NBA approves sale of Hawks to group led by Tony Ressler

The Atlanta Hawks are under new ownership.

The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of the franchise to a group led by Tony Ressler on Wednesday - a sale worth a reported $850 million. All sales require board approval, and the bid from Ressler's group was never expected to run into a roadblock.

Commissioner Adam Silver released the following statement:

We are pleased that the NBA's Board of Governors has approved the purchase of the Atlanta Hawks by principal owner Tony Ressler. Tony and his diverse and experienced ownership group will bring tremendous energy and passion to the Hawks and the team and its fans will greatly benefit from their commitment to the Atlanta community.

The 55-year-old Ressler has co-founded private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Ares Management and has an estimated net worth of $1.43 billion. He submitted one of the finalist bids on the Los Angeles Clippers but came up well short of the final $2-billion sale price. He also owns a minority piece of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Ressler won't be going it alone despite his principal interest in the team, with former NBA All-Star Grant Hill among those involved with the ownership group. Early indications have been that Hill's interests lie more on the business side than in joining the basketball operations staff, and with Mike Budenholzer's recent promotion, a front office shake-up doesn't appear to be imminent.

The Hawks franchise became available for sale last offseason, when majority owner Bruce Levenson announced his intention to sell in the wake of self-reporting a racially offensive internal email.