It’s only been 13 months since Mat Ishbia officially took over as owner of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, but what he’s accomplished in that time speaks to what he’s all about.
Namely, that he isn’t lying when he says he wants his franchises to be the gold standard in the NBA and the WNBA. Bringing the 2027 NBA All-Star Game to Phoenix is just the latest example.
“Just another instance of Mat Ishbia doing everything he can for this fanbase,” coach Frank Vogel said. “He’s really setting the bar high in terms of trying — we want to be the gold standard in everything we do with the Phoenix Suns. And he went out and pursued it and we got it.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Ishbia was joined by NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Arizona governor Katie Hobbs to announce Phoenix as the official host city of the 2027 NBA All-Star Game. It was the NBA’s soonest available All-Star Game, with 2025 being hosted by the Golden State Warriors and 2026 being hosted by the LA Clippers.
Ishbia was also able to land the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game for Phoenix, checking off two boxes he had near the top of his list from day one.
“Essentially since he became the governor of this team,” Silver said. “One of the first things he said to me was, ‘How soon can get All-Star back here?’”
Silver believes getting both All-Star Games within his first year on the job has to be some kind of a record, and not long after Ishbia secured Phoenix as the host city for the WNBA, his mindset was, “Now we’ve gotta get to the NBA.”
But make no mistake about it: Landing those two All-Star Games was about far more than checking off boxes. The league already knew Phoenix had the infrastructure, superior winter weather, hotels, restaurants and other attractions that make a city more appealing as a potential host, but it was Ishbia and team CEO Josh Bartelstein who won Silver over.
“No. 1, it was their enthusiasm,” Silver said. “I think so much for the league, it matters a lot to us how badly a community and city and ownership want the event. I think it’s natural just to be in this community. It’s certainly a place where people want to be, but I know they wanted to put their best foot forward and clearly show how dedicated they were to running a first-class franchise, and I think that was what was most persuasive.”
It’s been more than 55 years since the Suns came into existence, and they’ve only hosted three All-Star Games in 1975, 1995 and 2009. By the time 2027 rolls around, it’ll have been 18 years since Phoenix’s last All-Star Game. In that time, it’s become one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, and in addition to both All-Star Games, Phoenix recently hosted the Super Bowl in 2023, with the NCAA men’s Final Four coming this year and the women’s Final Four to follow in 2026.
“As I ticked off all those great sporting events that are coming to the state and this community over the next few years, this is an incredibly desirable location,” Silver said. “People love to be here. I think when we are here, both in the summer for the WNBA All-Star Game and then for the NBA All-Star Game, there’s so much to do in this community, so many outdoor activities.”
The economic impact on the city is estimated to be somewhere in the $400 million range — tying in directly with “community impact,” one of Ishbia’s four main pillars. With just under three years to plan, Ishbia will be paying close attention to what Joe Lacob does in Golden State and what Steve Ballmer does in LA, piggybacking off of what works to make Phoenix “the best All-Star weekend of all time.”
Ishbia will also work closely with Silver to enhance the experience for Phoenicians, basketball fans visiting the city, and everyone else watching the league’s coverage from 215 different countries. Although the All-Star Game has expanded to a weekend-long event over the years, the commissioner is well aware the league needs to find ways to improve the game itself.
“No question it’s a work in progress,” Silver said. “I was disappointed in the All-Star Game, didn’t make any secret about that, and frankly, most of the players I talked to, including many of whom participated in the All-Star Game, were disappointed too. As I said, we got three years to get it right before we come here, but believe me, it’s something we all as a community care a lot about.”
Silver and Ishbia both acknowledged the challenges of creating a more competitive showcase while also granting players the midseason break they deserve. The commissioner in particular understands they can’t turn back the clock, mentioning it’s unfair to simply tell the players, “This is how things used to be.”
But the Suns brass have three years to work with the league on improving All-Star Weekend, and Ishbia is convinced there’s something special about bringing the 24 best players on earth to a city like Phoenix.
“We want to make it special, and one thing that those places don’t have is they don’t have Phoenix,” Ishbia explained. “Phoenix is special. I’m newer to Phoenix, and I’ve learned really quick how amazing this community is, how amazing the fans are, how amazing people are. And I’m so excited to showcase that to the whole world.”
Landing All-Star Games is emblematic of Mat Ishbia’s first year in charge
Landing both All-Star Games is one of the crown jewels in Ishbia’s collection, but none of that happens without the groundwork he’s laid over the last 13 months.
In just over a year, Ishbia has made good on every promise to improve every aspect of the Suns and Mercury franchises. On the Suns front, he helped push a Kevin Durant trade across the finish line on his first day on the job. He later approved trades for Bradley Beal, Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen, and Royce O’Neale — all of which added to the team’s hefty luxury tax bill — without hesitation.
Ishbia mended fractured relationships from the Robert Sarver era by inducting Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire into the Ring of Honor. He reimagined the Ring of Honor itself in a more visual, fitting tribute to past Suns legends, while also thinking about the future by finally giving the Suns a G League affiliate (starting next season).
Ishbia made Suns games more accessible to fans in the state with a TV broadcast deal with Arizona’s Family, bumping up the number of households who could watch for free from 600,000 to 3 million. But perhaps most importantly, he’s made efforts to ensure that a toxic work environment once defined by horror stories of racist and sexist behavior changed for the better.
“The big word that I’ll say, that differentiates culture and people is ‘care,'” Ishbia explained. “You show people you care. You go out of your way to care, and you can’t show ’em you care or act like you care; you have to care. And so I think the difference is I care. And I’m not saying it wasn’t like that before, I can control what I can control. I have no idea what’s happened in the past, but I know that I can come in here and set the culture of caring about our team members and about our players and about our janitors or security members. Everybody’s part of one team, one family here at the Phoenix Suns and Mercury.”
As a result of the investigation into Sarver, Silver noted there were “data-driven” steps put in place and “regular check-ins” to ensure the culture was changing for the better. That culture for any employees, which Ishbia refers to as “team members,” is another one of his four pillars, and Silver believes the process speaks for itself at this point.
Ishbia’s dedication to the women’s game is just as noteworthy. He pushed hard for the WNBA All-Star Game when he saw an opportunity, and it’s just the latest in a series of moves proving how devoted he is to restoring the Mercury to their former glory.
Over the last year, Ishbia has hired Nate Tibbetts as the highest-paid coach in the WNBA, landed former Golden State Warriors assistant general manager Nick U’Ren as the team’s new GM, and added Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud to the roster. Back in October, they announced the development of a $100 million campus for team members, as well as a state-of-the-art practice facility for the Merc right near The Footprint Center.
“Building a practice facility, spending huge money on that, not because of the money, but because it shows the investment in women’s sports and invests in the WNBA, which is the best women’s league in the world — in America, for sure,” Ishbia said. “And it’s growing.”
Silver noted how Ishbia has become something of a trendsetter for other NBA owners as the women’s game continues to expand.
“That was important to him from day one in terms of the Mercury, and he was looking for an opportunity where there was an NBA and a WNBA franchise,” Silver said. “I was mentioning to Mat earlier this afternoon that, as we’re now seeing the increased popularity of the women’s game and it seems to have grown exponentially just over the last few years, now I’m hearing from a lot of other NBA franchises that don’t have WNBA teams saying, ‘We should have a WNBA team too.'”
So what’s next for Mat Ishbia?
The ultimate prize is winning championships, and the Suns will have their opportunity in a few weeks to prove themselves. Beyond that, though, Phoenix is in a difficult spot from a roster-building standpoint as a team that’s above the second tax apron.
Ishbia hasn’t flinched at any luxury tax figure yet, but crossing that threshold makes it more difficult to assemble talent. The second tax apron eliminates their mid-level exception to sign players for more than the vet minimum, restricts the amount of salary they can take back in trades, and limits the types of players they can sign on the buyout market.
Heading into the offseason, two key contributors — Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale — will become unrestricted free agents. The Suns own their Bird rights, which means they can go above the salary cap to re-sign them for any amount. It’s the only feasible avenue to retain talent, since the Suns are already projected to be well over the salary cap and won’t free up additional cap space by letting them walk for nothing.
The biggest obstacle to keeping two quality, starting-caliber players in Phoenix beyond this season is the gargantuan luxury tax bill that will come with re-signing them. When asked about the complications of being a second tax apron team, Ishbia deadpanned, “Yeah, so I don’t know what the second tax apron is, what is that?” before laughing.
It may have been a joke, but that’s how he’s approached the second tax apron: If the Suns were going to step one toe across that line, they might as well jump past it wholeheartedly. This will be his greatest tax bill yet, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks detailed:
From the sound of it, though, he’s not going to change course now, especially when both players are virtually irreplaceable out on the open market.
“The way we’re looking at it is we’re trying to win the championship,” Ishbia said. “And we’re gonna try this year, and then we’re gonna try to figure out how to do it next year, and signing free agents is what it’s gonna take. Having someone’s Bird rights gives you an advantage to be able to keep those players, even if you’re into the luxury tax. We’re not frivolous with money and just spending money to spend money; what we’re trying to do is win a championship and build the best team possible.
“And it’s not just players, it’s culture. It’s team members, and Grayson and Royce are two great guys. Royce is new to the organization, has done an amazing job [in] everything you could think of, and Grayson’s been here all year and has been a phenomenal part of the team and the organization. So we hope and expect to have both those guys back, along with keeping this core team together, ‘cause we love our team, and we’re gonna go compete at the highest level.”
The timing of this new CBA and its second tax apron are unfortunate for a fanbase that’s waited decades for an owner willing to dive headfirst into the luxury tax. Now that they finally have Mat Ishbia, these new rules restrict some of those team-building tools for the big spenders. Silver said it’s too soon to project anything with the second tax apron still in its early days, but the league prides itself on its current level of parity, with five different champions over the last five years and 29 of the league’s 30 teams making the playoffs over that span.
“Mat, as you would expect and hope as a fan of this team, wants to do everything he possibly can to compete,” Silver said. “And then from a league-wide basis, we want to create the best possible competition among the 30 teams, and this is the balance we found through negotiations with the players association.”
Silver believes they can still find ways to improve on the CBA the next time they sit down, but for now, Ishbia is using whatever tools at his disposal to field the best possible teams for his franchises. And despite landing both All-Star Games, he’s already thinking ahead to the next big thing.
“We’ve done a lot in 13 months,” Ishbia said. “At the same time, I said when I took over as the governor, steward, it’s not my team. It’s the city’s team. And it’s my honor to work for the city and work for everyone to make this the best franchise in sports. We’re gonna work very hard for the Suns and the Mercury, and making it better every single day. That’s what we’re working on. And we’re not there yet, but I’ll tell you, we’re just getting started.”
