NBA team ownership has been a hot topic amid recent changes to the ownership of teams like the Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets. Commissioner Adam Silver recently discussed some important aspects of team ownership.

While the NBA 2K24 Summer League promoted the new crop of talent in the league, Silver discussed the business side of the league at the Associated Press Sports Editors convention. The commissioner said that there are currently no plans to allow state-owned wealth funds to have control over an NBA team, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

“I don't want to say what could ever happen, but there's no contemplation right now,” Silver said, via ESPN. “I mean, it's very important to us, putting aside sovereign wealth funds that individuals are in a position to control our teams, be responsible to the fans, be responsible to their partners and to the players…It's very important to us that there be a person [in charge], and this is independent of sovereign wealth funds. I think that in terms of the connection with the community, the connection with the players and their other partners in the league.”

The topic arose after Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, bought a minority stake in the company that owns the Washington Wizards. The fund purchased five percent of the team, the maximum allowed stake for funds of its type.

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Stakes in NBA teams are always split up among different investors but the league still requires that each team have one primary owner (often called a managing partner) that owns at least 15 percent of a team.

The NBA's current stance, as outlined by Silver, is that they welcome investments from sovereign wealth funds and other institutions because of the money they can infuse into teams. Outright control of a franchise is not on the table yet but could be soon if the league becomes overly dependent on such investments.

“I don't think there's anything irrational at all,” Adam Silver said, via ESPN. “In part, the reason why we've opened up investment opportunities to private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, is because we're running out of individuals, frankly, who are in a position to write those kinds of checks, and especially when you're not going to be the control owner of the team.”