Bickley Blast: Phoenix Suns’ Mat Ishbia continues to prove he’s unlike any other NBA owner

Bickley Blast: Phoenix Suns’ Mat Ishbia continues to prove he’s unlike any other NBA owner

And Mara boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader Bley blast Matt isia did a daring thing on Thursday with the NBA commissioner standing by his side ish be a joke that he wasn’t aware of the NBA’s tax aprons effectively mocking the financial restraints placed on owners to ensure competitive balance now I’m not

Sure if silver found it funny but I did and once again you kind of have to pinch yourself because when we talk about our lack of championships in the valley and how cursed we are as sports fans it’s not exactly true our main obstacle has been the curse of bad ownership men who

Didn’t have the money to spend wildly on Talent or those who would rather hoard that money for themselves ishia simply does not care he’s built a new facility for basketball headquarters he brought back a g-league team he voluntarily increased this year’s luxury tax bill at the trade deadline which is something no

Other owner in the NBA did his aggressiveness is everything you could ever want from a professional sports owner and his repeated Mantra that he is just a steward of the Suns that the basketball team belongs to us well that is beyond refreshing but here’s the best

Thing in a 2024 list of the NBA’s richest owners ishbia didn’t even crack the top 10 which means a good percentage of his peers could be spending just like he is but they’re not and in a sports Town once defined by misers and frugality it’s nice to know that the

Bucks never stop in Phoenix Arizona all right today’s Bickle blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com I don’t know what the second tax apron what is that I’m just kidding so so way

I look at is this we’re trying to win so I talk about four things and uh obviously I know talking about Grayson and Royce and we have other free agents as well um but the way we’re looking at is we’re trying to win a championship and we’re going to try this year and

Then we’re going to try to figure out how to do it next year and and signing free agents um is what it’s going to take if and having someone’s bird rights gives you an advantage to be able to keep those players even if you’re into the luxury tax and um we’re not

Frivolous with money and just spending money to spend money what we’re trying to do is win a championship and build the best team possible and it’s not just players it’s culture it’s team members and Grayson and Royce if those are the two you’re speaking of are two great

Guys Royce is new to the organization has done an amazing job everything you could think of and Gray’s been here all year and has been a phenomenal part of the team and organization so we hope and expect to have both those guys back um along with you know keeping this core

Team together because we love our team and we’re going to go compete at the highest level hopefully in the playoffs here very soon hopefully you can see them all play together definitely a little bit of tongue and cheek when asked about the second luxury tags a for

Clear a joke what what is that I I see I had originally read the quotes before I heard the quotes and you know there’s danger in that because I I heard him say that and go that’s not a good look read the quotes and then I heard him say

It and you’re like he’s obviously joking oh yeah yeah yeah no he was definitely joking but just to say that with Adam Silva right next to him is is kind of take some uh coones but it is very HPA sorry my bad no but again this is

This is what’s let me let me pull up this list the NBA’s 10 richest owners you would think the way Matt ish is spending and talking that he would be by far the richest guy in the NBA yeah and it’s not true now Steve Balmer spends clearly he does there there’s no arguing

That but there’s a lot of guys in the NBA who have more money than Matt isia and they’re not spending like him so no because he looks through things with through one lens and that’s been consistent for over a year now and that is winning championships the uh the key

Is really going to be what happens in this year’s playoff and then does the uh does this pursuit of a championship at all costs does it ever get old does the yeah does the losing money with without the trophies ever get old he’s still new to this it’ll be interesting how many

Years he gives this strategy before he’s like okay relax let let’s yeah let’s let’s dial it back because that that even happened to Joe lob yeah how long can you look this strategy leads to you basically punting on your draft picks uhhuh and we have we have other organizations who have the exact

Opposite approach on draft picks MH um the Oklahoma City Thunder among them if if this doesn’t lead to Championship I think Jared asked a very pertinent question is is this the permanent philosophy of the Phoenix Suns win win win win win win future be damned there’s what does it lead to

There’s a point where you have to I agree stop because even you talked about Steve Bal Steve Balmer I think has more money than all the other owners in the NBA combined Steve balmer’s according to the list he’s won at $142 billion so and Dan Gilbert’s number two at 25 right so

So the the money that Steve Balmer has is incomprehensible and he’s not it’s not like he’s you know he says Ah screw it I’ll pay $150 million tax how many toilets he’s putting in J oh that’s true 1135 to toilets I wonder said he was going to steal ideas from the next three

All-Star games and he mentioned Steve Balmer at the end I wonder if there’s more toilets coming to footprint well listen the uh I can’t wait to see this what what Steve Balmer does with this new Clippers Arena because back then the drawing board they are going to create a

Like a a wall fan wall a fan wall behind the visiting bench so basically the opposing team is going to be sitting through hell 1160 toilet get that number wrong um but the pro it’s great in theory my younger son is all about this idea he wants Matt ISB to steal that

Idea for Suns games uh the problem with the Clippers is it might just be a wall there might not be people in it oh toet they don’t have a lot of fans no have you noticed this they will that first year though they have part-time fans

It’ll be the trendy place you know the new and trendy is always hip in La yeah true that’s and and you think about that that’s a bad deal for a guy like Steve Balmer who you can come in and spend all spend crazy to win do everything bring

All this energy and you’re just never going to be bigger than the Lakers that’s tough that’s that’s a rough assignment remember when the evil Russian bil a bought the nets for a few years and was spending like crazy and he just said eventually he was like I don’t need

This that’s right right it’s the same deal there you’ll never be as big as the Knicks that’s true that’s very very true there’s there’s a lot of uh owners that can feel that nardy Mareno mhm but it’s cool to have Jerry reinsdorf it’s still like the adjusting period for Suns fans

To have an owner like ishia and be like wait a minute we could actually get stuff that we want really I I know exactly he’s respected in the league mhm ma imagine that value scouting Player Development Player Development cares about that yeah it’s it’s it’s it’s such a repri for this

Market it’s thank you Baxter yeah uh here was Matt isia talking yesterday at the press conference by the way the press conference was about the Suns and Phoenix and footprint Center Landing the 2027 NBA Allstar Weekend he just uh lists some of the changes over the last

13 months in his ownership the last thing or so I’ll say before turning it back over is you know we’ve done a lot in 13 months we’ve done a lot and at the same time you know I said when I took over as the governor Steward like it’s

Not my team it’s the city’s team and it’s my honor to work for the city and work for everyone to make this the best franchise in sports we’re work very hard the Suns and the Mercury and making it better every single day and that’s what we’re working on and we’re not there yet

But I’ll tell you is we’re just getting started we’re just getting started it’s not like we’re to do a bunch of stuff in 13 months then not do anything we’re going to keep going keep improving every single day we’re not going to be perfect I’ll make mistakes we’ll make mistakes

But we’re trying to make this the best franchise and that’s what we do we care about it we’re about with the community The Fan Experience the team members and of course we’re all about winning you mentioned something when you were reading that list you had Dan Gilbert at

Number two you don’t think that drives mad ISB crazy and I think I I might be wrong but I think we’re getting our first Suns versus Cavs matchups in the ishia Gilbert era I didn’t even think about that yeah they’re going to play twice Suns better be focused for that

Game and even when when Matt ish when we had him on later in that day he went on the Pat McAfee show and Pat McAfee was asking you get along with all the owners and he’s like yeah most of them most of them he was on the Bill Simmons podcast

And by name called out Dan Gilbert he didn’t do it on the McAfee show but we we know we know thanks for watching Bickley and Mara click to see the latest Bickley blast in hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Mat Ishbia made a bold joke in front of NBA commissioner Adam Silver at the 2027 All-Star announcement Thursday at Footprint Center. Dan Bickley explains how the Phoenix Suns owner continues to show he’s unlike others around the league.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photo: Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports

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