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Jay-Z No Longer Owns a Fraction of One Percent of the Brooklyn Nets

Jay-Z and Beyonce watch the Nets / Photo by Getty

What was once the newest phase in Jay-Z’s career has now been swept by the wayside for pastures that offer potentially more green. The legendary rapper and ex-part owner of the Brooklyn Nets announced yesterday (via Life + Times) that he has fully divested himself from the basketball team that he helped move from New Jersey in order to properly run his newest venture, Roc Nation Sports. Roc Nation Sports is, in Jay-Z’s words, “committed to building the brands of professional athletes as we have done for some of today’s top music artists,” and league rules stipulate that in order to represent players he may not own part of a team.

Jay-Z’s ownership stake in the Nets has been scrutinized — reports have suggested that he owned about 1/15 of 1 percent of the team — but his importance in building the brand of the Brooklyn Nets is hard to overstate. Jay-Z is said to have been the creative force around the team’s revamped logo and color scheme — from blue, red, and white to black, silver, and white — which is a mastery of minimalism and has helped make the Nets’ merchandise ubiquitous in Brooklyn. He is untested as a quasi-agent, but that alone bodes well for his chances of success as a representative.