How Mat Ishbia is slowly becoming Jerry Jones
- ThatManChe
- 3 minutes ago
- 6 min read
In December 2022, Mat Ishbia purchased the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury for $4 billion. Since then, it has been a chaotic and learning experience for him and the whole organization. From forcing a trade for Kevin Durant to firing three coaches in three years and now bringing in Brian Gregory as general manager, it has been a very dysfunctional couple of years, and Ishbia is displaying many traits that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has.
February 9th 2023
The Suns split up their core and traded players Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, and Jae Crowder, along with multiple picks, to the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant. At the time, it was regarded as an aggressive win-now trade, and it looked like it wasn’t that bad for Phoenix. It was only 3 months later that they would lose to the Denver Nuggets in the second round and then would fire Monty Williams right after the series loss. After the loss in the playoffs, more people started to question the trade and who won it, and as more time went on and into today, it is safe to say that this trade hasn’t worked out for Phoenix.
This trade was led by Mat Ishbia, as many insiders have stated he wanted to make a splash and that it was more of an ownership trade between Joe Tsai, the Brooklyn Nets owner, and Mat Ishbia. The actual team front offices had little say in this deal, it was stated. This trade helped put Mat Ishbia on the map and showed that he wasn’t going to be an owner who sits back and relaxes; he showed that he wants to win and not be an average team owner.
Coaches
Mat Ishbia has not had good luck with coaches so far whatsoever. After his first season, he fired Monty Williams, another very aggressive and unexpected move. The next season Monty Williams went to the Pistons and was fired after one year, so in the long run, it probably wasn’t the worst move by any means. After Monty Williams was fired, they brought in Frank Vogel, who led them to a 46-36 record, but the Timberwolves would go on to sweep them in the 2024 Playoffs, so he was then fired. Finally, they hired Mike Budenholzer, and he was fired after this past season after the Suns went 36-46. 3 coaches in 3 seasons isn’t ideal whatsoever, and whoever the Suns hire now needs to be a good hire. At the end-of-season press conferences last month, Ishbia stated, “We have to get the next hire right, and we will.” It is more likely that the Suns will hire someone who doesn’t have head coaching experience but has a very good resume to become a first-time head coach. Expect someone to be hired soon as we are getting closer and closer to the NBA offseason.
Changes under Ishbia
Other than basketball operations, Mat Ishbia has done a lot of different out-of-the-ordinary things as owner of the Phoenix Suns. Most of these things have been positive like him lowering food and beverage prices at games and making the games locally televised so fans can watch and not pay for an extra subscription. He has been good to the fans in that way and has gotten a lot of praise. Also, to help the community, he has helped bring the WNBA All-Star game to Phoenix, and in 2027 the NBA All-Star game will be in Phoenix. One other big thing he has done is helped upgrade the Phoenix Mercury facilities and upgraded PHX Arena, the home of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury.
Insider Reports
As I mentioned for the Kevin Durant trade, insiders noted that Ishbia was the main enforcer for it. There have been many other insider reports about Ishbia and the Suns and how they run the organization. A report from John Voita, a Phoenix Suns writer, stated that a source said, “It’s like Looney Tunes around here since Mat Ishbia took ownership“ in April 2024. Going back to the Kevin Durant trade, James Jones, the Phoenix Suns GM at the time, it was reported that he had a vision for the roster, and Ishbia changed all of that.
Also now in 2025, just a few days ago, a former Suns employee, Gene Taylor, filed a lawsuit against the organization. Taylor, a former security manager for the Suns, stated the reason for the lawsuit was due to alleged workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. It was also stated in the lawsuit that Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein was having an affair with former Mercury guard Sophia Cunningham. All of these reports are just things you don’t want to hear from an NBA organization; some are on Ishbia, others are not. Overall, as we can see, though, it just seems that the Phoenix Suns organization has a lot of different issues. Some of those same issues are ones that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys demonstrate year to year. With owner Jerry Jones running the show in Dallas, it seems that Mat Ishbia is trending in that direction.
Michigan State
Mat Ishbia graduated from Michigan State in 2002 and he played college basketball for the Spartans. He was a walk-on bench player but was on the 2000 National Championship team. Once he got into his actual business career and started making a lot of money, he started to donate a lot to the college to help them with sports and sports facilities. Once the NIL Era came around, he also has been a key part of that. The biggest thing he did for Michigan State athletics was when MSU signed head football coach Mel Tucker to a 10-year, $95 million extension. Ishbia was one of the biggest pushers and funders for that extension.
He has come out and stated that he donated a lot of money to MSU for those reasons. He also was the biggest NIL partner with the university, but that ended in 2023 as he transitioned to owner of the Phoenix Suns. Justin and Mat Ishbia are both still big NIL supporters of the college, though in September 2024 they made a $10 million donation to Michigan State University Athletics. If you think about it, Ishbia isn’t like any other NBA owner; he has a college basketball background and is simply more dedicated and knowledgeable than many owners in sports.
Ishbia also has done more for the university, as in 2024 the Suns and Pistons played a preseason game in the Breslin Center. All of these aren't even the most relevant reasons for the name of the article. Mat Ishbia just seemed like a very good MSU supporter and still does until one thing that recently happened that was very out of the ordinary.
Brian Gregory was hired as the Suns' new GM just a couple of weeks ago, and his background is very confusing and not as normal as other NBA front-office executives. Gregory was hired for his first NBA front office job just less than a year ago as a Suns assistant. Just a couple of weeks ago he was promoted to general manager with 1 year of experience in the NBA, something that just doesn’t happen. Gregory has a very solid basketball background, as he was a Division One head coach for 20 years at 3 different schools, but one of his jobs makes all of this interesting. Brian Gregory was an assistant on Tom Izzo's staff from 1999 to 2003, the same year Ishbia played there. It seems that this was one of those situations where it is a friend giving a friend a job.
Expect Gregory to work very closely with Ishbia, and it could very well be Ishbia running the show and Gregory being the assistant, as Ishbia actually has more NBA experience than him and is his close friend, so that may be the reason he was hired.
Similarities
As you can see, it just may seem that Jerry Jones has done plenty of odd things throughout his career, as Mat Ishbia is starting to do. I think the reasons are different, as Jerry Jones just wants attention and money. Ishbia is very well someone who just wants to run the team from top to bottom, especially due to his basketball background. Ishbia wants things done his way since it is his team. He isn’t an owner who is just going to hire people and sit back and relax. Expect Brian Gregory to have a very cool seat for years no matter what happens on the court due to his friendship with Ishbia, and more likely he isn’t the GM, just an assistant to ownership.
Wrap Up
Ishbia isn’t the worst owner by any means; he’s acting like Jerry Jones in some ways, and I just think it is due to his high basketball knowledge. It will be very intriguing to see how these next 5 or so years pan out for the Suns and to see how much more involved Ishbia continues to be with basketball operations. First, though, the Suns have a vital offseason to rebuild the team's identity, so we will see how Ishbia wants to go about it with a new era of Suns basketball coming next season.
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Eli Saari