It was a momentous day in the life of Magic Johnson when it finally became official that he would be becoming a part owner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Johnson was part of an ownership group led by Josh Harris that purchased the team from the infamous Dan Snyder.
He had taken to Twitter to express his excitement over it and called it a historic moment for the entire Black community. During a recent interview with the LA Times, Johnson was asked what it means to Black Americans to see a Black man be a part owner of an NFL team and he had a powerful response.
“See, everybody applauds me, but I think African Americans everywhere — and probably Latinos too — they feel like now they own the Washington Commanders as well,” Johnson said. “We dominate on the field, but haven’t had the same success everywhere.”
While the majority of the players in the NBA and the NFL are Black, the executives and owners in these two leagues are not. That area is dominated by White men and after Michael Jordan ended his stint as the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, there is no majority owner of sports teams across the professional leagues in the U.S. that is Black.
Johnson is trying to break down the barriers that have existed for so long for Black individuals and is giving hope to those coming after him that they can follow in his footsteps and, perhaps, even go beyond him.
“We haven’t had as many coaches. We haven’t had as many executives, African Americans running teams — whether that’s a general manager, whether that’s a president level and now definitely the owner’s level,” Johnson continued. “I think a lot of people applauded this incredible move as being one of the owners, but also I know the Black community really feels like they are owners as well because one of their own is an owner. It’s almost like the same feeling with the Dodgers. The same thing happened, the impact that it’s going to have.”
Johnson is now part of ownership groups for the Commanders in the NFL, the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB, the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA, and Los Angeles FC in the MLS. He is certainly a great example for Black Americans to follow in this regard.
LeBron James Could Be The Next Black Owner In The NBA
One Black man who has for long had an eye on owning a team is LeBron James. He made it clear to Commissioner Adam Silver that he’d want to own a team in Las Vegas when the league expands.
LeBron officially became a billionaire last year and has been a partner at Fenway Sports Group since 2021. Bill Simmons is predicting that LeBron and FSG will be the ones to get that team in Vegas.
It would be a momentous day if that happens, but expansion isn’t exactly around the corner. Silver said there is a lot of interest in the Las Vegas market, but they’ll only be turning to expansion once their media deals are done.
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