O’Neal initially invested in the Kings back in 2013.
Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal announced Wednesday that he was selling his minor stake in the Sacramento Kings due to a “new business endeavor.”
O’Neal thanked Kings’ owner Vivek Ranadivé and the entire organization for the eight-year partnership and stated that he hoped to be back someday. O’Neal also called the Kings a “forward-thinking organization.”
O’Neal initially joined the ownership group all the way back in 2013, purchasing a less than 5% stake in the team. Aside from his initial purchase back in 2013, it’s hard to recall O’Neal ever setting foot in Sacramento or being around key members of the Kings organization.
In O’Neal’s statement, it sounded as if his stake was purchased by Arctos Sports Partners, a private equity firm that has purchased minority stakes in professional teams in the past. There haven’t been any official figures for how much O’Neal made in selling his stake.
The endeavor O’Neal referenced is likely his partnership with WynnBet sportsbook as a brand ambassador. The NBA still has a complicated relationship with the sports gambling space, so it makes sense that ownership of an NBA team and partnership with a gambling company would be a conflict of interest or against the NBA rules.
Back in September, several minority owners including Mark Friedman, Kevin Nagle, Mark Mastrov, Brad Jenkins, and Andy Miller sold their stake in the team to both Ranadivé and Arctos.
It was poetic that O’Neal made this announcement the day the Kings played and beat O’Neal’s former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.