NBA’s board of governors approves Hornets sale, ending Jordan’s tenure as majority owner

Michael Jordan’s days as the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets are truly finished.

The NBA’s board of governors has approved Jordan’s sale of a majority stake in the franchise to Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, league sources confirmed to the Observer on Sunday. The move, which was expected to be finalized this week, comes a little more than a month after the team initially announced Jordan was indeed selling a chunk of the team to Schnall and Plotkin.

With Jordan now a minority owner, his tenure as the Hornets’ main decision-maker ends. Jordan paid Bob Johnson roughly $180 million in 2010 to take majority control of the expansion franchise, acquiring roughly 65% of the team’s equity from Johnson.

But now Jordan is giving way to a new ownership group that features rapper J. Cole and country music singer-songwriter Eric Church. Dan Sundheim, Chris Shumway, Ian Loring, Dyal HomeCourt Partners, Amy Levine Dawson and Damian Mills are also a part of the group.

Plotkin is the founder and chief investment officer of Tallwoods Capital, and has been an alternate governor on the NBA’s board since 2019. Schnall is co-president of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, where he has worked for 27 years. He was a member of the Atlanta Hawks’ ownership group and has been an NBA alternate governor since 2015.

Even with the transaction pending for the past five weeks, Jordan remained extremely involved with the Hornets’ personnel decisions — particularly last month’s NBA Draft. He was one of the driving forces behind Charlotte bringing in Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson for second separate individual workouts three days before the Hornets ultimately selected Miller at No. 2 overall.

As the team’s chief decision-maker for 13 seasons, Jordan couldn’t deliver a perennial winner. The Hornets’ seven-year playoff drought is the longest in the NBA. The franchise is 423-600 since Jordan purchased the majority stake from Johnson.

Under Jordan’s lead, Charlotte posted above-.500 seasons just three times — and only once since 2017 — and reached the postseason twice. The Hornets also had five head coaches, with two stops for current head man Steve Clifford.

The sale’s approval is the latest move in a busy week for the Hornets. The team welcomed Miles Bridges back with a press conference last Tuesday. Both Bridges and team president/general manager Mitch Kupchak addressed the player’s one-year absence in the wake of his arrest and no contest plea for felony domestic violence charges.

Barely 24 hours later, the team trotted out star point guard LaMelo Ball to discuss his franchise-record contract. By inking a five-year extension that could be worth as much as $260 million, Ball has been cemented as the Hornets’ cornerstone.