Jason Levien is an American sports executive. He is the CEO and managing general owner of the Major League Soccer club D.C. United and co-owner of Swansea City, a Wales-based football club, and the Brisbane Bullets, an Australian basketball club. Levien is also the former CEO of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. He is best known for leading DC United's efforts to construct Audi Field, and for assembling the investor group that purchased the Memphis Grizzlies and then running the team in 2013 during its only Western Conference Finals appearance and having ESPN name the Grizzlies the Number 1 Sports Franchise in North America.
Biography
He was born to a Jewish family and raised in Metropolitan New York. He was bar mitzvahed in Israel. His father is an attorney and business executive who represented Hector "Macho" Camacho among other athletes and sports professionals; his mother was a teacher. Levien played on the basketball team while attending Pomona College where he graduated in 1993. He then attended the University of Michigan School of Law where he was an editor of the law review. Following law school, Levien clerked for the Diana Gribbon Motz of the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. In 1998, as a licensed attorney, he started work at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Williams & Connolly where he assisted in representing professional athletes. In 2003, he left the firm to found his own sports agency representing professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, MLB and other sports leagues in the United States and across the globe. He then went on to work as a member of the front offices of the Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA. He also was an adjunct professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law where he taught sports law. In 2005, he negotiated a $33 million deal with the Miami Heat on behalf of Udonis Haslem. In 2007, Levien negotiated a $55 million deal with the Sacramento Kings on behalf of the Kings' leading scorer, Kevin Martin. On July 31, 2008, Levien negotiated what was the largest contract in the history of the Chicago Bulls, a six-year, $80 million agreement for his client, Luol Deng. Levien also represented Omri Casspi and Yotam Halperin, two of the first Israeli players drafted into the NBA, Ukrainian-born center, Kyrylo Fesenko, Courtney Lee, Hedo Türkoğlu and Earnest Graham, among others. An article chronicling three of Levien's clients drafted by the NBA in 2006, appeared in The New York TimesPlay Magazine in October 2006. Casspi became the first Israeli-born player to be drafted in the first round and to play in the NBA and was named to the 2010 NBA Rookie All-Star Challenge. In 2011, Levien emerged as part of an investment group along with actor Will Smith that purchased the Philadelphia 76ers. In 2012, Levien and fellow Sixers minority owner Erick Thohir were named new majority owners for Major League Soccer club D.C. United, with the goal to get a soccer stadium built for the team. He sold his stake in the Sixers to join new Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera's ownership group. He was named club CEO. Pera is the chairman and controlling owner. His partners include Justin Timberlake, Peyton and Ashley Manning, Harold Ford, Jr. and Penny Hardaway. Levien oversaw the Memphis Grizzlies' basketball and business operations from 2012 until June 2014, hiring then-head coach Dave Joerger and current VP of Basketball Operations John Hollinger. The team posted a 106–58 regular season record from 2012 thru the 2013–14 season and won more playoff games in that two-season period than it had won in the franchise's history, including its first ever trip to the Western Conference Finals. In 2013, ESPN The Magazine's Ultimate Standings named the Memphis Grizzlies as the best sports franchise in North America. His tenure as Grizzlies CEO ended on May 19, 2014. In 2014, Levien led the successful efforts for a public-private economic development project with the District of Columbia for a new stadium in Washington, DC. MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated on December 2, 2014: "Jason has done an incredible job," Garber said. "He has been laser-focused on trying to build consensus and do a deal that would be good for the District, good for ownership, and ultimately soccer in America will benefit." In April 2016, it was reported that Levien, along with Steve Kaplan, were in talks with Swansea City, a British football club playing in the highest tier of English football, the Premier League, with the aim of taking a "controlling interest" in the club. Under their ownership, the club was relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2017–18 season. In September 2019, Levien was part of a consortium that acquired a 75% interest in the Brisbane Bullets, an Australian basketball club playing in the Australian National Basketball League.
