Mark Cuban no longer NBA’s only Texas billionaire, reality star owner

Move over, Mark Cuban, there is another billionaire, reality television star owner in the NBA.

Tilman Fertitta has agreed to buy the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion from Leslie Alexander. You might not know the Fertitta name, but you’ve probably eaten at one of his restaurants.

“Congrats to him,” Cuban said via email. “He got a bargain.”

The $2.2 billion purchase price is the most ever for an NBA team. The Los Angeles Clippers were sold for $2 billion in 2014.

Fertitta is the sole owner of the massive restaurant, hotel and casino empire Fertitta Entertainment Inc. that includes Landry’s seafood restaurants, along with Morton’s Steakhouse, Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, Saltgrass Steak House, Claim Jumper, Chart House, The Oceanaire, Mastro’s Restaurants, Grotto Restaurants, and Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse.

Fertitta is the star of a reality show Billion Dollar Buyer on CNBC in which small business owners “compete to impress the business mogul and land” a deal to partner with Landry’s, Inc.

He also owns the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinos and multiple hotel properties in Galveston, his hometown. Fertitta attended Texas Tech and the University of Houston.

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Mark Cuban no longer NBA’s only Texas billionaire, reality star owner."