The Phoenix Suns Have Official Been Sold For $4B To Billionaire Mat Ishbia!

There’s a new era brewing in Phoenix. The Robert Sarver era with the Phoenix Suns is officially over as billionaire mortgage lender and member of the 2000 Michigan State national championship team Mat Ishbia has purchased the franchise for $4B!

First, let me just gawk at that price! 4 billion US dollars for the Phoenix Suns? Is that a typo?

This is still the same Suns organization that has not only failed to win a championship since its inception into the NBA in 1969, but has also consistently underperformed with some of the greatest talents the game of basketball has ever seen, right? Does Mat Ishbia realize that he’s just been swindled out of 2.5 billion by Robert Sarver?

Well, he probably doesn’t care as from just reading up a little on the man’s background, he’s been desperate to get his hands on one of the 32 NFL teams or one of the 30 NBA teams. Like I said, Ishbia has always been a ‘sports guy’ (unlike Sarver) as he was one of the members of the national championship winning Michigan State team of 2000. He knows the insides and outsides of a basketball team and a winning one at that, which should help out the Suns a little bit.

And we all know the Suns need it as they have failed to get back to the NBA Finals last season and are rapidly sliding down the West’s standings this year. Simply put, this current Suns roster needs a jolt of energy and Ishbia might be the guy to do it.

Plus, he also has the finances to pay for and keep premier talents in the desert, which has been a massive issue for the Suns. Under Sarver, Phoenix was notorious in keeping themselves underneath the Luxury Tax, even when said moves were determinantal to the team and on-court style of play. Just this past offseason, before all of the issues stemming from the reports and investigations about Sarver, the Suns were dealing with the issue of whether to pay Deandre Ayton or not.

Personally, I probably would have moved on from the big man as I find him to be a little too soft and inconsistent when he has to face off against the real big men superstars in the league (ex: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Nikola Jovic, Joel Embiid, etc.), but the Suns were debating on whether they should pay him and enter into the Luxury Tax.

Obviously, being fruitful and contentious with one’s finances and salary cap situation is of paramount importance to every team in the NBA…but not when it comes with destroying a championship-caliber team. When a team has a chance to win a championship, regardless of the sport or league they play in, it is their obligation to spend whatever is necessary to take said title home.

That just wasn’t the case with Sarver, even though the Suns did end up spending into the Luxury Tax to keep Ayton.

Nevertheless, I don’t anticipate that to be a problem under Ishbia as the man is currently worth $5.1B and his brother, Justin Ishbia, (another investor in the team) $2.1B ($7.2B combined). So, in other words, the combined net worth of the Ishbia brothers is worth nine times more money than Sarver ($800M) was worth prior to the sale of the Suns.

Yeah, that’s a massive difference.

It really does seem like times are changing for the Suns.

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