“I’m a fan first. I just became an owner in the last three years. I’ve been a fan my whole life,” said<\/a> Ishbia. “And caring about the team, loving the team, first starts with being able to see the team. No one’s ever cheered for a team and fell in love with them and never seen them play, ever. I used to watch the games growing up. Living in Michigan, watching the teams, whether it’s basketball, hockey, football, that’s how you become a fan of the game and love it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Launched in 2023, the partnership between the Suns and Gray Media was the first modern local broadcast partnership in the NBA and WNBA to deviate from the traditional regional sports model. Ishbia himself helped promote the TV deal by distributing 10,000 antennas free of charge throughout the state.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n This past season, Suns fans got to watch a total of four preseason and 75 regular-season games live and for free via Arizona’s Family, including four games side-by-side with the national TV coverage. With the new agreement, Suns fans will continue to have this privilege until 2030.<\/p>\n “We could not be more fortunate to have a partner like the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury,”said<\/a> Pat LaPlatney, Co-CEO and President of Gray Media. “Mat Ishbia made a fan-first promise to keep these games free and widely accessible across Arizona, and this extension\u2014bringing linear and streaming together in one unified Arizona’s Family experience\u2014takes that commitment even further. We’re proud of what we’ve built since 2023, and we’re excited to keep raising the bar for local sports coverage and serving Suns, Mercury and Valley Suns fans through 2030.”<\/p>\n The opposite is happening in Portland<\/a><\/p>\n But while Ishbia received another round of applause for his recent move, Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> owner Tom Dundon drew flak once again after firing 70 personnel in his latest cost-cutting scheme. It can be recalled that Dundon also refused to fly the Blazers’ two-way players during road games in the playoffs and refused to pay the late check-out fee for the team’s staff during the play-in game in Phoenix<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “I would do it again,” he said<\/a> about the hotel issue. “I think it’s actually pretty stupid to think that people who are there to work, who are being fed, and 45 minutes later \u2014 they weren’t in the lobby \u2014 they brought their bags down in the room right by where the bus was, right next to my bag. And we sat down there and talked. And if that’s too hard for people, I’mnot right for them. I want that culture.\u200b”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Mercury also recently got their new $100 million practice facility up and running, thanks to Ishbia. Mat also launched $2 meals in 2024 so fans could enjoy games more affordably. Ishbia also vowed not to trade Suns star Devin Booker, despite rumors that D-Book could be on the move.<\/p>\n The Blazers beat the Suns in the play-in to take the 7th seed in the West, while Phoenix had to settle for the 8th spot. However, looking at things long term, it’s not that difficult to pick the Suns over the Blazers. While players win games, it’s the owners who make a difference in the long run.<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watching NBA games has become tougher for basketball fans beginning this season when the NBA’s new TV deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[91571,7,2292,91572,3224,6,2065,472,4045,687,471,604,6445],"class_list":["post-741954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-arizona39s-family","tag-basketball","tag-devin-booker","tag-free-games","tag-mat-ishbia","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-suns","tag-the-suns"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116624291519539224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Feb](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00486a0b80fc5f18c0c3e4b99d2fecdd.jpeg\"\/)
Feb 15, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia high fives Team USA Stars guard Devin Booker<\/a> (1) of the Phoenix Suns during the 75th NBA All Star Game at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images75 free games this season via Arizona’s Family<\/p>\n