World News – AU – Utah Jazz: Mike Cannon-Brookes becomes first Australian to own an NBA team

Atlassian co-founder and Rich Lister Mike Cannon-Brookes is the youngest current owner of a US National Basketball Association team and pays millions to own a piece of Utah jazz.

The tech entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of $ 16. US venture capitalist Ryan Sweeney, general partner of US venture capital company Accel, is said to have paid hundreds of millions of euros to become a minority stakeholder in the team, while the founder of the survey software company Qualtrics, Ryan Smith, is the majority owner.

Friends for a decade, lifelong Utah jazz fan, Mr. Smith turned to Mr. Cannon-Brookes after buying a controlling stake in the basketball team for $ 1. At the end of October, 66 billion from longtime owner Gail Miller.

Speaking to AFR Weekend, Cannon-Brookes said he played basketball as a kid in the 1990s and recorded the games on a VCR to watch on a Sunday.

« It was probably pretty clear a few years later at 15 when I switched from A to B team that I wasn’t going to do the NBA as a player » ?? he was joking.

â ???? But I kept watching . . . and Atlassian had a basketball team that played pick-up in the local leagues in Sydney, and now my nine year old son is playing and we have the basketball ring in the garage in the back. â ????

There are currently nine Australians in the NBA. This makes Australia the second most represented international country after Canada with 16.

Before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers, Australian Dante Exum played for Utah Jazz and current jazz player Joe Ingles is also an Australian.

The Jazz has won the second most games of any NBA team, including nine division titles and two Western Conference championships, and has recorded 16 seasons with more than 50 wins. In the 2019-20 season, they entered the playoffs for the fourth time in a row.

Mr. Cannon-Brookes met Qualtrics founder Mr. Smith in 2010, not long after he received VC funding from Mr. Sweeney’s Accel.

He was asked to provide a reference by Accel when Mr. Smith considered acquiring Atlassian as an investor in Qualtrics. They had a phone call and then met at various Accel events over the years.

The friends have teamed up to build bootstrap tech companies outside of Silicon Valley with a focus on culture and values.

With Mr. Cannon-Brookes spending more time in Utah in the past five years and Mr. Smith making more trips to Australia (where Qualtrics hired its first employee in 2015), the two spent more time together and when Mr. Smith convinced the Miller family In order to sell him the majority stake in Jazz, he knew that he wanted to get Mr. Cannon-Brookes on board.

« I said » Hey Mike, I know this is crazy, this call is even crazy, but it happens « , » ???? « Mr. Smith tells AFR Weekend.

« I didn’t want a bunch of other people to come in, I just made two calls and Mike said in his honor he was there. « .

« It’s like relieving Mother Teresa in Utah. « . We are already under pressure, Mike and I are used to it, but that’s another level. The way the league works there are cycles . . . There is also a little bit of luck, a little bit of timing, and you have to be strategic and just go for it. â ????

According to Cannon-Brookes, the NBA is the world’s most forward-looking sports league when it comes to technology.

After it started streaming in 1995, it has amassed a huge global audience of more than a billion viewers. It now has an esports league as well.

« The global growth of our game is reflected in the addition of Mike Cannon-Brookes as the first NBA Australian to own a team. « NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Mike’s commitment is another major milestone for us. We look forward to this new era of franchise leadership with jazz and the contributions this group will make to the league. â ????

Mr. Cannon-Brookes said the basketball federation has built a strong connection with the tech community in recent years.

« At the owner level, there is a long history of entrepreneurs and a small number of family owners. « Mr. Cannon-Brookes said.

â ???? If you look at the past 10 years, most of it is technology owned . . . The entrepreneurial DNA is very deep, as is the technical DNA.

Mr. Cannon-Brookes and Mr. Smith agreed that there was nothing they needed to change in the way the team worked. Equally, both strive to keep their relaxed t-shirts, hoodies and hats, as well as their pragmatic attitudes.

Mr. Cannon-Brookes said his role in owning the team is primarily to support Mr. Smith and that they would focus more on the long-term needs of the team than on short-term wins.

« We are thinking about what it will take for the next decade to continue to be competitive and to be a franchise or team that is culture-centered and doing good things for the US. « Community, ???? he said.

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Utah Jazz, Ryan Smith, NBA, Gail Miller