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Two Suns minority owners sue Mat Ishbia, citing lack of transparency
When Mat Ishbia purchased a controlling interest in the Phoenix Suns, he offered to buy out any of the team’s 16 minority owners (using the $4 billion valuation of the team to set the price). Fourteen of those owners took him up on the offer. The two that did not — Kisco WC Sports and Kent Circle Investments – have taken the Suns to court in Delaware over frustrations about transparency and access to information, NBC Sports has confirmed.
In the court papers, Kisco and Kent Circle claim they have not had access to view basic information about the franchise, including how it has been run and some of the investments that Ishbia and the Suns have made, such as a new practice facility. With that, the minority owners don’t believe they have an understanding of what their shares are worth. They are asking the court to allow them to investigate what they perceive as potential violations of the limited liability company agreement, as well as conflicts of interest.
Two of the Phoenix Suns‘ limited partners are demanding that Mat Ishbia’s “ISH Suns” LLC, the controlling stakeholder of Suns Legacy Holdings LLC, buys them out as the franchise’s valuation approaches an estimated $7 billion. In a letter obtained by PHNX Sports, the attorneys for ISH Suns LLC rebuked demands from Kisco WC Sports II, LLC and Kent Circle Investments, LLC for ISH Suns to purchase their limited (non-controlling) interest in the team for $825 million, based on the enterprise being valued in excess of $6 billion — a 60 percent increase from the franchise’s value when Ishbia’s LLC first acquired a controlling interest.
In the letter, ISH Suns made it clear they do not object to Kisco WC Sports II or Kent Circle Investments marketing their interests and procuring offers from another buyer — subject to the “rights and obligations set forth in the parties’ agreement” and “applicable league rules — and would support any buyer interested in partnering with the company to help make the Suns and Mercury the premiere franchises in their respective leagues.
Mat Ishbia: I'm not worried about what the so-called experts think. They had us as a title contender the past two years and were wrong then. We're focused on making our fans proud by playing great as a team and building a brand of basketball that's tough and gritty.
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Mat Ishbia: 'We have young players that are ascending instead of players that are descending'
The result? Owner Mat Ishbia told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday the team’s culture is in place, as are the players that want to be part of that culture. “We have young players that are ascending instead of players that are descending,” Ishbia said. “We have players that wanna be here, that are bought into the Phoenix Suns’ culture. I can take the criticism for not defining (that culture) well enough when I bought the team, but it is defined very clearly now. “There is not a player on the team that does not understand what we’re about. There’s not a coach, there’s not anyone in the front office that does not understand that it’s for the fans, and we’re gonna develop a team that they’re gonna be proud of year in and year out.”
Ishbia admitted he thought Phoenix was further along when he bought the team than it ended up, and the big adjustment he’s made since is knowing what kind of person he wants in the building. “When I bought the Suns originally, I thought we were on third base,” Ishbia said. “Now, I’ve set a vision. I’ve said, ‘Hey, I know what kind of guys I want, we ain’t trading for guys who aren’t like this.’ “Do I expect it to take a couple years to get to the point where you’re like, ‘Wow, I see the vision?’ Yes.” He believes this season will be better than people think, also admitting he’s “naively optimistic.”
Mat Ishbia: I don't feel any pressure to win to keep Devin Booker happy
Mat Ishbia: I don’t feel any pressure to win to keep Devin Booker happy. Devin’s gonna be happy because we’re going to try to win. We’re gonna do things to be aligned with the vision and identity that he agrees with 1000%, and I agree with 1000%. I don’t need any external pressure to try to win, we want to win every single day. We want to get better every single day. But the expectations have changed. When you have Kevin, Devin and Brad, people think championship or bust. And unfortunately, we busted two years in a row, right? It didn’t work. I’m not concerned about Booker at all, he is Phoenix Suns. He’s the all-time leading scorer, everyone knows him, loves him, he’s great in the community, he’s a part of our present and our future and we’re gonna build around him and hopefully we’ll make the fans proud.
“Devin is Phoenix Suns basketball.”@Suns owner @Mishbia15 tells @TermineRadio and @Jumpshot8 Booker is happy with the direction of the franchise and is the centerpiece of the roster. pic.twitter.com/d0QaVV72La
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) July 18, 2025
Ishbia on what he’s learned and the path forward for the Suns: Ishbia: “The big thing I learned is that, listen, you’ve got to start and have the vision and identity day one and I did not do that with the Phoenix Suns. I thought, hey, let’s add some money, they already had a good thing going, let’s untap some resources and it will only get better. And that’s not how it works. We have to set an identity. We have to define what we’re about here in Phoenix. We need to get those type of players and I have to be intimately involved with those type of people [inaudible] the organization, from the front office to the medical staff to the dieticians, everybody’s got to have an alignment of what we’re about here in Phoenix. And we didn’t do a good enough job. That’s on me. I’ll take the blame. … We are going to do it the right way here in Phoenix, for the long term, and the long term could be a year or two or three, or it could be 10, but we are going to build it the right way. … We’ve got to make our fans proud. No one’s going to question whether I care. I promise you that. And no one’s going to question whether I spend. I promise you that.”
Shams Charania: Booker and owner Mat Ishbia met in Las Vegas tonight to finalize the contract, which cements Booker’s commitment to the Suns vision for the future and him as the franchise’s leader moving forward. Booker now has five years and $316 million total on his Suns deal.
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Well, leave it up to his agent, Rich Paul, and he was going to get his client to the team where he fits best. A video has just surfaced of Paul on the phone talking to owner Mat Ishbia about getting Maluach to the Suns. “If you guys keep 10, I’m going to mention a name, and you tell me how much you like him. Khaman Maluach,” Paul said. “A lot. That would be my first choice,” Ishbia responded. “Okay, done deal. That’s all I needed to hear. I’m going to try my best because you’re our first choice,” Paul said. “If he gets past Brooklyn, then yeah. But let me make those calls so I can let you do what you need to do.”
This will do nothing to slow down the talk about expansion coming to the NBA, multiple sources said. For months, sources had said the sale of the NBA's other iconic franchise, the Boston Celtics, was holding up the process, and particularly the final figure. That figure turned out to be a record $6.1 billion -- a staggering amount that, sources said, was particularly surprising given the Celtics don't own their arena, TD Garden. That number was 50% higher than the previous record of $4 billion that was paid by Mat Ishbia in 2023 to acquire the Phoenix Suns.
It is abundantly clear, no matter the eventual return, that the Suns have no plans of entering a rebuild. Those familiar with Phoenix's thinking have long stressed that, at owner Mat Ishbia's directive, competing for a championship is his only interest. Ishbia's willingness to take the Suns' payroll deep into the second apron in the NBA's new luxury tax system is already league legend.
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