Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
NBA champion Josh Hart is investing in Italian basketball club Napoli, which currently plays in Italy’s top division but has received approval to play in EuroLeague next year and could still join NBA Europe.
The Knicks swingman is investing alongside Matt Hillman, who co-hosts Hart’s Roommates podcast with Jalen Brunson, according to a statement. Both will serve on the team’s board.
Napoli is one of the teams that sits within owner Matt Rizzetta’s company, Underdog Global Partners. Underdog also owns Campobasso, which plays in Italy’s third-highest division of soccer; Donna Roma, an Italian women’s soccer team that plays in the country’s second-highest level; and Napoli Women’s Basketball, the sister team to Napoli Basketball.
Rizzetta told Front Office Sports that Hart and Hillman are technically investing in both the men’s and women’s Napoli basketball teams, as well as the planned new arena being built near the Amalfi Coast and is designed to meet the standards of both EuroLeague and NBA Europe.
Rizzetta and Hart first met at the beginning of this summer, and they “hit it off immediately.”
Financial details of Hart’s deal are not being disclosed, but Rizzetta told FOS it’s his “largest private investment to date” and is his first foray into sports ownership.
“Josh is an underdog guy,” he told FOS. “He’s a champion who is a rags to riches story. And the New York to Naples connection is really important to us.”
Hart isn’t investing for a quick financial gain, Rizzetta said. “He looks at this like a legacy project,” he told FOS. “You meet investors who want that two-, three-year return. Josh is looking to build this out.”
Hart said in a statement that Napoli “reminds me of what we have built with the Knicks in many ways.”
“It is a project built around hard work, big dreams and the incredible passion Napoli fans have for their team,” he said.
Hart is not the first NBA connection Rizzetta has brought on to assist with Napoli. Last year, FOS reported he hired former Pelicans and Warriors executive James Laughlin to serve as the team’s general manager.
‘We’re going to have to raise our game next year.’
The Napoli men’s team is currently tied for first place in Serie A, and at 7-0 is one of two remaining undefeated teams in the EuroCup. The club recently reportedly got approval to join EuroLeague as a wild card team beginning next season, and after three years will have the right to convert to a permanent EuroLeague franchise as long as the arena is built within three years. FOS previously reported that Napoli received conditional approval this summer to join EuroLeague as part of its planned expansion. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to FOS that the conditional approval has since been approved but not yet announced.
Rizzetta declined to comment on that process, but he did share that construction of the new arena is slated to begin next year and the project should be complete by 2030. He is also still interested in potentially joining NBA Europe.
Regardless of which league Napoli ends up in, Rizzetta said the vision he had when buying the team is starting to come to fruition, and Hart will play a big role in the team moving forward.
“We’re going to have to raise our game next year,” he told FOS. “We have to be prepared to be an elite club. That includes stuff like player recruiting and scouting, and Josh will be involved in that in some capacity.”
