Former NBA Player Offers $7B to Purchase the Washington Commanders

Now hold up!

Don’t sign that check just yet, Magic Johnson and Josh Harris. According to WUSA, that record-breaking $6.05 billion purchase may not be enough to become owners of the Washington Commanders. A last-minute offer has been put on the table to purchase the NFL club.

Someone is willing to pay $1 billion more for the team owners Dan and Tanya Snyder are selling. The owners of the Washington Commanders have an agreement to sell the NFL franchise once known as the Washington Redskins. If the league approves the sale, the new owners will be the group headed by Harris, including NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

WUSA reported that Bank of America, which is handling sale offers for the Snyders, was talking with at least one of the other bidders as recently as last Thursday, the day it was leaked that the sale was basically a done deal.

Yet, a local native of D.C., Brian Davis, has given the team an offer to purchase the franchise for $7 billion in cash. Documents that the media outlet obtained confirm the details of the bid made by Davis last month on March 21. The documents reveal that Davis is offering to pay the first $1 billion to Dan Snyder within 24 hours and $6 billion within seven days.

The D.C. native is also willing to indemnify Snyder for any legal liability related to the Commanders’ owner amid the ongoing investigations into the team.

Davis is a former Duke University basketball player who played in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves from 1993-1994. He owns Urban Echo Energy L.L.C., a LEED-certified developer of renewable energy assets. He attended Bladensburg High School and was previously a minority owner of DC United.

Davis raised the capital he’d need to make this offer by selling his intellectual property. He had a $50 billion valuation for his assets and intellectual property and private investors gave Urban Echo Energy the capital in a lump sum. He was cited as the first LEED green developer in the country.

In his bid to purchase the team, Davis wrote, “With the Washington D.C. metropolitan area having a significant minority population … Urban Echo believes that African American ownership in the Company will be a vital component to enhancing the social infrastructure in the local community. There is a significant opportunity to enhance the existing fanbase.”