Adam Silver has an NBA owner problem, from Steve Ballmer to Mat Ishbia
NBA owners have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons -- from Ballmer to Walter and Ishbia -- and Adam Silver is showing weakness.
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Oh, how we rejoiced when the Valley learned about Alex Meruelo, and how we had attracted our first billionaire sports owner. The man who would throw a financial life preserver wrapped in $100 bills around an embarrassing NHL franchise drowning in debt. He was going to liberate Coyotes fans from decades of penny-pinching, undignified behavior.
Within five years, our hockey team was gone, sold to a businessman in Salt Lake City. The billionaire had made things worse.
Today, all eyes turn to Mat Ishbia, the billionaire Suns owner who surely wouldn’t let us down. Except the crash of his mortgage company has led to speculation about his diminished wealth and power, and what it might mean to the future of our free-spending NBA team.
There is no cause for panic yet, even though United Wholesale Mortgage stock continued its market tumble on Monday. But Ishbia had to give up board seats for the cash infusion he needed at UWM, which means he can no longer operate with the autonomy or imprudence he once enjoyed. Which means things have literally changed overnight.
Ishbia has downplayed his dramatic loss in net worth. During a company meeting, he told his employees that UWM “has never been stronger.” Suns fans know what these pep talks sound like. We the media hear them every year.
Cynicism aside, Ishbia deserves some blind faith, especially during hard times. The 2025-26 Suns made the NBA playoffs against all odds. His choice of general manager (Brian Gregory) and head coach (Jordan Ott) have played to rave reviews. He makes Suns games accessible on free television and has cut costs on basic concessions for fans who are stretching to attend games. His priorities as an NBA owner are very commendable.
But Ishbia is also a part of a bigger picture, and a growing ownership problem for NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Silver soared to prominence when he showed the courage to kick a wayward racist owner (Donald Sterling) out of the league for life. Now, the story has come full circle.
The NBA has reportedly cleared Sterling’s successor (Steve Ballmer) of any wrongdoing in the Kawhi Leonard saga. The NBA’s “independent investigation” of the Los Angeles Clippers has found that Ballmer did not circumvent the salary cap by paying Leonard extra money through backchannels. Alas, what is less trustworthy than a league-funded investigation into the league’s richest owner?
There’s more:
Under federal investigation for fraud, Mark Walter sold the Los Angeles Lakers 10 months into his renovation of the franchise, sending shockwaves through the industry. Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera has been linked to Russia’s alleged crimes against humanity for owning a company that sold technology to Russia that allegedly ended up on the frontlines of its war with Ukraine. The new owner in Portland is a toxic cheapskate, so bad that many believe he is greasing the skids for relocation efforts to another market.
And now, the financial uncertainty surrounding Ishbia is causing ripples on Wall Street.
The NBA was already engaged in a widespread crisis. They have no solution for tanking. They have no solution for load management. They have no solution for luxury tax measures that force the smartest organizations to dismantle championship teams and the fruits of their labor. They have no solution to all the flopping and all the free throws and all the players who openly disrespect the game. They are now partners in the gambling epidemic that is tugging at the integrity of their sport.
Silver was once the best commissioner in the four major professional sports. And now that many are reminiscing for the brute force and heavy-handed leadership of David Stern, Silver might officially be the worst.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.
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Comments
2 Comments
Lance Lance, Too Bad that a left-leaning lib like You did not know that Josh Kushner is the younger left leaning brother of the President's son in law! Quit drinking the drive by media's bath water!
And not once did you bother mentioning the son-in-law of the most corrupt politician in the history of this nation taking over the Lakers with Russian money handed over to the Traitor Trump family by Putin himself. And no, Ballmer has NOT been cleared. He is OBVIOUSLY as guilty as hell. It was an investigation that was designed to be a whitewash, and it will be in spite of all the obvious evidence of guilt. What? You think those companies gave all that money to Kawhi for absolutely nothing in return at all? Use your fcking brain, Bickley.