Battle of the billionaires: The Trump connection to an NBL hostile takeover bid

A battle of the National Basketball League billionaires – including one with close ties to Donald Trump – has broken out on the eve of the league’s biggest game of the season, with a prominent club owner agitating for a hostile takeover of the league from majority owner Larry Kestelman.

Brash Illawarra Hawks owner Jared Novelly has circulated an email to the nine other team owners – including those of Melbourne United, South East Melbourne Phoenix and the Sydney Kings – declaring he will launch “multiple actions” against NBLCo by the end of the month, with an attached draft term sheet proposing Kestelman sell all his shares equally among the league’s 10 teams.

However, Kestelman was emphatic in his response on Friday.

“We remain fully committed to the continued and unprecedented growth and success of the NBL,” Kestelman said in a statement.

“The NBL is not for sale.”

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This masthead was given a copy of Novelly’s email, in which the American states: “I am taking one last shot to try to allow the current ownership to leave peacefully while saving face and reputation”.

Novelly says he has concerns about “secret ambassador agreements, gambling revenue, the sale of the JackJumpers, integrity concerns and financial transparency”, and cites a KPMG Report that “reveals that there is a history of NBLCo calculating the club distribution incorrectly, the significant profits made by LK Group companies from NBL-related activities, discrepancies with related party transactions and opaque procurement processes which benefited LK Group entities”.

Novelly, the son of Apex Oil mogul Paul Novelly, who passed away in February, took control of the Hawks in 2020. He was announced as the next ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa by United States President Donald Trump in January.