The NBA's Atlanta Hawks announced this week that the team was sold to an investment group for $850 million. This is the first league transaction since former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the LA Clippers for $2 billion in 2014. After such a massive price paid by Ballmer, the question is whether the Atlanta deal signals the bursting of an NBA asset bubble.
In January, CNBC reported on what price industry insiders thought the Hawks would sell for. At the time, the range of estimates was quite high, anywhere from $700 million to $1 billion.