SEABA chief becomes part owner of NBA Sixers

NHA TRANG CITY, Vietnam – Indonesian magnate Erick Thohir became the first Asian owner of an NBA team after he joined forces with a group of people that recently bought the Philadelphia Sixers.

Thohir, the Southeast Asian Basketball Association president and co-owner of the Satria Muda Brittama squad in the ASEAN Basketball League, has linked up with co-managing owner David Blitzer, former NBA player agent and Sacramento Kings executive Jason Levien, and film producers and Hollywood couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

“I couldn’t sleep the last six months all because I was thinking of this and waiting for the phone call, it’s giving me anxiety,” Thohir, who watched some of the games in the Second FIBA-Asia Under-16 Championship here, told Filipino mediamen.

“I almost cried when I finally got the call thinking that this will happen, this is a dream come true not just for myself and Indonesia but also the rest of Southeast Asia, which I hope could play in the NBA someday,” he added.

The purchase of the Philadelphia 76ers from Comcast-Spectator by a group led by Joshua Harris was completed after the NBA board of governors gave its approval last night.

The 76ers were valued this year by Forbes at $330 million, 17th in the NBA, and have a television deal with cable station Comcast SportsNet through 2029.

The new management bought the team for a reported $280 million with more than 10 percent paid for by Thohir himself. The deal is for 100 percent of the franchise and does not include the NHL’s Flyers, also owned by Comcast-Spectator, or the Wells Fargo Center, which houses both professional franchises.

The Sixers will become a tenant inside the Wells Fargo Center once the NBA ends the ongoing labor dispute, which has already cost the league the first two weeks of the regular season.

“We are delighted that the NBA has approved the purchase of Sixers,” said NBA commissioner David Stern.