Tag: San Antonio Spurs

12 NBA owners rank among Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans

All is gloom and doom around the NBA this morning with reports that training camps and preseason games will be postponed as the lockout continues.

NBA owners have maintained throughout the negotiations that the league’s financial model is broken. Players, they insist, receive too much of the money generated by the league.

Here’s a little fact that I find interesting after scanning the Forbes 400 of the wealthiest Americans. are NBA owners.

The NBA is represented on the list by the following owners:

No.          Owner                               Team                     Net worth                  Source

23.          Paul Allen                      Portland                   $13.2 B                    Microsoft, investments

60.          Rich Devos                    Orlando                    $5 B                          Amway

75.          Micky Arison               Miami                       $4.2 B                       Carnival Cruises

107.       Stanley Kronke           Denver                      $3.2 B                       Sports, investments

159.        Tom Gores                    Detroit                      $2.5 B                       Private equity

171.        Mark Cuban                  Dallas                        $2.3 B                       Online media

242.        Glen Taylor                  Minnesota               $1.8 B                       Printing

273.        Herbert Simon           Indiana                     $1.6 B                      Real estate

293.        Daniel Gilbert             Cleveland                 $1.5 B                      Quicken Loans

293.        Michael Heisley         Memphis                 $1.5 B                       Manufacturing

293.        Donald Sterling          L.A. Clippers         $1.5 B                       Real estate

309.        Joshua Harris             Philadelphia           $1.45 B                   Leveraged buyouts

Anybody else wonder why these elite businessmen want to get into the NBA if the business is so bad?

Delonte West finally snags a job during the lockout

We can all rest easily. Boston Celtics guard Delonte West finally has picked up a job during the lockout.

You’ll remember that West couldn’t go overseas to pursue a basketball opportunity because of his .

His need to provide for his family caused him to unsucessfully attempt to get a job at the last month.

West has tweeted that he hasat Regency Furniture, a chain with seven stores in Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, D.C., area. 

In his picture, West looks comfortable with his co-workers and ready to deliver some merchandise.

But I bet he would much rather be taking part in conditioning drills at an NBA training camp if given the opportunity.

Ginobili’s agent denies Italy report

NEW YORK — With the first two weeks of NBA regular-season games likely to be canceled come Monday, speculation continues to build about players heading overseas, including two of the Spurs’ “Big Three.”

It appears likely that as soon as the cancellations become official, All-Star point guard Tony Parker will sign with Asvel, the team in Lyon-Villeurbanne, France, in which he has an ownership stake.

An Internet report out of Italy on Tuesday indicated Spurs All-Star guard Manu Ginobili, who played several seasons in Bologna, Italy, had agreed to sign with Italian League power Virtus Bologna if Lakers star Kobe Bryant turned down a lucrative deal Virtus has offered him.

Ginobili’s agent, Herb Rudoy, on Tuesday emphatically refuted that report, writing in a text message, “Not true!” when asked if Ginobili had made any such agreement.

Bryant, who attended Tuesday’s negotiating session in New York between the NBA’s owners and players, was non-committal about his offer from Virtus Bologna. The negotiating impasse that likely will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season frees him to play there, but doesn’t necessarily mean he will.

“I don’t think there’s anything stopping it or pushing on it,” he said. “I think it’s its own separate structure. The developments that it has to what’s going on here is that I have time to be able to play overseas. In terms of what’s holding up the deal is the same as any other deal.”