Minority owners claim Ishbia mismanaging Suns in new lawsuit - ESPN

A pair of Phoenix Suns minority owners allege that Mat Ishbia is using the franchise as «his personal piggy bank» and that the Suns' governor has sunken a once-profitable team into the red, according to a new lawsuit claiming misconduct and mismanagement by Ishbia.

The filing in Delaware State Court that was made public Monday and obtained by ESPN is the latest turn in an ongoing legal battle between Ishbia, who bought the team in 2023 from embattled former majority owner Robert Sarver, and Scott Seldin and Andy Kohlberg, who are holdovers from the previous ownership group under Sarver.

Seldin and Kohlberg sued the team in August, alleging that Ishbia refused access to internal records and that he held a capital call on June 2, 2025, «to exert pressure on and dilute» the ownership shares held by the Suns' minority owners.

Ishbia countersued the two men last month and called their lawsuit a «shakedown» in a statement through a spokesperson.

«Ishbia does not own the Suns to make money for the company but he does operate it as a personal fiefdom for his own personal gain and for the benefit of his other businesses, including his mortgage company United Wholesale Mortgage,» the latest filing states. «The reality is that Ishbia is using the Suns as his personal piggy bank, including through a lengthy list of conflicted transactions — only some of which the minority owners are aware of.»

Among several allegations in the latest filing, Seldin and Kohlberg say that Ishbia extended a loan to the Suns at an interest rate far above market, that he sold the naming rights to the Suns' arena to his mortgage company without disclosing details to the minority partners, that he leased the Phoenix Mercury's practice facility from himself