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1st Chinese to own stake in NBA team
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A Chinese businessman has bought a minority stake in the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, his firm and the league said, after taking over Spanish La Liga football team Granada in a 37-million- euro (US$41 million) deal earlier this month.
Jiang Lizhang, 34, runs a little-known Shanghai-based marketing firm called Double-Edged Sports (Desports), but has secured spots in two of the world’s highest-profile sporting leagues in as many weeks.
He bought a 5 percent holding in the Minneapolis-based Timberwolves and associated women’s team the Lynx from owner Glen Taylor, who retains a majority stake, Desports said yesterday on a verified Chinese social media account. But an amount for the deal was not given.
The deal makes him the first Chinese citizen to have an ownership stake in an NBA team, the league said in a statement.
“My goal is to bring China and this great league closer, and build the Timberwolves and Lynx fan base in our country,” it quoted Jiang as saying.
New York-based real estate magnate Meyer Orbach also took a stake in the teams at the same time.
The purchase comes shortly after Jiang bought Granada CF, paying the club’s Italian former owner Giampaolo Pozzo a reported 37 million euros.
In a letter on Desports’ website, Jiang saw his new role as Granada’s owner as the “biggest challenge” he has ever taken on.
“You cannot change the direction of the wind, but you can take control of the sail,” he said.
Days after the deal was announced, Granada replaced their manager, Juan Carlos Cordero, although it was not clear whether he was dismissed by Jiang. Cordero wished Jiang “the best of luck,” in a statement on the club’s website, saying he believed the new owner “will know how to guide Granada through this new stage of good health and prosperity to great things.”
Jiang aims to retain the club’s place in Spain’s top flight and bring in more Chinese elements.
“In the future, we might buy more football clubs, including Chinese ones,” Xinhua news agency quoted a Desports source close to Jiang.
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