Musk, the world s richest man, can he buy all NBA teams? You may not believe it if you say it

In the field of technology, Elon Musk's achievements and wealth are legendary. According to Forbes' 2025 data, Musk has firmly ranked as the richest man in the world with a net worth of US$348 billion. His business territory spans electric vehicles and aerospace technology, and Tesla and SpaceX continue to expand the boundaries of human technology under his leadership. However, when vision turns to the sports world, especially the NBA league in basketball, a thrilling question arises: Can Musk use his wealth to buy all NBA teams?

Since Xiao Hua took over as NBA president in 2014, the league has entered the fast lane of business internationalization. Players' salaries are rising steadily, and the team's market value is also growing steadily. In 2024, the NBA signed an 11-year, $76 billion broadcast contract with ESPN, NBC and Amazon. This huge contract indicates that the league's commercial value will reach a new height. In the future, the annual salary of top stars is expected to exceed US$100 million, and the market value of teams in major markets such as the Knicks, Lakers, and Warriors will also easily exceed the 10 billion mark. In the 2024-25 season, the Warriors ranked first with $8.8 billion in the NBA team market value list, followed by the Knicks with $7.5 billion, and the Lakers ranked third with $7.1 billion. However, not all teams have such a high market value, with the market value of small-scale teams such as the Hornets, Pistons, and Grizzlies hovering at around $3 billion.

Overall, the total market value of the 30 NBA teams is about US$161 billion. If the assets such as stadium construction and broadcast contracts are taken into consideration, the overall value of the league will be approximately about US$200 billion. Compared with Musk's net worth of $348 billion, from the financial perspective, he has the strength to buy the entire NBA. However, this assumption faces many obstacles in reality. As a business alliance, the NBA has a strict franchise system. The system stipulates that team ownership must be independent and comply with league norms, aiming to ensure the fairness and viewing of the game and prevent a single capital monopoly from destroying the league ecology. In addition, operating multiple teams at the same time has extremely high requirements for management and resource allocation capabilities, which is also a huge challenge for Musk. If a consortium or individual is allowed to own multiple teams at the same time, it will seriously undermine the league's competitive balance and violate the spirit of sports.

It is worth mentioning that Xiao Hua once made it clear in an interview that the business value of the NBA is moving towards trillions of dollars, and this is not a cake that a rich man can digest on his own. In other words, even if Musk has the ability to buy all the teams, the league will not agree.

Although buying the entire league at one time doesn't work at the rules and management level, this does not mean that Musk cannot get into the NBA. It is reported that he is extremely optimistic about the basketball market in Las Vegas and is interested in joining LeBron James to invest $5 billion to form a new team in the local area. If Musk enters the NBA as the team boss in the future, he will surpass Ballmer with his wealth and become the richest boss in the league.