Just months after Utah’s Miller family sold a majority stake in the Utah Jazz to tech entrepreneur Ryan Smith, three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade has purchased an ownership stake in the team from Smith. The move was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski, NBA writer for ESPN. Wade said he plans to take an active role in the franchise and the Utah community.
The size of Wade’s share in the Jazz was not immediately known, but the NBA has a bylaw that ownership stakes can be no less than 1 percent of the team.
Wade, an eight-time All-NBA player with the Miami Heat, is the latest of several All-Star level players who have purchased stakes in NBA teams, including Grant Hill with the Atlanta Hawks and Shaquille O’Neal with the Sacramento Kings. Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan is the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets and Magic Johnson at one time had a 4 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers.
“This goes way beyond the dream I had to just play basketball in the NBA,” Wade told ESPN. “I’ve seen Shaq do it in Sacramento. I’ve seen Grant Hill do it in Atlanta. I’ve seen Jordan do it in Charlotte. If this partnership is going to be anything like my relationship is with Ryan, there are going to be a lot of things that I’ll want to be involved in.
Wade, 39, is said to have met Smith on a San Clemente, California, golf course shortly after his retirement from playing in 2019 and they became fast friends. Wade wanted to understand about Smith’s tech empire, including his company Qualtrics, and calls him a mentor. Smith, 42, raised the idea of Wade joining the ownership group upon completing a $1.66 billion purchase of the Jazz in October.
Wade joins a small ownership group that includes Smith and his wife, Ashley; investment firm Accel partner Ryan Sweeney; software company Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes; and the Miller family, which previously owned the team.
“Dwyane has had a chance to be part of so many different [ownership] groups if he wanted that,” Smith told ESPN. “We’ve basically been in discussion from the time we closed on the team on how we can get this done. Like I run my tech business, you want the brightest people around. There is a broad picture here. It’s much more than just basketball. This league is the biggest platform that there is, and we ran toward that. This isn’t a league where we came in saying, ‘Hey, this has gone somewhere we’re not comfortable with.’ This is actually what we signed up for. We’re the newest ownership group. We’re the youngest. Dwyane’s a perfect fit.
Wojnarowski reported that Wade has had a strong relationship with Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who has regularly been compared to Wade since his debut with the Jazz.
“I call him 2.0,” Wade told ESPN. “If there’s a player similar to me, it’s Donovan Mitchell.”