The dirty billionaires who doomed the Sonics
A lotta Epstein-world ties
Substack is emerging as a key place for Jeffrey Epstein insight. A couple of my current favorites are Kait Justice and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, who are way ahead of mainstream media on important stuff. Now, here’s a new wrinkle in Epstein’s connections to the NBA. Start here if you’re new to this multi-year series on Epstein and the NBA.
A top-five painful moment of NBA history came when the founder of Seattle-based Starbucks, Howard Schultz, sold the beloved Seattle SuperSonics to some frackers from Oklahoma City. They swore they wanted to keep the team in Seattle, but soon whisked the team off to Oklahoma City, only to have their internal emails later become public, revealing that the key investors wanted to the team in OKC all along. A special heartbreak for Sonics fans is that the ex-Sonics are now the best team in the NBA, the reigning champions, and a popular pick to become the NBA’s next dynasty.
The whole episode looks creepier now.
First of all: while Seattle may hate Howard Schultz,. Magic Johnson LOVES Howard Schultz.
This clip is incredible. First, look at the backdrop: they’re speaking at the Milken Conference. Magic Johnson LOVES Michael Milken and has praised him in public many times. Magic also pops up in sports investment groups with a lot of Milken associates. Magic is in part of the Dodgers ownership group with Guggenheim Partners, which is suspiciously close to Millken. Magic is currently part of the Washington Commanders ownership group, which has its own deep Epstein connections, and is led by Josh Harris who made his money from Apollo and hasn’t well explained his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. Even more fascinating, at the end of this clip, Magic says he went to raise money from CalPERS … the very same union that made a huge investment in Apollo Global.
When I was a brand-new NBA reporter, in 2000 or 2001, I saw something that stuck with me: Magic Johnson went all out in introducing this dorky guy Howard to everyone who was anyone at All-Star weekend. He worked it. He wanted to make sure everyone met his good friend.
In 2001, that guy Howard was approved, by many of those same people, as the next owner of the Seattle SuperSonics.
I see what happened next a little differently, now that I’ve spent so much time in the Epstein files.
