By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer
One of the nbaThe most powerful figures in are leaving their jobs in the NBA.
Michael Rubin, the billionaire known for having the ears of star athletes, league offices and team owners, is selling his 10% stake in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, he told FOX Sports in an interview this week.
Rubin, 49, played a key role in the Sixers’ recent transformation into perennial contenders, but said his day job as CEO of Fanatics, the sports platform company he bought in 2011, made his position with the Sixers was untenable. Fanatics has exploded in recent years: In March, investors valued it at $27 billion, up from $4.5 billion in 2017, thanks in part to its expansion into new businesses that put Rubin at odds with the rules. and statutes governing professional sports leagues and preventing executives and owners from entering into business relationships with opposing players.
Rubin has already managed to partner with stars from other leagues, such as Tom Brady, who Rubin said is an investor in Fanatics. But Rubin felt it had reached the point where his ownership stakes in professional sports teams were holding back both him and his company.
“When we first bought the Sixers, Fanatics was just in the merchandise business. Now we have the trading card business and the betting business,” he said. “By the end of the year, we will have individual contracts with thousands of players and I will bet on the Sixers.”
This conclusion, he added, had been in the works for around 18 months, since his decision to expand Fanatics’ presence. “The fans got to a size where it was no longer possible for me to manage it and officially be a part of the Sixers,” Rubin said. “No one came to me and said, ‘Hey, Michael, you’ve got to sell.’ It was clear based on these businesses. [that] We have no choice but to sell.”
Therefore, he added, “he has no interest” in buying another team at any time in the future.
“Michael’s commitment, passion and business acumen have greatly benefited the 76ers and the NBA,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement provided to FOX Sports by the league. “But the opportunity for Fanatics to build a global digital sports platform by entering new and emerging businesses makes team ownership impractical for now. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Michael to expand Fanatics’ partnership with the league.”
Rubin’s departure from the Sixers comes at a crucial time for the franchise. The team is coming off a disappointing second-round playoff exit, the fourth time in five seasons it’s been eliminated in the second round, and time is ticking on star center Joel Embiid’s prime.
The Sixers also have a big decision to make about the future of James Harden. The 32-year-old former MVP, whom they acquired via trade in February, has a $47 million player option that he could exercise for next season. He is eligible for a rich extension on top of that, which could pay him up to an additional $223 million over four years, a steep price for a player who missed 23 games last season and is coming off his worst season since 2013.
Rubin, who is close to Harden, declined to comment on Harden’s contract, though when speaking about the Sixers’ future, he said he is optimistic, in part because he hopes Harden returns to the court next season more comfortable inside the team. Sixers ecosystem. , motivated by the possibility of a title run and no longer hampered by injury.
“I think the team is very well positioned,” Rubin said. “I believe in this team and in this group.”
Rubin first joined the Sixers in 2011, as part of the group led by private equity experts Josh Harris and David Blitzer that bought the team for $280 million (Harris and Blitzer later formed HBSE to house their various properties). He said he had known then-NBA commissioner David Stern since the mid-1990s, when, as the young CEO of e-commerce company GSI Commerce, he convinced Stern to give him the NBA business, even though he didn’t without a heated back. and forward.
“David comes up to me and says, ‘You know, who do you think you are to come pitch in the NBA? You have no experience,'” Rubin recalled. “He’s yelling. I’m yelling at him. It was my first battle with him, the first of many battles.”
But in 2011, when he was offered the chance to be part of the Sixers’ ownership group, Rubin said he called Stern for advice.
“He said, ‘You know, do what’s best for you. I don’t care,’ and he hung up,” Rubin said. “But then three minutes later, he calls back and says, ‘Michael, I’ve thought about this, and you’re the only one of these guys in this group that I have control and influence over, so you’re going to do so if there’s I have a problem, I want to know that I can come to you”.
Rubin spent his first five years with the franchise as an unseen partner. Team executives at the time never saw him at the facility. Some did not know who he was. It wasn’t until around 2017 that he became a regular courtside presence at games and, most notably, a key voice behind the scenes.
He and Embiid became close, with Embiid joining Rubin’s family on vacations and training in Rubin’s home gym during the NBA’s pandemic shutdown in 2020. Rubin also helped lure Harden from Brooklyn and , according to people familiar with the internal dynamics of the Sixers, was a driving force behind the decision to hire president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, who the team reportedly pays more than $10 million per year. These same sources say that in recent years, Rubin and Harris, who serves as the team’s managing partner with Blitzer, have become increasingly close.
“Given Michael’s tremendous success in building Fanatics into a global platform across all major sports, his decision comes as no surprise,” Harris said in a statement provided by the Sixers to FOX Sports. “I am very grateful for the years of association with him. Michael will always be a member of our HBSE and Sixers family, he will continue to be a presence on the field and a key partner in our collective commitment to be a force for good in Philadelphia.” .
“Michael is a visionary and innovator who has played an integral role in helping us grow and position HBSE for future success,” Blitzer said in a statement. “He has been an incredible friend and business partner for the past 11 years and his instincts, work ethic, passion and ability to bring people together have helped establish him as one of the most influential and successful leaders in the industry. “.
Rubin may no longer have a financial stake in HBSE, which was recently valued at $3 billion. But he said his loyalty to the Sixers and his interest in helping them achieve his goal will remain the same.
“I’ll probably go to fewer games, but when something massive happens, I’ll stop doing what I’m doing to help out. That’s who I am. That’s what I like to do,” he said. “I consider Josh [Harris] and Blitzer to be family. I consider joel [Embiid] and james [Harden] be family. And I look at Daryl and [head coach] Doc [Rivers] In the same way I have a big investment in the group and I will do everything I can to help those guys in any small way I can.”
A key question going forward is what that help will look like now that Rubin no longer has to abide by league rules. As a high-ranking sports business executive who has worked with numerous NBA teams put it: “He’s the most important player in our business. Nobody has the relationships that he has. Nobody can connect with people on both the ownership and on the player’s side like him.”
“And in a player-led league like the NBA, I really think that can be a competitive advantage.”
At the time, according to multiple sources, the league office recently told Harris that Rubin, freed from the restrictions of the league’s collective bargaining agreement and anti-tampering laws, will be able to help the Sixers more than ever.
Rubin, however, insisted that Fanatics is and will be his main focus. His vision is a “super sports app of sorts” where fans can get merchandise, place bets, buy digital and physical collectibles, access tickets and maybe even watch live games all in one place.
“I think we can potentially create the most valuable company in sports for the long term,” he said.
But he’s still adjusting to his new role outside of the Sixers organization. When asked about the team’s future prospects, he said: “At the end of the day, we have a responsibility. It’s to win championships, and every year that you don’t win a championship, you’ve failed.”
The river.
“I guess it’s still ‘us’ for a few more days,” he said. “And then it will be ‘them’.”
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the most daring process in professional sports history. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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