Mat Ishbia is the new owner of the Phoenix Suns. Long before he was an NBA owner, though he played basketball at Michigan State, from 1999-2002.
Ishbia was a walk-on point guard during the early Tom Izzo era. The Spartans won the 2000 national championship during his freshman year.
Michigan State's starting point guard that year was Mateen Cleaves, but he suffered a stress fracture in his foot in the offseason. Junior guard Charlie Bell got the starting job in his absence. Ishbia was a deep-bench player.
Ishbia became the Chief Executive Officer of United Wholesale Mortgage in 2013. The company was started by his father in 1986; it became a publicly traded company in 2021 after a record SPAC merger.