Michael Rubin admits he was ‘violating every rule the NBA had’ as part of Sixers ownership group
In a wide-ranging conversation at the MIT Sloan Conference, Rubin also shared that he was persuaded to focus on Fanatics by Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/TBXROUHIGRG63NNKMUQAC7S7QM.jpg)
BOSTON — Michael Rubin said he feels “much more connected” to sports now that he is no longer a minority owner of the 76ers — and acknowledged the conflicts of interests that arose as he grew the Fanatics brand as its CEO.
Speaking at the MIT Sloan Conference on Friday morning, Rubin quipped that he was “violating every rule the NBA had” while part of the Sixers’ ownership group. That included taking bets on the Sixers when Fanatics entered that space and having NBA players such as Joel Embiid, James Harden, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant as Fanatics investors.
”If you look through the rules of the leagues, it didn’t work for me to own part of a team,” Rubin said. “It was holding back Fanatics. It was a great privilege and honor to be a part of. … I learned a lot. I got a lot of great experience, and it was definitely time for me to move on.
”Now, I feel like I sit at the center of sports, technology, and business. I have the funnest job on the planet. I love doing it. I wake up every morning excited to jump out of bed and think about the 18,000 things that are about to come at me.”
Rubin, a Philly native, called himself “probably as involved as any third-largest owner of a sports team” while with the Sixers from 2011 to 2022. He said Joe Tsai, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft helped persuade him to step away because it was a “distraction to such a big opportunity that you have with Fanatics.”
» READ MORE: Joel Embiid expects to rejoin the Sixers this season: ‘That’s the plan’
The wide-ranging conversation, moderated by Sloan co-chair Jessica Gelman, also touched on how Rubin expanded Fanatics, his lavish celebrity parties, and the controversy surrounding baseball’s spring training uniforms. Relationships and connecting ideas was a theme throughout, including when asked an audience question about the biggest lesson he still applies in business from his time as part of an ownership group.
”When things are great, relationships aren’t that important, because things just work,” Rubin said. “But, by the way, when you’re on a five-game losing streak, or something goes wrong, or someone’s injured, you need those relationships to get things back together. …
”What I had done in business with relationships applied perfectly to sports, and vice versa, and it paid a lot of dividends.”
When self-evaluating the Sixers’ on-court success during his tenure, however, Rubin was blunt.
”We failed,” Rubin said. “We never won a championship. If you own a sports team and you don’t win a championship, you fail each year. That’s your job is to win a championship.”