Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry wants in on ownership his hometown NFL team no matter who is heading up the bid, it seems.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that e-commerce billionaire Michael Rubin had dropped out of the bidding for the Carolina Panthers. Curry had been linked as part of a consortium being assembled by Rubin to bid for the NFL team, a group that also reportedly included Sean “Diddy” Combs and Joseph Tsai, the billionaire minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets.
In an interview with The Mercury News‘ Logan Murdock yesterday, Curry said he continues to have hopes of being part of the ownership group of the team:
“Definitely,” Curry said Thursday afternoon. “Not a distraction but definitely something I’m working on.”
With Rubin reportedly out of the picture, Curry said he’s still weighing his options.
“Trying to figure out the right moves and the right partners, Curry said. “You’ll hear stuff when I’m ready for that to make that be known all the way around but its still ongoing.”
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Aside from the allure of owning a professional team in his hometown, Curry expressed intrigue in being the first African American owner in NFL history.
“Knowing and having an opportunity to break that trend and stat, why not?” Curry said. “That’s a pretty powerful opportunity, and one that I know doesn’t come around that often. There’s not a lot of turnover in NFL ownership.”
Curry expressed his interest in joining a potential ownership group in the Panthers, the team he grew up rooting for in Charlotte, when hip-hop mogul Combs tweeted his desire to buy the franchise in early December.
“It’s a pretty interesting opportunity,” Curry said several weeks later. “I’ve had conversations with plenty of people about the right way to go about it and kind of the different approaches I could personally take. Obviously I have a day job but I’ve got people that are plugged in and trying to see how to make that happen.”