Top 10 Celebrities We Want to Own an NBA Team

Recently it has become a new fad of celebrities in America and beyond to invest in partial (or occasionally complete) ownership of a professional sports franchise.

In the NBA alone, Jay-Z is famously invested in the Brooklyn Nets, Usher owns a stake in the Cavaliers, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith are part owners of the Philadelphia 76ers and recently Justin Timberlake was reportedly involved with a group looking to purchase the Memphis Grizzlies, and was later joined by Peyton Manning and Penny Hardaway.

This doesn't even include those owners who have turned themselves into even bigger celebrities since being involved in the NBA, like Mark Cuban and Mikhail Prokhorov.

All of this leads to the question, what other celebrities should become owners of an NBA team?

Whether it is a partial ownership or complete control of the team, seeing these 10 celebs become involved with an NBA franchise would significantly up the league's off-the-court entertainment value and make the NBA an even more popular league in America.

10. M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan would make an entertaining NBA owner, because if his team is anything like his movies, fans won't know what's coming next.

Shyamalan has been in a funk recently in the movie business, but the director known for his infamous "twists" could maybe do some good for an NBA franchise.

At the very least he'd keep the team and fans intrigued wondering what the next big twist in the season would be.

Would Shyamalan reveal that the entire roster was actually aliens? Would Shyamalan announce that the team would actually be participating in the NFL next season instead? Was Byron Mullens dead the whole time?

Shyamalan may not know the first thing about basketball, but as long as it wasn't my team, I'd pay to see what he could come up with for an NBA franchise.

9. Charles Barkley

Unlike the previous entrant on this list, Charles Barkley actually knows a lot about basketball, and may even become an owner of a team someday.

Barkley was an 11-time NBA All-Star during his playing days, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest power forwards of all time.

However, Barkley has been in the spotlight even more than in his playing days since becoming an analyst for TNT.

Barkley is never afraid to speak his mind and he won't sugarcoat it either, which is one of the top things to look for when thinking of who would make a great NBA owner (at least from the media's perspective).

I could see Barkley becoming public enemy No. 1 to David Stern as "Sir Charles" would likely stand up against Stern and the league if he felt he was being treated unfairly.

Not to mention Barkley would hunger for a ring as an owner, considering he went his entire playing career without winning one.

Here's to hoping Barkley drops the idea of entering politics and takes up owning an NBA team instead.

8. Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber would be a great NBA owner on hilarity factor alone.

Imagine an NBA player who has spent his entire life working for his dream to become a pro basketball player being cut by a teenager whose Twitter fans refer to themselves as "Beliebers."

Bieber is an NBA fan and unfortunately has the money, so it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that he could one day own at least a portion of an NBA team.

Considering his participation in the last few NBA Celebrity All-Star games, might Bieber think of himself as a real stud on the court? After all, he was the game MVP in 2011. Would anyone really be surprised if Bieber put himself on the team for at least a few games a season? I certainly wouldn't.

At the very least, Bieber's presence would increase ticket sales among teenage girls by around five million percent, and he does have at least one thing in common with current NBA players: He is a playable character on NBA 2K13.

7. Barack Obama

What better man to lead the direction of an NBA franchise than the man who is tasked with leading the direction of an entire country?

Political beliefs aside, there is a very good chance that Barack Obama would be a fantastic NBA owner once he steps out of the White House.

Obama is of course a huge basketball fan, as evidenced by his regular appearances at Wizards games, as well as showing up at a few Team USA exhibitions.

Pictures of the Commander in Chief playing hoops are all over the internet too, and Obama has even graced the court playing with the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan, as well as other NBA stars.

Plus, Obama has basketball connections in the family. Obama's brother in-law, Craig Robinson, is the head men's basketball coach at Oregon State.

Whether it is next month or in 2016 when Obama's time as President is over, becoming an NBA owner seems like the only logical next career move.

6. Oprah Winfrey

There are few, (if any) more influential, wealthy and powerful women on Earth than Oprah Winfrey.

Now that she is out of the talk show business on a regular basis, Oprah could easily decide she wants to try her hand at owning an NBA team.

Whether or not Oprah is an avid NBA watcher is practically irrelevant, as Winfrey's money alone could purchase the best team money can buy.

On a serious note, the NBA is seriously lacking in both minority owners and female owners, and Oprah would cover both of those bases, which would be a positive direction for the league's image. 

On a lighter note, it would be plain fun to watch Oprah try to operate an NBA team. Who knows, maybe she'd be great at it; after all, Oprah Winfrey hasn't known anything but success in a long, long, time.

At the very least maybe every fan who buys season tickets will get a free car.

5. Skip Bayless

No one knows how to stir up controversy while sitting in a chair quite like Skip Bayless, who does so every day on ESPN's "First Take." 

However, what if Bayless was the owner of an NBA team? Would Bayless really employ all of his outrageous propositions that he makes on television if he was in an actual position of power, or does he just say those things to generate controversy and discussion?

Bayless is one of, if not the most, nationally known LeBron James critics in the country, so specifically I'd love to see him suddenly become the owner of the Miami Heat.

Bayless has suggested in the past on numerous occasions that LeBron is the Robin to D-Wade's Batman and that Wade should always take the last shots. He also claimed LeBron should play point guard, and that James isn't in the conversation as the best player in the game.

What would happen if Bayless was suddenly in charge of the Heat? Would he try to trade LeBron or diminish his role even after The King took home his first championship and won an Olympic gold medal?

Bayless as an NBA owner would likely run that team into the laughing stock of the league in two years, which is why he makes a much more effective "analyst" who lives in hypotheticals, than an owner who lives in realities.

Nevertheless, for those two seasons at least Bayless would be, if nothing else, a lightning rod of entertainment for NBA fans everywhere.

4. Chef Gordon Ramsay

During his time as a reality star, Chef Gordon Ramsay has become known for two things: his ability cook and judge other chefs on their abilities to not only cook but run a restaurant, and his outlandish, loud, demeaning outbursts.

Specifically, the second of those qualities is why Ramsay lands a spot on this countdown. 

I can see it now...Gordon Ramsay, the owner of an NBA team, gets interviewed by a young local reporter in the locker room after seeing his team being crushed by the Spurs by 35 points.

What would follow is nothing that I can type here on Bleacher Report, but it would certainly involve over a dozen or so British curse words and the repeated calling of the reporter a "donkey." 

Along with his assured outbursts, Ramsay would be best served taking over for an incompetent owner on a team that hasn't won in years (think Clippers pre-Chris Paul), and  building them from the bottom up to be one the league's top teams, just like he does on his program Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. 

While the Brit may have his sporting knowledge more based in European football and auto racing, Ramsay's track record shows he could be a successful NBA owner, as long as he doesn't mind a few fines being handed down from the league office. 

3. Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal is just one of those characters who should never ever be away from the NBA game.

Now that his playing days are over and he doesn't exactly seem to be the head coach type, being an owner may be more up Shaq's alley.

A dream of mine is to see Shaq own an NBA team and Kobe Bryant own one as well after he retires, so the two can continue their rivalry well after they hang it up on the court.

Few players know the game better than Shaq, and behind his goofy personality, O'Neal has the capability to be a great basketball mind. 

Plus from an entertainment standpoint, few can do it better than Shaq on a consistent basis. The combination of the two makes Shaq as an NBA owner or executive an absolute must in the near future.

Shaq nearly got hired as the GM of the Orlando Magic this offseason, so the interest seems to be there for him to take a bigger role with an NBA franchise soon. 

I can barely wait to see what nickname owner Shaq would come up with to call himself.

2. Donald Trump

It's actually somewhat of a surprise that Donald Trump isn't already the owner of a professional sports team. 

Trump is the definition of an egomaniac, but no one has ever doubted his business savvy and ability to get to the top—and in the sports world it would be no different.

Trump as a NBA owner would be, in a word, fascinating.

Without a doubt Trump would become the biggest star of the organization in large part by his own doing, and would probably try to rename the team the Las Vegas Trumps or something. Yet it has been proven (see Mark Cuban) that "me-first" owners can still be successful if they are smart in the NBA.

Trump would be completely boom or bust in the league (much like most of his business endeavors), but one thing is for sure, people would keep up with Trump week-in and week-out just to see what he would do next.

In fact, a show in which Trump shows up to practice in a jumpsuit and fires undrafted free agents at training camp sounds like the next hit reality show. 

1. Spike Lee

This one is a total no-brainer. If there is one celebrity who is the ultimate super fan, and completely synonymous with an individual team, it is Spike Lee with the New York Knicks.

In fact, to some sports fans, Lee's history with the Knicks may even be more recognizable than his filmmaking.

In fact, Lee's encounters with Reggie Miller are probably the most famous fan vs. player showdowns in the history of American sports. 

Lee seems to care about the success or failure of the Knicks more than life itself sometimes, so it only makes sense for him to use his fame and fortune to buy the Knicks from the nightmare that is James Dolan and spend the rest of his natural life as owner.

Having Spike Lee as owner of the Knicks would not only be great for the Knicks, but it would be great for the league having someone of his stature own one of the league's most popular and highest-revenue teams.

Plus, New York fans know without a doubt Lee would fight tooth-and-nail to get his beloved Knicks their first NBA championship since 1973.

Perhaps other than Patrick Ewing, no one face stands out from the Knicks in the past 20 years more than Spike Lee, and it is about time he takes his rightful place away from courtside and into the owner's box.