Owning an NBA team inevitably means you own the contract of a selfish, pouty, give-me-the-ball, I'm-calling-you-from-jail prima donna who doesn't know your name or care that you cleared $749 million selling high-rise condos in downtown California.
Robert Sarver bought the Suns anyway.
The native Tucsonan returned home Monday night to talk business with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and before anyone could ask him what he was possibly thinking - spending $401 million to buy an NBA headache? - Sarver gave it to them in dollars and sense.
Here is Sarver's parable of NBA ownership: A few years ago he was in the market to buy a house in the exclusive Del Mar area north of San Diego. One of his two final choices was a 2,400-square-foot beauty on the beach. Price: $2 million. He passed.
The other was a fabulous, 5,500-square foot property at Del Mar Country Club. Price: $ 1 million. He bought it. A few years later he sold it for $2 million.
Two years later, the beach house he rejected sold for $12.7 million.
"What it taught me," the 42-year-old UA grad said, "is that uniqueness sells. The Del Mar beach house was one of just 34 properties on the sand. There's no room for any more. The scarcity of the product attracted a great many wealthy people. The demand is off the charts. The NBA is the same. There are 30 teams. A lot of very wealthy people want them."
To the outsider, Sarver's April purchase of the Suns seemed odd, especially at inflated prices that made it the most expensive transaction in NBA history. (The proud Boston Celtics sold for a relative bargain $360 million two years earlier.) The Suns are neither a contender nor a hot ticket, and the NBA, burned by petulant personalities and international flameouts, has perhaps never been more unpopular.
Why pour good money into bad basketball?
Sarver's sports business objective is not any different than his real estate and banking holdings that made him ridiculously wealthy by the time he was 25. This is a man who has bought 20 banks. Yes, 20! He's a businessman who has worked 58 real estate transactions in excess of $2 million.
This is not Bill Bidwill trying to protect the family inheritance by hiring entry-level accountants.
"There are enormous tax benefits," Sarver said. "By amortizing two-thirds of the amount we paid for the Suns, we'll recoup half of the $400 million purchase price in tax savings in the next three years."
Why, he could buy Kobe Bryant's contract and bank another $80 million.
Sarver said he bowed out of this summer's Bryant free agency sweepstakes essentially because he did not want to play Bryant's cat-and-mouse game. Suns ownership was to be given a 60-minute window to make a presentation in his living room - one of four teams invited to do so - but ultimately Sarver "didn't like Kobe's approach."
"I thought he'd crush our young talent," Sarver said, which is a nice way of saying the Suns would like to try to develop young guns Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson around $65 million free agent point guard Steve Nash.
A team approach rather than Kobe-shoots-it approach.
Given Sarver's partnership with Steve Kerr, his basketball insider, the Suns new management plans to be more careful before taking on baggage. No more Stephon Marburys.
"I'm not going to get into the rehab business," Sarver said. "I can't change their habits. I'm not going to pretend that, if a guy insists on smoking weed, that I can stop him from smoking weed. I'm not going to pay a guy $12 million a year if he isn't friendly to our sponsors on the team plane.
"We did a lot of homework on Steve Nash. He's as smart as can be. He's an extraordinary worker. He's a leader, the kind of guy I'm going to invest in."
Invest, you say? Sarver has pumped $70 million into America West Arena, with a new sound system, new scoreboard, new everything. His banking and real estate history suggests he will be demanding and, perhaps, impatient.
Don't expect the Suns to bounce around like the Clippers much longer.
Sarver is about a month shy of the Suns opener. Before then, he'll be invited for the first time to the board room with his new NBA partners and commissioner David Stern. "In three weeks," he said, "I'll sit at the table with 29 owners, 29 of the wealthiest and most successful men in the United States. I'll be the youngest - and the poorest."
For Robert Sarver, rookie owner, the only way to go is up.
Robert Sarver bought the Suns anyway.
The native Tucsonan returned home Monday night to talk business with the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and before anyone could ask him what he was possibly thinking - spending $401 million to buy an NBA headache? - Sarver gave it to them in dollars and sense.
Here is Sarver's parable of NBA ownership: A few years ago he was in the market to buy a house in the exclusive Del Mar area north of San Diego. One of his two final choices was a 2,400-square-foot beauty on the beach. Price: $2 million. He passed.
The other was a fabulous, 5,500-square foot property at Del Mar Country Club. Price: $ 1 million. He bought it. A few years later he sold it for $2 million.
Two years later, the beach house he rejected sold for $12.7 million.
"What it taught me," the 42-year-old UA grad said, "is that uniqueness sells. The Del Mar beach house was one of just 34 properties on the sand. There's no room for any more. The scarcity of the product attracted a great many wealthy people. The demand is off the charts. The NBA is the same. There are 30 teams. A lot of very wealthy people want them."
To the outsider, Sarver's April purchase of the Suns seemed odd, especially at inflated prices that made it the most expensive transaction in NBA history. (The proud Boston Celtics sold for a relative bargain $360 million two years earlier.) The Suns are neither a contender nor a hot ticket, and the NBA, burned by petulant personalities and international flameouts, has perhaps never been more unpopular.
Why pour good money into bad basketball?
Sarver's sports business objective is not any different than his real estate and banking holdings that made him ridiculously wealthy by the time he was 25. This is a man who has bought 20 banks. Yes, 20! He's a businessman who has worked 58 real estate transactions in excess of $2 million.
This is not Bill Bidwill trying to protect the family inheritance by hiring entry-level accountants.
"There are enormous tax benefits," Sarver said. "By amortizing two-thirds of the amount we paid for the Suns, we'll recoup half of the $400 million purchase price in tax savings in the next three years."
Why, he could buy Kobe Bryant's contract and bank another $80 million.
Sarver said he bowed out of this summer's Bryant free agency sweepstakes essentially because he did not want to play Bryant's cat-and-mouse game. Suns ownership was to be given a 60-minute window to make a presentation in his living room - one of four teams invited to do so - but ultimately Sarver "didn't like Kobe's approach."
"I thought he'd crush our young talent," Sarver said, which is a nice way of saying the Suns would like to try to develop young guns Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson around $65 million free agent point guard Steve Nash.
A team approach rather than Kobe-shoots-it approach.
Given Sarver's partnership with Steve Kerr, his basketball insider, the Suns new management plans to be more careful before taking on baggage. No more Stephon Marburys.
"I'm not going to get into the rehab business," Sarver said. "I can't change their habits. I'm not going to pretend that, if a guy insists on smoking weed, that I can stop him from smoking weed. I'm not going to pay a guy $12 million a year if he isn't friendly to our sponsors on the team plane.
"We did a lot of homework on Steve Nash. He's as smart as can be. He's an extraordinary worker. He's a leader, the kind of guy I'm going to invest in."
Invest, you say? Sarver has pumped $70 million into America West Arena, with a new sound system, new scoreboard, new everything. His banking and real estate history suggests he will be demanding and, perhaps, impatient.
Don't expect the Suns to bounce around like the Clippers much longer.
Sarver is about a month shy of the Suns opener. Before then, he'll be invited for the first time to the board room with his new NBA partners and commissioner David Stern. "In three weeks," he said, "I'll sit at the table with 29 owners, 29 of the wealthiest and most successful men in the United States. I'll be the youngest - and the poorest."
For Robert Sarver, rookie owner, the only way to go is up.
