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With the sports world experiencing an unusual wave of team sales, most notably the Lakers, fans are understandably feeling apprehensive about these sudden shifts.
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A few NBA teams have seen recent ownership shake-ups even excluding the Lakers, ranging from the Timberwolves to the Blazers and Celtics. Beyond the NBA, the Seahawks, Padres, and Rays have all also seen ownership changes in the last couple of years.
Everyone knows about the Lakers being sold two times in a short period of time, but let’s take a quick look at the other NBA sales.
The Timberwolves were sold to businessman Marc Stad at a $4.5 billion valuation. The team’s previous owners were Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who took full control from Glen Taylor in 2025. An investment group led by Tom Dundon now owns the Blazers. Bill Chisholm is the majority owner of the Celtics, taking over in 2025. It’s a lot of change for notable teams that have passionate fan bases.
In our national SB Nation Reacts survey this week, we asked fans how they’re feeling about the onslaught of new ownerships, and the results were very clear.
Fans are understandably concerned about these changes.
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Trail Blazer fans have seen a very concerning side to Dundon and his cheap ways. An article published by The Athletic details many ways he’s earned the label of cheap. One instance saw members of the Blazers traveling party have to check out at 12:30 pm because he refused to pay more for late checkouts. He also didn’t allow two-way players to travel with the team in the playoffs and trimmed down the Blazers support staff. It seems he’s not a particularly fun owner, and that will understandably give fans stress and disgust.
The Wolves had their own controversies with Lore and Rodriguez battling previous owner Taylor for rights to the ownership after the latter had called off the sale. After all that, Lore then sold his stake to Stad. Celtics fans were not happy when the Grousbeck family put the team up for sale, and Chisholm, a private equity executive, bought it.
Billionaires and millionaires come with controversy and endless drama. It’s the name of the game. When fans invest their time and money into these teams, seeing a change in ownership can bring fears of rising costs, staff downsizing and other changes that could affect the organization in a not-so-positive way.
So yes, fans should feel uneasy. You shouldn’t have to feel nervous about the future of your team. But, again, there isn’t much we can do about it other than wait and see how things continue to shake up.
You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.
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