Although there isn’t a rivalry between the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers on the floor, there is one between their owners off the court.
Only one owner, Dan Gilbert of the Cavaliers, did not vote in favor of Mat Ishbia’s acquisition of the Suns from Robert Sarver in February, despite the deal being valued at an estimated $4 billion. Ishbia told Bill Simmons of The Ringer that he wasn’t surprised by this action because he and Gilbert have a long-standing business rivalry and both run rival mortgage lending businesses in Michigan.
“I could go talk for hours on it or I could take for a minute and the minute is probably easier: He doesn’t like me and I don’t like him,” Ishbia stated. “In many aspects of their corporate practices, I find them objectionable. Most likely, he disapproves of the way we operate. Our town is the same. We are in competition. We’re triumphant. That is the current situation.
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“I was certain that’s how he would most likely handle [the ownership vote].” The nice thing is that you can now see who I see. Very basic. You may now see who I see and the information I have about that man.
Although he and Gilbert haven’t shook hands at any owner’s meetings, Ishbia continued, he has “no animosity” for his rival both on and off the court.
“I know he’s not doing [well] health-wise, I wish him nothing but the best,” added Ishbia. “However, the truth is that I strive for success in all I do, whether it be in the mortgage industry or right now on the basketball court. And we intend to be just that. And I’m going to call someone out on it if they’ve done something incorrectly, which he has. That’s what I’ve done.
Ishbia and Gilbert’s long-time feud, explained
This is a brief overview of Michigan’s mortgage lender history, which was provided at the request of no one but is quite pertinent to the narrative: In Detroit, Gilbert was a co-founder of Rocket Mortgage, formerly known as Quicken Loans, in 1985. After a year, Jeff Ishbia, the father of Ishbia, established United Wholesale Mortgage, which is headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. And nine years after Ishbia succeeded his father as the top mortgage lender in the US, UWM overtook Rocket Mortgage in 2022.
“We beat them, and Rocket will cry like they cry about everything.” After UWM officially defeated Rocket in 2022, Ishbia stated to The Detroit News, “Brokers are better.” We are America’s biggest mortgage firm. It cannot be negotiated. It’s not talked about. It’s not a viewpoint. It is true.
A Super Bowl commercial featuring
But that’s just one side of the battle. A Super Bowl commercial featuring a kid lying down on a skateboard with a rocket strapped to his back was aired by UWM two years prior. The commercial made fun of Rocket Mortgage by stating that “playing with rockets is great when you’re a kid but when it’s time to get a mortgage, you quickly realize a rocket is complicated and expensive.”
In an April 2022 LinkedIn post, Ishbia later referred to Rocket Mortgage’s move to fire over 2,000 employees as “disgusting” and expressed his disappointment that a company “that made over $5 billion last year in profits” would harm local families in that way.
The Suns and Cavaliers haven’t played each other since Ishbia took over in February, but when they do play each other again next season, there will be more at stake for their owners than just a victory or defeat.
