NBA owners, from oldest to youngest

The Pacers are kind of an anonymous franchise, and Simon is one of the more anonymous owners in the NBA. He’s also an elder statesman, as he and his brother Mel bought the Pacers way back in 1983. Mel died in 2009, and Simon has carried on by himself since. Also, he’s married to Miss Universe 1988, which is a fun fact.

Reinsdorf is an old-school owner. The former lawyer bought the Bulls back in 1985 when purchasing a sports team was a much cheaper proposition. While it takes a couple of billion to do that now, Reinsdorf, who already owned the White Sox at the time, snagged the Bulls for a mere $16 million. Then Michael Jordan happened, and his investment paid off tenfold.

So the owner of the NBA's only Canadian franchise is…a faceless corporation. The owner of the Toronto Raptors is Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. It also owns the Maple Leafs (of course), the Argonauts of the CFL and Toronto FC of the MLS. The picture only gets murkier from here. The primary owners of MLSE are Rogers Communications BCE, formerly Bell Canada. Tanenbaum, though, owns the 25-percent of MLSE that Rogers doesn't own, and he's 80.

Benson only recently became a majority NBA (and NFL) owner. She is the widow of Tom Benson, who was the owner of the Pelicans until his death. Also, apparently Gayle met Tom at the funeral mass for Tom’s previous wife, Grace. Now she owns an NBA team. It’s an odd world sometimes.

Arison is the chairman of the Carnival Cruise Line, the biggest cruise company in the world. That’s helped him become a billionaire many times over. Arison owns the Heat, which he bought in 1995. The team has had a lot of success under him, especially after he was able to convince Pat Riley to join the organization.

Stan Kroenke has been quite generous with his sports franchises. While he still owns the Rams, the Colorado Rapids and Arsenal in the Premier League, the NFL wouldn’t allow him to own pro teams in other cities, which meant he was no longer able to own the Denver Nuggets or Colorado Avalanche. So now his wife owns those teams. Not that she doesn’t have money of her own. She is an heir to the Walmart fortune.

Dolan is the chairman of The Madison Square Garden Company, which owns not just the Knicks but also the Rangers. Some owners fade into the background. Dolan is not one of those. He’s loud, brash and controversial. He’s also pretty much universally loathed by Knicks fans, who dream of selling the team. Maybe he will so he can to focus on his blues rock band, JD & the Straight Shot. That’s not a joke.

There are rich NBA owners, and then there’s Ballmer. The guy was the CEO of Microsoft for over a decade, and he raked in a ton of cash in the process. When the Clippers forced Donald Sterling to sell, Ballmer swooped in and dropped a then unheard of $2 billion for the team. Ballmer is reportedly worth a staggering $51 billion, though, so he can afford it. No wonder he’s so excited when he’s courtside. You’d be excited too if you had more money than you could spend in 10 lifetimes.

How did the Warriors become a dynasty? They drafted well, hired a great coach, got a little lucky, and, oh yeah, were bought by a couple of billionaires. Lacob, who is 63, is the guy we hear from and see more, as he handles the day-to-day operations of the team. Peter Guber is way more interesting, though. He’s a movie producer who produced films such as “Rain Man” and “Batman.” His old production company put on the Golden Globes, and yet this Hollywood lifer owns a team in the Bay Area.

Leonsis has had a great deal of success as the owner of the Washington Capitals. Drafting Alex Ovechkin will do that for you, and they did win the Cup a couple of years ago. The Wizards have had less success and are actually beginning a rebuild, despite the presence of John Wall’s albatross of a contract. Hey, at least the Capitals should still be good for a while.

Fertitta is one of the newer owners in the NBA, as he bought the Rockets in 2017. It cost him a pretty penny, as the sale was for $2.2 billion. That’s about what it costs to get an NBA franchise these days, though. Fertitta has been called the “world’s richest restaurateur.” Maybe he got into the food industry because his last name sort of looks like frittata.

Ranadive, an Indian billionaire, was lauded by Sacramento fans for keeping the Kings in town. Then things got a little weird. Ranadive has had some odd ideas related to running an NBA team. People probably talked too much about his speculation on leaving a player to cherry pick on offense, but anybody who watched the behind-the-scenes video when the team drafted Nik Stauskas will have the searing awkwardness of that burned in their brains forever.

Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, owned the Trail Blazers (and the Seattle Seahawks) until his death in 2018. His sister Jody was named the executor and trustee of his estate. So, you know, in essence she was willed two billion-dollar franchises. Nice work if you can get it.

Shield your eyes, Seattle basketball fans! Bennett bought the SuperSonics from Howard Schultz, claiming he would make an effort to keep the team in Seattle. Then next thing we knew, the team had been moved to Oklahoma City and renamed the Thunder. In what is surely a coincidence, Bennett is from Oklahoma City. Of course, the Thunder have a title now, which makes OKC basketball fans very happy (and Seattle basketball fans that much more aggrieved). 

Technically the Orlando Magic are owned by RDV Sports Inc, which was founded by Rich DeVos when he bought the Magic, not to mention a few other sports teams. Yes, he named the company after himself. Rich is dead now, though, and his son Dan has become the chairman of the company. Born in Grand Rapids, DeVos also owns the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Ressler owns the Atlanta Hawks, which is all well and good. That’s not what’s important here. He’s also married to Jami Gertz. Yes, THE actress Jami Gertz from “The Lost Boys” and that one episode of “Seinfeld!” She shows up at the NBA Draft Lottery to represent the Hawks for her husband. It’s always weird.

The Bucks used to be a team co-owned by Edens and Marc Lasry. However, in 2023, with a ring in his pocket, Lasry sold his stake in the Milwaukee Bucks. Jimmy and Dee Haslam own half the franchise now, but Edens has seniority on them.

The Boston Basketball Partners, a group founded solely to buy the Celtics in 2002, is technically listed as the owner of the franchise. The group consists of several members, including four members of the executive committee. However, Wyc Grousbeck is listed as the governor for the Celtics. As such, we’re going with him as the representative, and he’s a hearty 64.

The Lakers have been a team of turmoil for a while. All six of the Buss kids got a share of the franchise, but Jeanie is the team president and one of the NBA’s Board of Governors. Fortunately for Jeanie, and the rest of the Buss family, the Lakers name still has cache. That’s how they got LeBron and Anthony Davis to sign on and then got Luka Doncic in a trade. 

If nothing else, Gilbert is the NBA owner with the most overt affinity for Comic Sans. We all recall when Gilbert feuded with LeBron James after the King took his talents to South Beach. However, the two were able to bury the hatchet, and LeBron returned to Cleveland to give the Cavs their first title. Then he left again. Hey, at least the Quicken Loans founder is still a billionaire several times over.

Gilbert is from Detroit, but he’s not the owner of the Pistons. That would be Gores, who has ties to the state of Michigan as well. His family moved to the Wolverine State from Israel when he was a child, and when longtime Pistons owner Bill Davidson died, Gores stepped up to purchase the team from his family. Gores and Gilbert have also tried to join forces to bring an MLS team to the Motor City, but to no avail so far.

Meet the newest owner in the NBA. Remember when Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire, bought the Nets and tried to make a big splash. It didn't quite work out for him, and a few years ago the 54-year-old oligarch sold 49 percent of the team to Tsai, one of the cofounders of Alibaba. Then, Prokhorov decided to sell the rest of the team, and the Barclays Center, to Tsai, making him the principal owner.

Harris made his money in investing and money management, making him one of the vanguards of a new era of sports owners. There are those who say guys like Harris don’t own sports teams because they love the sport and want the prestige of owning a franchise. They do it because it’s a money-making investment. Well, the Sixers have had success on the court in recent years after the Process, which Harris was party to as owner. Philly fans can’t be too unhappy.

Remember when Michael Jordan owned the Hornets? That was fun. Now, the NBA legend is out and now the team is owned by a hedge fun manager and the co-president of a private equity firm. The former is Gabe Plotkin, while the latter is Schnall. Interestingly, it is in the deal that Schnall and Plotkin alternate who is governor every five years. Right now, Schnall is the governor.

Cuban was the new face of NBA ownership when he bought the Mavericks in 2000. He's still around, and still a cultural gadfly, but he no longer owns the majority of the team nor is the governor. Dumont is the governor because, to quote the affable Anton Chigurh, he married into it. He married Sivan Ochshorn, who is the daughter of Miriam Adelson from her first marriage. Adelson is rich as hell because she was the second wife of the late Sheldon Adelson. Once Dumont married into the family, wouldn't you know it but he had important jobs within the Adelson business empire, and that includes now being the governor of the Mavericks.

The process of buying the Minnesota Timberwolves from Glen Taylor proved quite convoluted for Lore. It has taken years and required an arbitration panel to rule in Lore's favor after Taylor tried to claim the deal was invalid. Also, we do know Alex Rodriguez is the famous face paired with Lore in the ownership group, but, you know, c'mon. We know which of those two has the money to put into an NBA team. 

For years, the Jazz were owned by the Miller family. They were on the older end...and the more conservative end. However, then a young billionaire emerged with a love of the state of Utah. Smith first bought the Jazz in 2020, and then he bought the Arizona Coyotes and moved the franchise to Utah to be rebranded as the Utah Mammoth. 

Yes, you read that right. Pera is only 42. What’s even crazier is that he bought the Grizzlies way back in 2012. He’s been an NBA owner since his 30s. When he became a billionaire, he became one of the 10 youngest billionaires in the world. Pera, like Cuban before him, also likes to be involved and be hands on, though he’s not quite as visually prevalent. Maybe it's because he owns a team that plays in Memphis.

Robert Sarver was not a popular owner when he was in charge of the Phoenix Suns. When lenghty exposes are written about your management style, it's generally not a good thing. As such, Suns fans probably rejoiced when a hotshot young billionaire in Ishbia bought the team. However, Ishbia perhaps proved a bit too invested and hands on. The franchise is less of a bummer than it was under Sarver, but not exactly successful on the court

Spurs Sports & Entertainment is a company that owns, among other things, the Spurs. Holt is the managing partner of that group and thus the guy in charge. He's also an NBA owner that doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, which is wild. See, his father Peter Holt was the one who made the money and bought the team. He retired and passed it on to his wife Juliana, who then passed it on to her son, Peter J. It would appear he's 38 or 39 based on limited information, but ultimately he's just the latest in the Holt nepotism line to own the Spurs. Peter J.'s great-great grandfather Benjamin invented the type of tractor that led to Caterpillar, and it's really just been a family riding those coattails ever since.