Ryan Smith Says He Looked Up Forbes' Valuation of Jazz on Phone to Buy Team

New Utah Jazz governor Ryan Smith said he looked up Forbes' valuation of the NBA franchise while in the process of making an offer to the Miller family in July.

Smith explained on The Woj Pod with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski he'd already been looking to get into the world of sports ownership when the Jazz opportunity popped up suddenly:

Forbes lists the value of the Jazz at $1.55 billion, which ranks 21st in the 30-team NBA.

Smith paid $1.66 billion to finalize the sale, which also included Vivint Smart Home Arena, the G League's Salt Lake City Stars and management of the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team in the Los Angeles Angels organization.

The NBA Board of Governors approved the sale in December.

Forbes estimates Smith's personal net worth at $1.3 billion as the co-founder of Qualtrics, a cloud-computing company launched in 2002 that's focused on experience management.

The Jazz are off to a 4-3 start in his first season in control of the franchise, which remains on the hunt for its first NBA championship.