It’s no secret that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert don’t care for one another.
OK, that’s maybe putting it lightly.
It’s actually pretty clear that the two NBA owners seem to hold a great deal of animosity toward the other. As business rivals and, now, as rival owners in The Association.
Suns and Cavs owners have a bitter business feud
ESPN’s Baxter Holmes broke it all down in a 2024 piece about Ishbia taking over as owner of the Suns. From the NBA board of governors approving Ishbia’s ownership takeover with a 29-0 vote — with Gilbert as the lone abstention — to the business rivalry with their respective mortgage companies (Ishbia is CEO and chairman of United Wholesale Mortgage, while Gilbert runs Rocket Mortgage), to quoting Ishbia from a 2023 Bill Simmons podcast saying “(Gilbert) doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him.”
Well, then.
We’ll leave those details to Holmes' reporting, but the point stands that there appears to be no love lost between Gilbert and Ishbia.
But how about we spin that bitter feud into something positive?
Why not extend the ownership rivalry — in a friendly way — among Suns and Cavs fans?
Fans can help create an East-West rivalry to mirror team ownership
Now, again, emphasis on friendly rivalry here. We don’t want any expletive-filled screeds like in the leaked Ishbia voicemail that made the rounds on Pablo Torre Finds Out (very NSFW, viewer discretion advised).
Instead, fans of the Cavs and Suns can build something that goes beyond the pettiness of the billionaire owners. We can simply appreciate the solid basketball both of these teams are capable of playing when at their best.
Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker are both shooting guards who were overlooked by falling to No. 13 overall in their respective drafts, as well as the All-Star-caliber engines that make their teams go.
Mark Williams and Jarrett Allen are the rim-protecting bigs on the back lines.
Each team has a plethora of shooters — Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale and Jordan Goodwin among them for Phoenix, with guys like Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson lighting it up for Cleveland.
Heck, even Suns new head coach Jordan Ott was poached away from Atkinson's Cleveland staff and now has a very real chance of winning Coach of the Year honors that Atkinson took home a season ago.
Throughout the 2025-26 season, the Suns have defied expectations to put themselves in the playoff conversation out West. Meanwhile, the Cavs have floundered relative to expectations in their second season under head coach Kenny Atkinson due in large part to injuries and cold 3-point shooting.
So, when the Cavs and Suns face off Wednesday, Dec. 31, to close out 2025, perhaps it’s time for each team’s fan base to make a bigger deal of an otherwise pedestrian inter-conference showdown on the schedule.
While it remains clear Dillon Brooks’ on-court rivalry remains focused on all-time great LeBron James with the Pacific Division foe Los Angeles Lakers (at least until the King retires), he’s no stranger to pestering opponents and riling up opposing fan bases.
With healthy respect for the players on both sides, why not engage in a friendly East-West rivalry to match the ownership spats?
May the best team win, Cavs fans.