A pair of Phoenix Suns minority owners allege that Mat Ishbia is using the franchise as \u201chis personal piggy bank\u201d and that the Sun governor has sunken a once profitable team team into the red, according to a lawsuit claiming misconduct and mismanagement by Ishbia.<\/p>\n
The filing in Delaware State Court, which was made public Monday and obtained by ESPN, is the latest turn in an ongoing legal battle between Ishbia, who bought the team in 2023 from embattled former majority owner Robert Sarver, and Scott Seldin and Andy Kohlberg, who are holdovers from the previous ownership regime under Sarver.<\/p>\n
Seldin and Kohlberg sued the team in August, alleging that Ishbia refused access to internal records and that he held a capital call on June 2, 2025, \u201cto exert pressure on and dilute\u201d the ownership shares held by the Suns\u2019 minority owners.<\/p>\n
Ishbia countersued the two men last month and called their lawsuit a \u201cshakedown\u201d in a statement through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIshbia does not own the Suns to make money for the company but he does operate it as a personal fiefdom for his own personal gain and for the benefit of his other businesses, including his mortgage company United Wholesale Mortgage,\u201d the latest filing states. \u201cThe reality is that Ishbia is using the Suns as his personal piggy bank, including through a lengthy list of conflicted transactions — only some of which the minority owners are aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among several allegations in the latest filing, Seldin and Kohlberg say that Ishbia extended a loan to the Suns at an interest rate far above market, that he sold the naming rights to the Suns\u2019 arena to his mortgage company without disclosing details to the minority partners, that he leased the Phoenix Mercury\u2019s practice facility from himself at undisclosed rates and that he established a new entity — called the \u201cPlayer 15 Group\u201d — that they say appears to hold assets that rightfully belong to the Suns.<\/p>\n
Regarding the June 2, 2025 capital call, Seldin and Kohlberg also say that Ishbia tried to punitively dilute their shares if they didn\u2019t fund a capital raise on a 10-day deadline while hiding his own failure to fund by the deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, Ishbia blundered into the very trap he set for the minority owners and faced a devastating dilution of his ownership interest if his failure was discovered — a failure that would wipe off his net worth and put his continued status as an NBA team owner and governor in jeopardy,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Michael Carlinsky of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, an attorney representing Seldin and Kohlberg, said in part of that capital raise, \u201cWe believe this scheme backfired and will result in a substantial reduction of Mr. Ishbia\u2019s interest in the Suns. He has repeatedly abused his position as manager of the franchise to benefit himself — not the Suns. We look forward to moving forward on an expedited basis and presenting our case to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishbia, through a spokesperson, has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t a lawsuit; it\u2019s a shameless shakedown dressed up as legal process,\u201d a spokesperson for Ishbia said in a statement to ESPN. \u201cFrom day one, Mat Ishbia was transparent that he was going to do things differently. Contrary to how the team was previously managed, Mat made it very clear he would invest significantly into the Suns and Mercury. He told all the investors that they could step up with him or sell their stake and step aside. Kohlberg and Seldin stayed in and now they\u2019re trying to freeload off the value Mat created.<\/p>\n
\u201cKohlberg and Seldin want to drag the organization backward, and they openly admit in this filing that investing in the team and its fans \u2018makes no business sense.\u2019 They are advocating neglect. They are free to sell their shares in the open market and if they don\u2019t, they should be prepared to lose this lawsuit and participate in Mat\u2019s continued investments in the teams and community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seldin and Kohlberg also say that the Suns and Mercury have been operating at a net loss since he came aboard in 2023. The exact figures are unknown, as they are redacted in the latest legal filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIshbia has spent wildly on player and coach contracts, incurred massive tax penalties from the NBA, and built himself an expensive clubhouse to hold court and hand out favors to his guests — with his co-owners footing their share of the bill,\u201d the filing continues. \u201cAt the same time, Ishbia has mortgaged the Suns\u2019 future by trading away valuable draft picks for years to come and has knowingly foregone significant revenue opportunities, purportedly in the service of his \u2018focus on winning and success\u2019 and the Suns\u2019 fan experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishbia bought a 57% controlling stake for $2.28 billion, as ESPN reported then, with Sarver selling his 37% stake for $1.48 billion. At the time of the 2023 sale, 14 of the 16 partners in the Suns\u2019 ownership group accepted Ishbia\u2019s buyout offer at a $4 billion valuation. Kohlberg and Seldin were the only two who did not sell.<\/p>\n
The August lawsuit from Seldin and Kohlberg was the sixth against the Suns since November 2024. The other five were by current or former employees. Some of their allegations include discrimination, retaliation, harassment and wrongful termination.<\/p>\n
During a Sept. 24 appearance on ESPN\u2019s \u201cNBA Today,\u201d Ishbia addressed the lawsuits.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason they want, for anything they want,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cHow many lawsuits have we actually lost? The answer is zero. How many will we lose? Zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I look at it a little differently than other people is we don\u2019t settle. We don\u2019t settle with someone. You want to say, give me $30,000 and I won\u2019t file a lawsuit? I say file a lawsuit. We didn\u2019t do anything wrong. If we do something wrong, we take care of people, but I\u2019m not going to be leveraged by people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns are 11-6 entering Monday\u2019s game against the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of Phoenix Suns minority owners allege that Mat Ishbia is using the franchise as \u201chis personal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,103629,82],"class_list":["post-304659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-phoenix-suns-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-21","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}