Sun’s owner Mat Ishbia expects Stephen A. Smith to apologize for describing him as one of the worst owners of the NBA history

Smith, early this week, went to Ishbia on “First Take” and said that he was one of the worst team owners in the history of the NBA, as he was in the short time in which he was at the helm.

“Mat Ishbia must understand that they are about to be recognized as the worst owner in the history of basketball at the moment,” said Smith. “That says a lot. That says a lot. Donald Sterling once had an NBA franchise. … This is the trajectory when they are Mat Ishbia, which they have and are recognized as the worst owner in the history of basketball.”

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At first it is not a big argument to compare Ishbia with Donald Sterling. While the Suns have largely been struggling since Ishbia was taken over, he is still better for miles than Sterling, who sold the Los Angeles Clippers and received a lifelong ban from the NBA after, among other things, he had given racist comments to his lover during a recording. The man from whom Ishbia bought the suns was also extremely problematic. Robert Sarver faced racism, misogyny and bad allegations of workplace culture before finally selling the team in 2023 for $ 4 billion in Ishbia.

Ishbia is not at this level for all the problems of the Sun.

But when you look at how the sun performed this season, it is easy to see where Smith’s intake comes from. The Suns went 34-46 and missed the playoffs for the first time in 2020, even though they had entered the season with the Big Three by Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. You have also released head coach Mike Bodenholzer, who will set up you in four seasons with a fourth head coach as soon as you set his replacement, and Durant is probably in motion in this low season after a late trade has fallen to the deadline a few months ago. Ishbia even admitted that the season was “embarrassing” and a “failure”.

But Smith’s comments that compared him with the worst of the worst owners did not match Ishbia.

“If he wants to say that the first two and a half years of the team bought, we didn’t win a championship. I think they could probably say that about almost every owner. But yes, we had high expectations, but we didn’t win,” he said.

“We spent a lot of money and didn’t win. Yes. Yes. Be critical of me.

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As for the Sterling comparison, Ishbia does not believe that it will be much longer.

“He does his thing, he is on the microphone and I think he will apologize to myself because I think it is disrespectful to align my name with someone who has been thrown out of the league or is no longer part of it,” he said.