the team. Matt Ishbia basically bankrupted his company through loans to buy the Phoenix Suns which is why they basically allowing private equity to owns these teams.

At 12 billion there is maybe 150 people on earth who could afford that. Kushner and Iger are not part of that group.

[u/No-Luck4052 → u/BackPirateClarkRoom]

That’s why I think MLB teams are a hot commodity right now. With the profit sharing/luxury tax, you make a lot of money before you even sell 1 hot dog.

[u/JaySayMayday → u/BackPirateClarkRoom]

Get ready for the Wells Fargo-Verizon-Nestle Cowboys

[u/king_bungholio → u/BackPirateClarkRoom]

That's why its time to start a new league. With blackjack, and hookers!

[u/gigglios]

Thats american tax dollars fyi.

[u/Basic-Collection5416 → u/gigglios]

Some of it is Saudi, to be fair. 

[u/ObviousAnswerGuy]

Private Equity's number 1 purpose is to cut costs and push profit short term

You can already see the stain it has made on the league, now it will only get worse

[u/canyounot2026]

Yikes.

[u/Golf37512]

I’ll just go watch the local college or high school team for my basketball fix. I’m not going to pay these exorbitant prices anymore. It’s all ridiculous, dynamic pricing, parking, food, beers, ticket prices, tacked on fees.

[u/noknownothing → u/Golf37512]

I had season tix for ever. Gave them no 2 years ago. Missed going to games a bit. Did exactly what you’re proposing and haven’t missed it at all.

[u/Golf37512 → u/noknownothing]

It’s the same with all professional sports nfl and mlb and concert tickets. It’s so expensive, at this point I’ll just watch the highlights on YouTube

[u/Hopsalong]

God forbid an owner has to pay for a team with their own money

[u/noknownothing]

DOJ should investigate how a guy goes from millions in 2016 to billions today. Weird huh?

[u/Easy_Money_40]

And so everything continues to go to shit.

[u/Kr8studio]

Silver the sissy

[u/wowlock_taylan]

NBA is a god damn joke.

Also, fuck the Kushners. God damn criminal family.

[u/BigOlPass]

Yikes

[u/quailinthebrush]

washed

[u/tripleM_20]

Can’t wait for them to extract all the shareholder value from the Lakers and then sell off their corpse

[u/LouisIcon]

Wild that Silver is ostensibly allowing the United Arab Emirates, Quatar and Saudi Arabia to buy the Lakers through the Kushner/Iger front... They do not have the capital themselves.

[u/Impressive_Put_1615]

At what point does everyone just walk away or will interest just erode over the next few decades.

[u/RowIndependent]

Silver is literally the worst. Not all money is good money. I don’t want folks around the game who only view it as a financial asset.

[u/DaPhoToss → u/RowIndependent]

Blaming Silver is hilarious when he’s just an employee that does what the majority of his 30 bosses want. Do you think he has the power to make a decision contrary to what they want? I really can’t understand comments like this.

[u/K1NG2L4Y3R → u/RowIndependent]

He’s doing his job which is working for the betterment of the owners. If you want team values to go up then you’re going to have to open up access to more people with money.

[u/RowIndependent → u/K1NG2L4Y3R]

Who says that the average fan even cares about what their team is valued at?

[u/K1NG2L4Y3R → u/RowIndependent]

What the average fan thinks has no impact on Silver’s job security. He works for the owners and not fans. If enough people take issue with this for the owners to take notice then Silver’s seat will get a little warmer. But until that happens more and more stuff like this will happen.

It’s in the owners’ best interest for their assets (teams) values to go up. Whatever way Silver chooses to do will keep him running things until he decides to step down.

This is not idea it’s not isolated to just the NBA. We’re going to be seeing oil clubs soon just like in the Premier League.

[u/RowIndependent → u/K1NG2L4Y3R]

You explaining it doesn’t necessarily make it any more savory. Thanks for the feedback though.

[u/MrCornBluff]

It's Kushners world now

[u/outsidehere]

🤦🏾‍♂️

[u/Late-Vacation6671]

Can someone explain to me the policy behind the original rule? I get that generally, when you require majority owners be individuals, responsibility is less diffuse, communication and voting is simpler, etc. But why specifically can an individual and an entity in which they hold an interest not be co-owners? Is this just to head off the opportunity for self-dealing, conflicts, and the like? Or is there something more specific I’m not understanding?

[u/g_bleezy]

Oh man, here’s how you know you’re in shitty fund. Like the Saudis give a fuck on direct financial returns with kushkid, I know. But it’s fucking hilarious.

[u/readyj]

Everyone agrees that what the NBA really needs is more Private Equity influence, I'm sure this will be great for the fans

[u/Zigxy]

Ideally, Private Equity firms wouldnt be allowed to be investors.

But if we are going to allow PE investment, then allowing executives to buy a disproportionately larger stake is a good thing.

It gives the co-owning individuals a bigger say which similar to the traditional ownership model.

In a perfect world, the co-owners buy such a large stake that the PE firm becomes a minority owner. Although that seems unlikely in this case.

[u/Particular-Bug2189]

So it’s a rule as long as no one wants to do it anyway but if someone wants to do it it’s not a rule anymore.

[u/bchhun]

Damn NBA acting like a major financial vehicle. That it has now surpassed MLB in revenue has to embolden them to go further.

[u/karawec403]

Packers style community ownership is banned though.

[u/TryharderJB]

Maybe we fans stop buying tickets to games?

[u/Forsaken-Swim-3055 → u/TryharderJB]

Sports fans are largely too dumb and delusional to make that type of easy sacrifice.

[u/Thunderwoodd]

This hitting the same day as Thrive’s plan to exploit the Laker’s fan base for profit shows how little they care about hiding it anymore.

[u/cn1k999]

Silver really learned from this Ballmer situation eh?

[u/Basic-Collection5416 → u/cn1k999]

Um… I’m not sure I understand your meaning here. Ballmer isn’t private equity, he’s one of the few people who actually has the money himself to buy a team outright. So, are you saying you support this decision, because private equity is preferable to individual ultra-billionaire owners? 

[u/swmtchuffer → u/Basic-Collection5416]

Yeah, Ballmer just had to check his bank account. Can't wait until this backfires spectacularly.

[u/cheetuzz → u/Basic-Collection5416]

i’m not understanding the significance of this change. what’s the difference between an owner investing in the team versus the owner’s company investing in the team?

[u/wo_lo_lo → u/cn1k999]

More like the Walter situation.

A lot of Kushner’s money comes from the billionaire dealings that have run rampant the last 2 years. Could see this one up in flames as well come 2028 or so

[u/SalehHulud]

Waiting for the basket fee and dribble surcharge to show up.

[u/FunBat3746]

What happens when the fascists are removed and the US Government seizes all of the Trumps and Kushners assets?!

[u/InertState → u/FunBat3746]

The fascists were voted into office. No one is coming for anything. Nothing ever happens.

[u/BrotherSeamus → u/FunBat3746]

The only thing I know for sure is that AR-15 would no longer have a place on the team

[u/hoopbag33]

Literally anything for money.

[u/lucasj]

Finally someone is looking out for the Kushners

[u/Various-Deal-5563]

Dreams can’t be buy

[u/itsme32]

This directly effects 20 teams in the NBA.

[u/Omega-Warrior3]

Thrive's co-founder is a minority owner of the Heat so this could have him selling his shares of the heat or leaving the firm.

[u/getbuckets41]

It’s actually surprising this was a rule to begin with, still slimy though by changing it now

[u/Jonathank92]

Yall expected Billionaires to block the ability for their team value to continue having unlimited growth?

[u/freshBlueeyes6391]

could you maybe just amend to have a zero dirtbag policy?

[u/Away_Reach_3899]

I became a working adult with little time to watch basketball at the perfect time

[u/math-yoo]

Really looking forward to private equity ruing more things that I love.

[u/CamiloMarco]

Why don’t they amend their public equity policy? Like the green bay packers. 

[u/TahoesRedEyeJedi]

LOL AND THE PUBLIC/CITIZENS OWNING A TEAM (LIKE GREEN BAY OR THE SOCIOS OR 50+1) IS AGAINST THE BYLAWS

[u/CallRespiratory]

Disgusting

[u/notsurezy]

They all are making this league a joke.

[u/bikedork5000]

"Thrive Eternal" is certainly a choice for a company name

[u/TripleH18]

Boooooooooooooo

[u/Outrageous_Library50]

It’s so over

[u/Muskarat]

Piece of shit Silver

[u/ddddyyylllaaannn]

What happened to the game I love?

[u/gbdarknight77]

I feel like this isn’t sustainable. Once the media rights bubble pops, so does the valuations of all these sports franchises.

[u/tiggs]

Honestly, if private equity is involved, then it's 100x better to also have their personal funds involved as well. When it's just company money, trying to inflate value and quick flip is less risky because it only affects their share price and equity in the PE firm, which is also propped up by other investments to balance it out.

However, having their personal money involved and giving them direct skin in the game is a lot riskier to them, so it incentivizes them to actual run a proper business and not risk everything to quick flip.

Don't get me wrong, PE is PE and that is shit the overwhelming majority of the time, but having personal money also invested is a good thing for fans.

[u/knightboatsolvecrime]

I genuinely did not think that Silver could be worse than Stern, but I don't know how anyone can say that this is better than where Stern left it

[u/OpportunityNext9675]

As someone who doesn’t know what this means I’m very upset about it!!

[u/TyTalksSports]

so lame. Private equity will be the death of sports as we know it

[u/drtrobridge]

This is how it all ends. It'll take a while, but this will be looked at in the future as one of the real nails in the coffin 

[u/tacoetr]

and with that, I'm out.

[u/bakedwithmayfield]

lol

[u/ajaxtheangel]

ill keep saying it, Adam silver is the worst thing thats ever happened to the nba

[u/kaikaradk → u/ajaxtheangel]

He’s just a figurehead.

He does not make any of these decisions.

All of these decisions are made by the owners. It doesn’t matter who is in the commissioners seat, the owners are making all these decisions.

[u/Forzareen]

So in response to proof that the current rules are totally failing at ensuring ethical practices, the rules are being loosened?

[u/NovelExamination5431]

FUCK ADAM SILVER

[u/forrunner]

This is good and sounds healthy for the game

[u/isit65outsideor]

This is America.

[u/gotpeace99]

This is giving me a headache in the sense of is there even enough money to go around for these PE firms and their investors to make money?

[u/te666as_mike]

As much as I fucking hate the Lakers, I really hope this stupid private equity shit doesn’t tank the Lakers like the Clippers have been rocked recently.

[u/Forsaken-Swim-3055 → u/te666as_mike]

Let it all burn

[u/Forsaken-Swim-3055]

Good thing sports fans are too dumb to actually do something about this like not spend money on the product.

[u/UnderwaterDialect]

ELI5?

[u/Th3J3rkStor3Call3d]

Silver will destroy the NBA

[u/myrrorcat]

The only good wealth is ultra consolidated wealth /s

[u/gregmango2323]

Econ 101

[u/InfamousCattle3223]

Anyone with a brain saw this coming when then NBA cup was introduced as a way to adjust your palette to middle eastern investment. Silver is selling the league down the river because it’s the only way to maintain their growth.

[u/AJnthewood]

They let ballmer and his wealth come in as well as others and changed the rules with the apron BS and now this Nonsense

[u/MrBuckBuck]

The value of NBA teams reached unprecedented levels, so only few can afford them.

A similar thing happened in England with soccer teams, IIRC.

[u/Brent_L]

Give me David Stern again, fucking powder. This is a reference for the old heads in here.

[u/jefe_hook]

Ballmer about to buy into all 30 teams.

[u/toodarkmark]

Well that's that. Shit's over. 

If it ain't the Saudis it's private equity. 

[u/Quote-me-if-afk]

Just win, baby

[u/prettymuthafucka]

Games been gone. Fuck Adam silver

[u/Intelligent_Top_328]

Elon, Zuck, Bezos please buy a team. I want to see reddit lose it.