O Really wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 3:58 pm
Well I don't know how much money it takes to be able to buy a pro team, but part of the problem might be illustrated by noting that there are only 8 American black billionaires and 16 total in the world.
Opps, I messed up the link to the OpEd above. Here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael- ... f8ebc7ddb2
... But in pure capitalistic terms, Jordan executed a slam dunk in selling the team at a time when sports franchise valuations were exploding. Back in 2010, when Jordan bought the Hornets, the sticker price was $275 million. In a transaction heavily influenced by the late David Stern, former NBA commissioner, Jordan only put up $30 million in cash for the transaction while assuming about $150 million in debt for a team hemorrhaging cash at the time.
Such a deal would never happen in today’s NBA.
Although the official sale price in Jordan’s deal to sell the Hornets hasn’t been announced, ESPN, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the franchise had been valued at $3 billion. (Forbes noted last fall in its annual ranking of NBA team valuations that the average NBA team is now worth $2.86 billion, up 15% from the prior year.)
Dayyum, risking $30 million in order to make around $3 billion 13 years later is a hella coup. 10,000% return.
If we’re reducing the matter of Jordan selling the Hornets to a simple issue of dollars and cents, there’s no question that Jordan has once again demonstrated himself to be as lethal from a business standpoint as he ever was on a basketball court. And he certainly cannot be begrudged for cashing in a smart investment at the right time. This is the object of the game in our capitalistic society, right? Buy low and sell high.
But Jordan selling off the Hornets — which we can reasonably assume the fans are justifiably thrilled about — again places the spotlight on an uncomfortable truth for the NBA.
Although Black players account for more than 70% of the talent on NBA rosters, with Jordan’s sale of the Hornets, no more Black majority owners are left to call the shots for teams. In fairness, the NBA has made significant progress in hiring Black talent into prominent leadership roles in recent years, with 14 of the 30 head coaches and 11 of 30 general managers identifying as Black. The gap in the Black leadership-to-player talent ratio is far starker in the National Football League, where although 56% of the players are Black, there are no Black owners, just three Black head coaches and five Black team presidents.
In fact, a report published by Revelio Labs earlier this year contends that the NFL “has a significant disparity between the diversity of its players and that of its coaching staff — the largest among men’s major leagues — and this has not changed despite a large pool of diverse former players that could meet a demand for coaching talent.”
These data points illustrate a power dynamic in which Black sweat is a crucial part of the engine driving multibillion-dollar profits for sports leagues and media networks, while the decision-making largely rests in the hands of a predominantly white leadership structure that includes ownership and extends into the press, the TV network C-suite, player agents, sports advertisers, corporate sponsors and season ticket holders.
Magic Johnson, who recently joined the ranks of Black minority owners of NFL franchises as part of billionaire Josh Harris’ $6.5 billion purchase of the Washington Commanders, seems to want to be part of the solution to this challenge for the NFL. Following the closing of Dan Snyder’s sale, Johnson told NBC BLK that he hopes his position with the club will lead to more Black executives elevating into leadership positions both within the organization and beyond....
I don't think the author is asserting that there is a de facto "poll tax" for ownership, but rather is lamenting the result however we got here. Far be it for me to wish for more billionaires, but we can certainly say that racism is a factor in our not having more Black ones.
To cite one well known example, Dolt .45, if he even is a billionaire, is wealthy thanks to his racist White landlord daddy, not because of his own talent.
Shame.
Okay, but the peasants were more sophisticated and credible than the dude in the fancy tunic with his own coconut-wielding peasant. I found this:
