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Phoenix Suns legend Charles Barkley would be thrilled with with the former President joining ownership group: “Hell yeah”
On Tuesday’s episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, Bill had Charles Barkley on to talk about a multitude of topics, including NBA ownership.
Ownership and ownership groups and billion-dollar numbers are on people’s minds between the ongoing sale of the Phoenix Suns following the workplace misconduct of majority owner Robert Sarver as well as potential expansion teams in Seattle, Las Vegas, and elsewhere.
Simmons and Barkley got to talking about ownership groups with front-facing “owners” who run the team while other rich folks actually own most of the team. Simmons made the point that he thinks those types of ownership groups are a thing of the past with one possible exception for the Suns, namely Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States:
“I heard Obama’s involved in one of the groups, and that’s the one guy — that I feel like — they would make him the actual face and the money guys would be so happy to have him at the front…”
Barkley, who led the Suns to their second-ever NBA Finals appearance in 1992-93 and averaged 26.6 points (47.7% FG), 13.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks during those playoffs, responded:
“If Obama calls me and says ‘would you be a part owner of the team?’ Hell yeah. I have so much love and admiration for that guy.”
President Obama has a longstanding history of sports involvement, ranging from March Madness brackets to prioritizing youth sports in policies from he and his wife, Michelle. Having spent a lot of his early life in Chicago, Obama is a Bulls fan, making the Barkley tie-in funnier since it was Michael Jordan’s Bulls that toppled the Suns in that NBA Finals series.
Simmons has a reputation as a source of NBA information. He is not known for being accurate all the time when making these kinds of statements. But he’s not always wrong either.
Simmons and Barkley both mentioned the daunting $4 billion number that many are expecting to be the Suns’ eventual price tag. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Bezos’s ex-wife and powerhouse philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison have all been rumored to have interest, as well.
There’s only one thing Suns fans can say if this happened: Thanks, Obama!
