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Shams Charania: Booker and owner Mat Ishbia met in Las Vegas tonight to finalize the contract, which cements Booker’s commitment to the Suns vision for the future and him as the franchise’s leader moving forward. Booker now has five years and $316 million total on his Suns deal.
Well, leave it up to his agent, Rich Paul, and he was going to get his client to the team where he fits best. A video has just surfaced of Paul on the phone talking to owner Mat Ishbia about getting Maluach to the Suns. “If you guys keep 10, I’m going to mention a name, and you tell me how much you like him. Khaman Maluach,” Paul said. “A lot. That would be my first choice,” Ishbia responded. “Okay, done deal. That’s all I needed to hear. I’m going to try my best because you’re our first choice,” Paul said. “If he gets past Brooklyn, then yeah. But let me make those calls so I can let you do what you need to do.”
This will do nothing to slow down the talk about expansion coming to the NBA, multiple sources said. For months, sources had said the sale of the NBA's other iconic franchise, the Boston Celtics, was holding up the process, and particularly the final figure. That figure turned out to be a record $6.1 billion -- a staggering amount that, sources said, was particularly surprising given the Celtics don't own their arena, TD Garden. That number was 50% higher than the previous record of $4 billion that was paid by Mat Ishbia in 2023 to acquire the Phoenix Suns.
It is abundantly clear, no matter the eventual return, that the Suns have no plans of entering a rebuild. Those familiar with Phoenix's thinking have long stressed that, at owner Mat Ishbia's directive, competing for a championship is his only interest. Ishbia's willingness to take the Suns' payroll deep into the second apron in the NBA's new luxury tax system is already league legend.
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"The independence of Isiah Thomas is a legally defined concept. He was listed as the official independent board member of UWM. Only three total independent board members—one of them is Isiah Thomas, who is supposed to be independent and holding the Ishbias accountable.official independent board member of UWM. Only three total independent board members—one of them is Isiah Thomas, who is supposed to be independent and holding the Ishbias accountable He's being listed as independent in these SEC documents—independent from the Ishbia family. Even though Isiah Thomas happened to help install the former assistant general manager of his New York Knicks as the assistant GM of the Phoenix Suns... Even though his son happens to now be a scout for the Phoenix Suns... Even though Isiah Thomas himself sits in the owner’s seats... Even though Isiah Thomas is being reported—according to our journalism—as a leading voice in the ear of the owner of the team, Mat Ishbia, the man he’s supposed to be independent from... But he couldn’t be hired by him because he was involved in an infamous sexual misconduct scandal when he was running the New York Knicks. That Isiah Thomas is 'independent'—per those documents—from Mat Ishbia. That is also my understanding."
Also, if you're wondering—as I have been—if Isiah Thomas has gotten paid for any of the stuff he does for any of Mat Ishbia’s companies: It turns out that Isiah has been getting a six-figure salary from UWM for years for being a board member. And that is on top of the annual grants of stock that he gets in the company. That's all according to government filings that we saw. And we here at Pablo Torre Finds Out requested formal comment about all of this from Isiah Thomas and his representatives. We sent over a detailed list of questions—and they did not respond."
"Around the time we were looking into this, how UWM's referred guardrail in this way for years has been Isiah Thomas, we got another intriguing update. Actually, a few weeks ago, UWM quietly changed its security filings and announced that Ishbia was no longer going to label Thomas as an 'independent board member.' He’s now just a board member—still supposed to serve the best interests of the shareholders, not necessarily the executives—but he is now no longer labeled as independent."
The Phoenix Suns haven't had a lot go right for them lately, and there's more bad news coming now. The Athletic's Zach Harper revealed on the Basketball Illuminati podcast that the Suns' majority owner, Mat Ishbia, is struggling in terms of liquid cash. "People have no idea what money is," Harper said. "... There were rumors within the last year that the Suns [ownership] might not have money. Ishbia might not have cash... There’s questions about his business [United Wholesale Mortgage] and how liquid it was."
Sam Amick: The fact that Mat (Ishbia) is trying to pretend he wasn’t already very involved is laughable. I’m also puzzled by the timing of this getting out, because—to be honest—I don’t think he sent that on Wednesday. Like, I’ve known about that letter for two weeks. It’s just weird that he decided to put pen to paper with these ideas and then had a kind of clunky rollout, where the media was, to some extent, already aware this was his messaging.
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The Sox said that in the event of any such transaction, all limited partners would have the opportunity to sell to Ishbia at that time. Ishbia’s brother, Mat, and father, Jeff, also will be significant investors.
Mat Ishbia intends to be more hands-on with Suns' decision making
According to another source, Ishbia emailed the Suns basketball operations team internally on Wednesday, taking accountability for not doing enough to establish a culture and identity in Phoenix. The Suns owner stated that he tried “running the typical NBA owner playbook” of “hiring experts, signing checks and getting out of the way,” but no one was happy with the outcome. Now, despite insisting that he is not reviewing film, designing offenses or running the draft room, Ishbia intends to be “extremely active in the decisions and management.” He acknowledged his more unconventional approach as an owner is to ensure the Suns get back to the requisite level of winning that’s been absent the last few years.
Ishbia noted in his address that “winning the press conference” or reacting to “hot takes” or “external narratives” is no longer his concern. He understands some of his decisions will be unpopular, but iterated that he won’t make decisions to generate favorable headlines.
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