Michael Jordan reportedly in talks to sell majority stake in Hornets

National Basketball Association

Updated Mar. 20, 2023 6:49 p.m. ET

Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan is reportedly in “serious talks” to sell his majority stake in the NBA team to a group led by Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin and Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall.

Jordan bought his majority stake in the Hornets (then-Bobcats) in 2010 for $275 million, which made him the first ex-player to be a majority owner in the NBA and the only Black majority owner in the league — both are true to this day.

Prior to taking control of the team in 2010, he served as a minority owner with the final say on basketball decisions for four years. Jordan plans to keep a minority stake in the team, according to a recent report from ESPN.

The Hornets have made the playoffs twice since Jordan took over as owner, with the last time being in 2016. The Hornets are currently in 14th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22-50 and already disqualified from this postseason.

On Monday’s “Undisputed,” Shannon Sharpe broke down what this news means for MJ and the organization.

“It’s hard to be arguably … the best at one thing and horrible at something else, and that’s the way you can sum up his tenure as the owner of the Hornets,” Sharpe said. “It [has] been a disaster. He [has] hit the ball out of the park basically one time with Kemba Walker. … [LaMelo Ball] has been very good … [but] he [has] been injured an awful lot.

“Every other draft pick has been an epic failure from, Adam Morrison to Frank Kaminsky to Bismack Biyombo. … In 2015, Michael Jordan rejected four first-round picks from the [Boston] Celtics, including one that later became Jaylen Brown, in order to draft Frank Kaminsky. He did that! He said no. His batting average on first-round draft picks is worse than what he hit with the Birmingham Barons. … I hate to see it.”

Skip Bayless agreed completely with his cohost, saying that it hurt his “heart to agree with every point” Sharpe made.

“I am the biggest Michael Jordan fan, as you well know,” Bayless began. “This hurts my heart because he was the Black owner in all of sports. When he first took over, I had the highest hopes for him, but this has been now 17 seasons that we’ve gone through with him as the operator of the Charlotte Hornets. … If you go 17 seasons and make the playoffs only three times in the NBA, and you never win a playoff series in 17 seasons and your playoff record is 3-12, which is by far the worse over that span in the NBA, something was very wrong.

“The greatest at playing is the worst at picking players.”

Michael Jordan reportedly open to selling majority stake in Hornets

As of 2022, the Hornets are valued at $1.7 billion, according to Forbes. That valuation comes ahead of only the Minnesota Timberwolves ($1.67 billion), the Memphis Grizzlies ($1.65 billion) and the New Orleans Pelicans ($1.6 billion).

More NBA from FOX Sports: