Last week, the Charlotte Hornets started a new era when Michael Jordan completed his sale of controlling interest in the NBA franchise. Jordan will stay on as a minority partner, but financiers Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall are now the lead owners, known as governors in the NBA.
Plotkin and Schnall preside over a 20-person investor group that includes local and regional investors. Among them: musicians J. Cole and Eric Church. Plotkin lives in South Florida, while Schnall makes his home in New York; both have been in Charlotte frequently in recent months while negotiating the sale with Jordan and conducting due diligence on the Hornets.