On Tuesday’s episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, Bill had Charles Barkley on to speak a few multitude of matters, together with NBA possession.
Ownership and possession teams and billion-dollar numbers are on individuals’s minds between the continued sale of the Phoenix Suns following the workplace misconduct of majority proprietor Robert Sarver in addition to potential enlargement groups in Seattle, Las Vegas, and elsewhere.
Simmons and Barkley acquired to speaking about possession teams with front-facing “owners” who run the crew whereas different wealthy people really personal a lot of the crew. Simmons made the purpose that he thinks these sorts of possession teams are a factor of the previous with one attainable exception for the Suns, particularly Barack Obama, the forty fourth 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 look in 1992-93 and averaged 26.6 factors (47.7% FG), 13.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks throughout these 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 historical past of sports activities involvement, starting from March Madness brackets to prioritizing youth sports activities in insurance policies from he and his spouse, Michelle. Having spent numerous his youth in Chicago, Obama is a Bulls fan, making the Barkley tie-in funnier because it was Michael Jordan’s Bulls that toppled the Suns in that NBA Finals sequence.
Simmons has a fame as a supply of NBA info. He will not be identified for being correct on a regular basis when making these sorts of statements. But he’s not at all times unsuitable both.
Simmons and Barkley each talked about the daunting $4 billion quantity that many predict to be the Suns’ eventual price ticket. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Bezos’s ex-wife and powerhouse philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison have all been rumored to have curiosity, as effectively.
There’s just one factor Suns followers can say if this occurred: Thanks, Obama!