Suns’ Mat Ishbia countersues minority owners on buyout claims

• Baxter HolmesOct 14, 2025, 02:28 PM ET

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  Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.

Phoenix Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia has countersued two Suns minority owners, saying that they insisted he buy out their ownership shares “at an exorbitant premium,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained by ESPN.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Delaware State Court. The two Suns minority owners are Scott Seldin and Andy Kohlberg, both of whom were holdovers from the previous regime under former Suns owner Robert Sarver. Seldin and Kohlberg sued the team in August, alleging that Ishbia has refused access to internal records.

ESPN previously reported that the Suns sent a letter in August to Kohlberg and Seldin, in which the team said that the two men demanded that the Suns buy their ownership share for $825 million, a figure that would place the team’s value at about $6 billion — a 60% increase from the value when Ishbia bought his controlling interest in 2023.

The Suns said in the letter, which ESPN obtained, that they have no obligation to buy Seldin and Kohlberg out.

“When Mat Ishbia bought the Suns and Mercury, he couldn’t have been clearer with investors: he was going to invest in the teams, the fans, and the community,” a spokesman for Ishbia said Tuesday. “Every investor had the choice at that point — sell at premium or stay in and invest alongside him. Andy Kohlberg and Scott Seldin want it both ways. They don’t want to invest in the teams, but they are demanding a payday significantly higher than what Mat originally offered, which was still over 20x their original investment. That’s not how it works, and we’re confident we’ll prevail in court.”

An attorney representing Kohlberg and Seldin didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The August lawsuit from Seldin and Kohlberg was the sixth against the Suns since November 2024. The other five were by current or former employees. Some of their allegations include discrimination, retaliation, harassment and wrongful termination.

During a Sept. 24 appearance on ESPN’s “NBA Today,” Ishbia addressed the lawsuits.

“Obviously anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason they want, for anything they want,” Ishbia said. “How many lawsuits have we actually lost? The answer is zero. How many will we lose? Zero.

“The way I look at it a little differently than other people is we don’t settle. We don’t settle with someone. You want to say, give me $30,000 and I won’t file a lawsuit? I say file a lawsuit. We didn’t do anything wrong. If we do something wrong, we take care of people, but I’m not going to be leveraged by people.”

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