Few people have had more of a front-row seat for the history of NBA basketball in Charlotte than Felix Sabates.
The entrepreneur and former car dealership owner invested in the city’s original expansion franchise led by George Shinn in 1987, again with Charlotte’s second expansion team in 2003 after Shinn moved the original Hornets to Louisiana, and stayed on through the Michael Jordan era that started in 2010.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Michael Jordan finalizes sale of Charlotte Hornets
At 78, Sabates is ready to get out of his basketball investment — “I’ll need a wheelchair to get to my seat,” he quipped — but not because of Jordan’s imminent sale of majority interest in the Hornets.