Josh Hart Just Made His First Sports Investment

Josh Hart is buying into Napoli Basketball, an Italian club that sits tied for first place in Serie A and is 7-0 in the EuroCup, one of two remaining undefeated teams in that competition. The NBA champion is investing alongside Matt Hillman, who co-hosts Hart’s podcast Roommates with Jalen Brunson, and both men will join Napoli’s board, according to a statement. Club owner Matt Rizzetta told Front Office Sports it’s Hart’s first foray into sports ownership and his largest private investment to date.

Financial terms aren’t being disclosed. Rizzetta said he and Hart met for the first time at the beginning of this summer and “hit it off immediately.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.

What He’s Buying Into

Napoli sits inside a larger portfolio. The club is one of several teams owned by Rizzetta’s company, Underdog Global Partners, which also controls Campobasso, a club in Italy’s third-highest soccer division, and Donna Roma, a women’s soccer team playing one tier below Serie A. Underdog owns Napoli Women’s Basketball too, and Rizzetta told FOS that Hart and Hillman are technically buying into both the men’s and women’s basketball sides, plus a new arena being built near the Amalfi Coast and designed to meet the standards of both EuroLeague and NBA Europe.

Hart isn’t the first NBA name Rizzetta has brought in. Last year he hired James Laughlin, a former Pelicans and Warriors executive, to run Napoli as general manager.

Rizzetta framed the deal as personal rather than financial. “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.”

He said Hart isn’t chasing a fast return. “You meet investors who want that two-, three-year return. Josh is looking to build this out,” Rizzetta said. “He looks at this like a legacy project.”

Hart echoed that in his own statement. “It reminds me of what we have built with the Knicks in many ways,” he said of Napoli. “It is a project built around hard work, big dreams and the incredible passion Napoli fans have for their team.”

An Arena and Two Leagues

Napoli currently plays in Italy’s top division, but the club has reportedly been approved to join EuroLeague next season as a wild card team, with the right to convert to a permanent franchise after three years if the new arena is finished within that window. FOS had reported months earlier that the league gave Napoli a conditional green light as it works through its expansion plans. Now a person close to the situation says that conditional status has quietly turned into full approval, even though nothing has been made official yet. Rizzetta wouldn’t discuss the mechanics of that process when FOS asked.

Construction on the new arena is slated to begin next year, with the project targeted for completion by 2030. Rizzetta said he’s still chasing a second path for the club, too. Joining NBA Europe remains on the table, regardless of how the EuroLeague situation resolves.

Raising the Level

Rizzetta said the vision he had when he bought the club is starting to come together. Whichever league Napoli ends up playing in, he said, the operation has to get sharper everywhere, from the front office to the roster, and Hart’s role won’t stop at writing a check.

“We’re going to have to raise our game next year,” Rizzetta 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.”