NBA expansion team
Charlotte Bobcats announced today that rapper Nelly is now a part-owner of the
team.
Nelly joins the
ranks of owners that include Bob Johnson, the team’s majority owner and
billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), Hugh McColl Jr.,
former CEO of Bank of America and others.
"This is a
great opportunity for both the Bobcats and Nelly," Johnson said. "Nelly
is a great entertainer and a smart businessman and those two traits will serve
us well as we prepare to tip off our inaugural season this fall."
Nelly, who has
already snagged three Grammy’s and sold tens of millions of records, said
that owning a part of the team was one of the biggest achievements of his career.
"To be able
to make this move with Bob Johnson and to be a part of the first-ever minority
owned professional sports franchise in history is a great opportunity,”
Nelly said. "Bob and I share the same commitment to diversity and we are
both self-made, having worked up from the very bottom to reach where we are
today."
Shortly, Nelly
will drop two separate albums, one called Sweat and the other named
Suit.
