A shrewd businessman will never let you see through his true intentions.
On February 8, Beijing time, Sun officially announced that Matt Ishbia had officially completed the acquisition of the Suns and became the new boss of the team. Later, Sun held a meeting with the new boss, and Ishbia said this at the meeting:
“Before the trade deadline, we will still try our best to make up for the strength, but even if we don’t make any deals, I think we still have a team that can compete for the championship, I am not the kind of person who sacrifices long-term benefits for short-term benefits.”
Ishbia was very low-key in words. One day later, Ishbia threw out a king’s bomb. The Sun sent out the selection rights swap rights of Mical bridges, Cameron Johnson, Claude, four unprotected first round signatures (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029), 2028, in exchange for Kevin Durant and TJ-Warren.
According to ESPN’s detailed report on the deal, Ishbia was highly involved in the negotiations. He knew Durant was willing to authorize management to operate after joining the sun, and promised to coach Monty Williams that he would be provided with enough talent to win the championship. James Jones, general manager of Sun, contacted Sean Max, general manager of basketable nets late at night, but the two bosses, Ishbia and Tsai Chongxin, finally reached an agreement.
This is a trade with a high risk coefficient, and the sun is equal to betting on the future. But at the same time, this is another transaction with high potential returns. If you keep healthy, the sun is expected to win the first championship in young pioneer team history. Just after taking over the team, I dared to throw out the Wang bombing deal. What is the origin of Ishbia with full courage?
Ishbia also played basketball when he was a student, but he was restricted by the lack of talent. Let alone being a professional player, college basketball did not become the main force.
Ishbia is 1.78 meters tall and has general physical quality. It is hard to imagine that such a player once played for the famous coach Tom Izzo in Michigan. Ishbia entered Michigan University in 1998 and was listed as a “red shirt player” in the 1998-99 season.
Ishbia is a sparring player in the team. He knows that he is not the highest, the fastest or the strongest player. It is difficult to get the chance to play, but he cherishes his experience in Michigan. Every time he trained, he tried his best to make trouble for Jason Richardson and Martin cliff. No matter who you play against, ishbya will not back down. He even fought with Adam Wolfe, the 2-meter 06 forward of the team, in training.
In the 1999-2000 season, Ishbia finally scored the goal. He played 18 games as a substitute and scored 0.5 points in 2.2 minutes. Although it is a Team Dragon set, Ishbia won the championship with the team this season. In the following two seasons, Ishbia’s chances did not increase. In the 2001-02 season, he scored 1.1 points in 3.1 minutes, and his contribution was almost negligible.
The value of Ishbia is reflected in the board seat. In 2000, Michigan University faced the University of Florida in the NCAA final. In the second half, the main player Cliff was injured in the ankle. Michigan University was 49-55 behind 6 points, and the team situation was in danger.
At the critical moment, Ishbia suggested that the coaching staff should play a “double back door” tactic around AJ-Granger. Izzo listened to suggestions and Granger hit three points around the cover receive the ball. Brian Gregory, an assistant professor in Michigan, gave high-fists to Ishbia, while Izzo praised his disciples: “This kind of thing is very common in him, and his competition feels very good.”
In the 2001-02 season, Izzo asked his disciples to sit closer to him. Ishbia played the role of player and teaching assistant, providing Izzo with different voices and becoming a bridge between players and coaches.
Because he was listed as a “red shirt player” in the first year of entering school, Ishbia could play another year for Michigan University in 2002-03, but he chose to give up his status as a player and become a teaching assistant as a student. At that time, Ishbia’s teammates thought that one day he would become a coach.
In 2003, Michigan University teaching assistant Mike Garland went to Cleveland University to serve as the coach. Izzo’s teaching assistant group was vacant. He wanted to give this position to Ishbia. Ishbia asked his father Jeff for advice. Jeff hoped that Ishbia would enter the family company and take charge of the mortgage business.
“You come back and try for a year. If you don’t like this job, you can go back to basketball.” Jeff was a very enlightened father. He founded the United Wholesale Mortgage holding company in 1986, but under him, the development speed of the company was really too slow.
Ishbia said frankly that he didn’t know what mortgage was at all, and he didn’t know how to reply to Izzo’s invitation. Finally, Izzo suggested that Ishbia use the things he went to at the University of Michigan to the mall. Izzo looked on his Disciple: “I only know that no matter what industry he is engaged in, he may succeed.”
Ishbia entered his father’s company. At that time, there were only 12 people in the joint wholesale mortgage holding company. Ishbia earned 18000 dollars in the first year. In 2013, Ishbia became the CEO of the company. He took the company to the fast lane and became the second largest mortgage company in the United States. The number of employees increased from 12 to more than 8,000. According to statistics, the net income of the company reached 1.6 billion US dollars last year. After the company was successfully listed, Forbes estimated that Ishbia’s net worth reached 5.4 billion US dollars. After Ishbia developed, he returned to Michigan University to give back to his alma mater and filled in a donation cheque of up to 32 million dollars.
Not long ago, Ishbia went to the scene to watch the Michigan game. Michigan’s performance was terrible. Izzo went to the edge of the game and joked with Ishbia in the audience: “Son, I am really happy that you have chosen your current career, not the teaching assistant position I offered you, because this job sucks.” Ishbia was instantly amused by the teacher’s words.
Ishbia began to plan to buy professional teams after becoming a billionaire. He tried to buy NFL team Washington commander team or Denver Broncos, and both acquisitions ended in failure. At the time when Saval was in deep scandal and was forced to sell the Sun, Ishbia bought 57 percent of the shares of the sun for 2.28 billion dollars. According to The Athletic report, The deal was made according to The overall valuation of The Sun of $4 billion, instead of Ishbia spending $4 billion to complete The acquisition.
If you let Ishbia summarize himself in two words, he will definitely use “super power” and “ruling power.”
The so-called super power actually refers to hard work. The Super Power understood by Ishbia is to make full use of every minute of every day. Everyone has only 24 hours a day. He is determined to make full use of these 24 hours more than others. His motto is “time is the same. If I use time better than you, then I will win”. Therefore, Ishbia will appear in the company at 4:30 a.m. and send work information to the company’s management before sunrise.
The so-called ruling power is also very simple, that is, to win, and to win by overwhelming advantage, whether in the mall or the stadium. In the book published by Ishbia, “ruling power” may be the word that appears most frequently.
During Saval’s tenure as the sun boss, the Sun experienced a long period of malodour. Today, Saval is a thing of the past, and before Ishbia’s acquisition of Sun official announcement, Jason Raleigh, President and CEO of Sun, resigned. He was accused by some employees of abuse, intimidation, revenge on colleagues.
The arrival of Ishbia represented a new beginning. In his words, he emphasized reshaping the team culture. In his attitude, he said that he would not care about the tax and was willing to invest heavily. In his actions, Wang bombed and introduced Durant, built a super strong team. The solar tax has reached nearly $49 million this season, and the solar tax has paid a total of $13.7 million in the 17 seasons of The savor era.
“I will be The Sun boss in the next 40 or even 50 years. I will be here for a long time. I know we can’t be winners every day, but we will try our best.”
“In the future, the sun can become and will become a top team!”