Getty Zion Williamson
The New Orleans Pelicans have a promising future in the National Basketball Association.
And you’ll never guess who might be interested in owning them.
Master P!
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Appearing on a recent episode of #WORDSWITHSCOOP sponsored by Orox Leathers, I asked Master P if he had interest in having a partial stake and the New Orleans native told me he’d need a little bit more than that.
“If I’m not going to own it, I know I can’t control it,” Master P tells me.
“I made a song called ‘You Need to Know’ and we need to get that information out. I say that “This is the realest I ever wrote/ this is the realest shit I ever spoke…” this is the stuff that they don’t want you to know. But if you get money, this is the stuff you need to know. We need to know economics and banking. We need to know that they give us 1% of these teams minority ownership. That’s not enough because we have no control. So if we’re not going to own that and be the majority owner of it, I’m good.”
Currently the Pelicans sit in 13th place in the NBA’s Western Conference standings with a 30-41 record.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – JUNE 04: Rapper Master P attends the memorial service for George Floyd at North Central University on June 4, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd died while in police custody on May 25, after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nine minutes while detaining him. His death has sparked nationwide protests and rioting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The face and future of the franchise is centered around promising forward, Zion Williamson, an NBA Rookie of the Year award candidate.
This season, Williamson is averaging 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
The Pelicans also have Brandon Ingram, an NBA Most Improved Player of the Year Award candidate and point guard, Lonzo Ball on their roster. “Lonzo can play with anybody,” Ball’s father, LaVar told me this past spring.
“Everybody saying that it’s his special gift. He makes everybody around him special. As long as you have confidence and you have the coach’s respect. Let Lonzo do what he does.”
JJ Redick, Josh Hart, Jrue Holiday Derrick Favors and Jahlil Okafor are also on the Pelican’s rich roster.
Master P chartered a remarkably successful career as founder and CEO of the independent record company No Limit Records. In addition to overseeing his record label, he is a rap artist, film and videodirector, actor, and business entrepreneur. He also was signed to two separate NBA contracts in the late 1990s, playing for both the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors during the 1998 and 1999 pre-season respectively. He also owns his own basketball league, Global Mixed Gender Basketball (GMGB).
He likes what he sees on the Pelicans roster but in order to be part of the future on an ownership level, he reiterates that he’d rather own it. “I’d rather invest in a product,” he told me.
“Build brands like the Moneyatti’s, the Uncle P’s Rice, the noodles…I would rather create packaged food goods – because when you look at Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, those products made billions of dollars and nobody like us owned any of those products. So I feel like that’s where I wanna be at; I want to be the first in that marketplace for people that look like us. Being able to control that and give other people opportunities to create brands and get it distributed into stores because I feel that that’s the next place for us building wealth and where we can build a generation of wealth and we can help people in our communities and give back because we obtained real financial wealth.”