The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets have a new owner and a new chief executive — Taiwanese billionaire Joe Tsai (蔡崇信).
The Alibaba cofounder completed his purchase of the team — as well as the team’s home court, the Barclays Center — in a US$3.5 billion deal that was closed on Wednesday, the NBA board of governors said.
He spent nearly US$3.5 billion for the team and the arena, a record sale for a US sports franchise, and the purchase of the team was unanimously approved by the NBA board.
Photo: AP
Tsai followed up the NBA’s announcement with one of his own: He had hired former Turner Broadcasting president David Levy to oversee the team and the center.
Tsai last year bought 49 percent of the team from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, with the option to become controlling owner in 2021, but pushed up the timeline for full ownership.
Tsai paid US$2.35 billion for the Nets and about US$1 billion in a separate transaction for the arena.
The team price surpassed the US$2.2 billion that Tilman Fertitta paid for the Houston Rockets and that David Tepper spent for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Levy would also serve as president of J Tsai Sports, a sports investment and holding vehicle whose portfolio includes the WNBA’s New York Liberty, professional lacrosse team the San Diego Seals, as well as other sports teams and companies in the US and elsewhere.
“In addition to being a passionate basketball fan, Joe is one of China’s pre-eminent Internet, media and e-commerce pioneers, and his expertise will be invaluable in the league’s efforts to grow the game in China and other global markets,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
The Nets are to travel to China next month to play two pre-season games against the Los Angeles Lakers at the start of a season filled with excitement for the team.
In statement issued by the Nets, Tsai said the purchase represented a commitment to the Brooklyn community.
“With full ownership of the Nets and Barclays Center, we will continue to bring our exciting brand of basketball to our fans,” Tsai said. “We’ve made a strong commitment to Brooklyn and it will be a privilege to present the best of Barclays Center with its great entertainment to our community.”
The Taipei-born, California-based Tsai has a net worth of US$10.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1986 and a law degree from Yale Law School in 1990. He joined Alibaba in 1999 after working as a private-equity investor in Hong Kong for several years. He served as chief financial officer until 2013 and is now the company’s executive vice chairman.
The Nets were established in 1967 and won championships in 1974 and 1976. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs this year.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods