HEADLINE

Air Jordan, other NBA owners in tequila venture

Field Level Media

September 17, 2019 at 2:51 am.

Michael Jordan and three other NBA owners have joined to create a super-premium tequila brand, Forbes reported.

Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens partnered with Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Hornets, to create the tequila brand Cincoro. It reportedly is among the most expensive tequila brands being sold.

The idea to create a tequila brand stemmed from a night during 2016 NBA owners’ meetings in New York where the group, plus Grousbeck’s then-fiancée Emilia Fazzalari, met for dinner. They was forced to wait due to a reservation mix-up, so they talked tequila.

“That was when we realized there was an opportunity in the market to create a new tequila, a better tequila,” said Fazzalari, now Grousbeck’s wife who spent 29 years in financial services and has been heading up the project as CEO. “We let our hair down and became true friends that night.”

Now, the parent company Cinco Spirits Group produces four tequila flavors that launch this month in 12 markets and go nationwide in January.

“The biggest problem we are going to have is the supply,” Edens, co-CEO of the private equity firm Fortress, told Forbes. “I’m in the logistics and infrastructure business. Logistics are going to be a problem because the stuff is so good. It really is.”