Texan buys Rockets
The staggering amount merely nets Fertitta entry to the exclusive NBA Owners Club. To stay there, he will have to keep opening his checkbook; the Rockets just inked resident top dog James Harden to an unprecedented $228-million contract, and they figure t
Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta wasted no time making his desire to acquire the Rockets known. No sooner had owner Leslie Alexander shocked the pro hoops scene by putting the franchise on the block in mid-July than the longtime season-ticket holder vowed to make a bid for it. It didn’t matter that the price tag would be far higher than the $81 million he proffered when it was last up for sale 24 years ago. He had the war chest, after all, what with his restaurant and casino businesses thriving. As far as he was concerned, he needed to lay claim to it, if for no other reason than to keep it in his home state.
Certainly, Fertitta had more than sentimentality going for his attempted stake. By all accounts, the Rockets have been one of the best-run and most successful franchises in National Basketball Association history. Under Alexander’s watch, in particular, the red and white saw their fair share of victories; they won two championships and became a playoff fixture in 18 of 25 seasons. Just as important to the bottom line, they boasted of marquee names that kept turnstiles moving; they understood the business enough to have such notables as Hakeem Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Tracy McGrady, and Yao Ming leading their cause. And so he looked to his potential purchase as both an investment and an indulgence.
In any case, the extent of Fertitta’s craving was evident from the get-go. And so bent was he to get the deal done — and fast — that he gladly paid a premium for the Rockets: The $2.2 billion he is slated to pay represents a record in the annals of organized sports; it trumps the $2 billion Steve Ballmer shelled out for the Clippers in 2014 and the $2 billion Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Group forked over for the Dodgers in 2012. All things considered, Alexander couldn’t have brought in a better return on his asset, which he got for $85 million 24 years ago and which Forbes recently valued at $1.65 billion.
To be sure, the staggering amount merely nets Fertitta entry to the exclusive NBA Owners Club. To stay there, he will have to keep opening his checkbook; the Rockets just inked resident top dog James Harden to an unprecedented $228-million contract, and they figure to present similar numbers to point god Chris Paul anytime soon to extend his employment terms beyond his option year. Needless to say, it takes a special kind of commitment to run a franchise, one that even the dedicated Alexander ultimately grew tired of; as team President Tad Brown noted, “it can wear on you.”
For Fertitta, though, “it is a lifelong dream come true.” And, in terms of competitiveness, the Rockets should be giving him his money’s worth; other than the Warriors, they’re at least as favored to claim the hardware as any of their opponents. In short,
it’s a perfect marriage borne of a perfect divorce.