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Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports Show. We

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Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Barr, I'm Scarlett Phil. Coming up on the

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Speaker 1: show today, controversy in the Valley as Phoenix, Suns and

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Speaker 1: Mercury owner Robert Sarver as announced he is seeking buyers

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Speaker 1: for his NBA and w NBA franchises after an investigation

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Speaker 1: found he used racist slurs and rast female employees. To

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Speaker 1: discuss more on this story, we introduced Bloomberg reporter Cameron Leech.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much Cameron for joining us today. I

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Speaker 1: wish we could have, you know, a fun topic, but

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Speaker 1: this is not even fun close to it at all.

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Speaker 1: At first, uh, it was going to be a deal

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Speaker 1: where you know that Robert Sarver was going to hold

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Speaker 1: on to his team, maybe get the year punishment uh

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Speaker 1: from the NBA because last week at the time the

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Speaker 1: uh NBA commissioner Adam Silver said, hey, okay, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: give it a year, but we didn't see any racial animus.

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Speaker 1: Let's listen to what he said. There's no need answer here.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's other other than owning property, the rights

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Speaker 1: that come with with with owning an NBA team, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know how that's set up within our constitution. Um,

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Speaker 1: what it would take to remove that team, you know,

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Speaker 1: from his control is a very involved process and it's

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Speaker 1: different than holding a job. It just is when when

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Speaker 1: when you actually um own a team, it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: just a very different proposition. So Cameron, what change now, Well,

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Speaker 1: it seems like he was saying that it's it's tougher

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Speaker 1: to sell a team than to actually address some of

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Speaker 1: the issues that are issues of discrimination, issues of racism

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Speaker 1: in the workplace. And I don't think that's the case.

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Speaker 1: He sounded like a lawyer. I mean he was talking

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Speaker 1: about the rights. Uh, legally too complicated, was my takeaway

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Speaker 1: from that. That comment he made. It's just something that

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Speaker 1: they didn't want to have to deal with if they

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Speaker 1: could avoid it, exactly as we would call it legally.

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Speaker 1: But we have to put this in context too. This

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Speaker 1: isn't Robert Sarver's first offense when it comes to issues

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Speaker 1: within a workplace. When he bought the team in the

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Speaker 1: early two thousand and four, there have been some issues

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Speaker 1: about him, you know, having some of these remarks within

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Speaker 1: the workplace, you know, not too long after he acquired

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Speaker 1: the team, and now that that this has come maybe,

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Speaker 1: you know, decades later and you're still dealing dealing with

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Speaker 1: these issues within this type of environment. It's a real issue,

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Speaker 1: and I think Adam Silver should have took that into

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Speaker 1: context as well too. So maybe the league was complicit

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Speaker 1: and allowing it to happen the first time around, and

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Speaker 1: by saying that Robert Sarvers should be maybe handled the

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Speaker 1: same way that Don Sterling was handled puts the n

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Speaker 1: b A in the guilty box as well. Correct And

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Speaker 1: I think because we don't have any audio evidence that

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Speaker 1: you know, Donna Sterling did, that's probably why they thought

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Speaker 1: they could kind of sweep this owner. When you have

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Speaker 1: big superstars like Lebron James and the you know, past NBA,

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Speaker 1: n b p A president CP three coming out to say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we need to address this. This is a real problem.

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Speaker 1: They have to to come and speak to Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: think that was an impetus to what has led to

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Speaker 1: this now of Servers selling U the his share of

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Speaker 1: the Sons and the Mercury. Because Lebron James and and

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Speaker 1: because of the other big name stars came out and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: you got this wrong. Yeah, I think you know, there's

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Speaker 1: a multitudinal ways to look at this. Let's think about

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Speaker 1: it from the business standpoint too. You have so many

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Speaker 1: more superstars that are close to or already have become

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Speaker 1: billionaires now too. So now we're trying to see more

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Speaker 1: of this change your guard from players speaking up more.

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Speaker 1: That's one, but also to them looking to own teams

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Speaker 1: as well. So I think that play is some factor

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Speaker 1: in this as well. The balance of power is shifting,

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Speaker 1: and who comprises the NBA owners will shift in the

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Speaker 1: years to come. Yeah, at least we will hope so.

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Speaker 1: Because also to just owning a team is not necessarily

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Speaker 1: Hey I have the money now you have to go

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Speaker 1: through a rigorous process and the other owners have the

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Speaker 1: recept you as well too. So that brings me to

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Speaker 1: an interesting question here the way that Adam Silver handled

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Speaker 1: that he basically represents the other NBA team owners. If

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Speaker 1: he was only going to give Sarver a one year

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Speaker 1: suspension and a ten million dollar fine, which by the way,

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Speaker 1: is the largest allowed by the NBA constitution, that was

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Speaker 1: done with the other team owners blessings, wasn't it. Uh?

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Speaker 1: At least they figured that this would be the best

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Speaker 1: course of action. And also to tien million dollars in

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Speaker 1: a industry that creates uh god knows billions, the team

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Speaker 1: is worth one point on billion, right, Yeah, and they're

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Speaker 1: there are players on the team who make way more

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Speaker 1: than that. Like we're talking about some of the least

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Speaker 1: skilled players, you know, as compared to NBA players of course,

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Speaker 1: so I don't think Tim million dollars would even be

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Speaker 1: a dent in his pockets either. Something else also caused

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Speaker 1: this is that when a minority the owner of the

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Speaker 1: Sun says, hey, man, you got to go. Uh. That

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Speaker 1: also brought this up, And I can imagine being a

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Speaker 1: fly on the wall to those conversations. Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: there probably had been some conversations between Lebron and my

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Speaker 1: minority owner as well too, And I'm curious to see,

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Speaker 1: you know, if that opens the door for him to

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Speaker 1: be the majority control owner of the team. Also, you

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Speaker 1: mentioned that Lebron James um carries a lot of weight here,

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Speaker 1: clearly in what he said in his his questioning and

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Speaker 1: his comments about how basically the NBA got it wrong.

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Speaker 1: What do we know about Lebron James's ambitions to join

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Speaker 1: the NBA as a team owner. I think there have

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Speaker 1: been previous rumors out there about this. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if we Bloomberg News have reported this straight on, but

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Speaker 1: that has been rumored before. Um. I think just seeing

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Speaker 1: some of his business acumen around just you know, a

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Speaker 1: plathora of you know, we can think of the Family

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Speaker 1: Sports group as well too. He also owns part of

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Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken a C. Mulon or Chelsea one

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Speaker 1: of the football clubs. Um So this is not something

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Speaker 1: new for him when it comes to ownership. Even we

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Speaker 1: started thinking about spring Hill as well too. There's just

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Speaker 1: so many opportunities out there for him, specifically just being

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Speaker 1: the face of the NBA. Going back to what you

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Speaker 1: were saying, it's a business and business is being affected. PayPal,

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Speaker 1: who was associated with the team, says, no, if you're

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Speaker 1: going to stick around, we're not. And there you go.

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Speaker 1: So you start having advertisers and sponsor to speak up,

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Speaker 1: you'll see more of change, change of guard within the

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Speaker 1: industry as well. Is I mean, this is something where

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Speaker 1: it's as we get more into the ESPN story and

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Speaker 1: we're learning more about it, it's pretty severe at first,

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Speaker 1: it really is. I mean it's and when we really

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Speaker 1: got into it and I had to say to myself.

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Speaker 1: And I like Adam Silver, but I had to say

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Speaker 1: to myself, dude, why why are you going soft this?

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Speaker 1: This is very serious. He's a very likable guy too,

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Speaker 1: stands over six too. I met him once before too.

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Speaker 1: But I think this was definitely a case of mismanagement

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Speaker 1: as well, to try to play more to the owners

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Speaker 1: um as opposed to what's best for the overall NBA

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Speaker 1: league itself. We're in an entire new just world nowadays

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Speaker 1: and there's just no place for discrimination and racism nowadays.

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Speaker 1: So even if there was a lack of evidence or

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Speaker 1: audio audio visual component to you know, some of the

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Speaker 1: things that he said, I think this still should have

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Speaker 1: been handled with more severity. Yeah. I go back again

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Speaker 1: to how Adam Silver put on his lawyer's hat and

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Speaker 1: was treating this as a legal issue. Yeah, more than

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Speaker 1: anything else. I mean, you talked about the report being damning,

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr. It detailed an eighteen year pattern of misogyny

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Speaker 1: and sexism inside the franchise that emanated from the top. Cameron.

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Speaker 1: What kind of owner was Sarver? It sounds like he

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Speaker 1: was pretty active. He showed up in the locker rooms,

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Speaker 1: he was really involved. Um he I don't know if

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Speaker 1: he was mere curial, but it sounded like there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of coaches over you know, an eight year

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Speaker 1: period where there's a turnover that that was notable. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I haven't you know, witnessed his personality personally, but just

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Speaker 1: based off of what you know, other reports I've seen

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Speaker 1: out there, seems like he was very engaged in some

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Speaker 1: of the basketball operations, even down to UM Steve Kerr

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Speaker 1: used to be, uh the general manager there as well too,

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Speaker 1: and who's now at the Go to State Warriors who

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Speaker 1: was brought in, you know, several championships there and they've

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Speaker 1: even had some of their issues. Um, at least it's

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Speaker 1: been out there in the media at least of why

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Speaker 1: he wanted up leaving from that post before he went

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Speaker 1: over to Go to State Warrior. So it seemed to

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Speaker 1: be a few things brewing over there. So now what

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Speaker 1: happens Sarber says, Okay, I'm gonna sell parts of my team.

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Speaker 1: What's the process that happens from here? Well, so even

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Speaker 1: for startus this, this in itself isn't a punishment for him.

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Speaker 1: He acquired the team for four hundred one million dollars now,

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Speaker 1: I said that the team could sell for upwards of

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Speaker 1: a three billion, and so at that point that's a

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Speaker 1: pretty healthy make money coming out of this. So I

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Speaker 1: don't know what the true headline material risk is for him,

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Speaker 1: but his pockets will be will be patted, it seems.

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Speaker 1: In addition to it, as far as the sales process,

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Speaker 1: you know, we'll start looking out for the advisors that

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Speaker 1: will be selling the team itself, and we'll start to

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Speaker 1: start to see more names come out, more other billionaires

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Speaker 1: say hey, I would like to start preparing a bid

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Speaker 1: for that. I think after that you start seeing the

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Speaker 1: ball rolling and we'll see a shortlist after that. Is

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Speaker 1: there a lot of demand for a team like the

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Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix because it's gonna be a franchise, right, Yes,

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Speaker 1: because it's the NBA franchise. Now, it's not the greatest

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Speaker 1: you know, franchise in itself because it is in Phoenix

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Speaker 1: and other Phoenix too, but for the record, um, but

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Speaker 1: beyond that too, just because it is an NBA franchise,

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Speaker 1: You're going to see a lot of people throwing money

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Speaker 1: at the wall for this, you know. Matt Maloney of

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Speaker 1: m Puck was speculating that Bob Iger, former chairman and

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Speaker 1: CEO of Disney, might be someone who might want to

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Speaker 1: buy buy up Sharper stake. You know, this came up

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Speaker 1: in discussion with some other colleagues yesterday too, and I

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Speaker 1: met a Boebiker over the summer at Sun Valley, and

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Speaker 1: I can see the ambition there for something within this,

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Speaker 1: within this space, but I don't necessarily know if he

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Speaker 1: would want to be that involved in something that requires

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Speaker 1: more face time as well too, I can see a

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Speaker 1: lot of NBA players, even former NBA players, saying, you

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Speaker 1: know what, if we put our nickels and quarters together,

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Speaker 1: we might a lot more than nickels and quarters. You've

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Speaker 1: seen my pocketbook. That's how bad it is. That we

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Speaker 1: might be able to at least, you know, snap up

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Speaker 1: at least the share of this, or would even become

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Speaker 1: a minority owner. I think. I think it depends to

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Speaker 1: on what the structure of what the NBA will require too.

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Speaker 1: I know, for certain professional sports teams require some majority

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Speaker 1: control owner to have at least pool the most money together,

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Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see who's able to actually

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Speaker 1: come up with the capital ford as well. How long

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Speaker 1: would this process take. I mean, this is not something

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Speaker 1: that can happen in a matter of two months. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's no telling. Um, we probably see something maybe end

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Speaker 1: of next year, end of next season at least. So um.

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Speaker 1: Top of top of three at least. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for talking with us here on the Bloomberg Business

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Speaker 1: of Sports and lane your knowledge on this. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Do not forget to catch our podcast. That's

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Speaker 1: right our podcast Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays on all your

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Speaker 1: podcast platforms, and right here on Bloomberg Business of Sports

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Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio