The owners of the NBA‘s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA‘s New York Liberty are divorcing after 30 years, but they’re insisting the teams’ respective chains of command will remain intact.
‘Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai have decided to end their marriage, a decision they came to mutually and with great respect for one another,’ a family spokesperson told the New York Post.
‘Over the years, their relationship evolved into more of a partnership, one of running their businesses and raising their children together. While they have grown apart, their divorce is amicable and their relationship remains a strong, professional partnership.’
Clara has been the governor of the Liberty since the Tsai family purchased the team from New York Knicks owner James Dolan in 2019. A year earlier, the Tsais bought an initial stake in the Nets’ parent company, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, before completing the acquisition from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov at a final valuation of $3.3 billion.
‘Joe will remain Chairman and Clara will remain Vice Chair of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment. Joe will remain Governor of the Brooklyn Nets and Clara will remain Governor of the New York Liberty,’ the statement continued. ‘They will continue to own and be stewards of the teams with professional management in place as they always have. In the long run, they also plan to involve their children.’
Estimates on the family’s net worth range between about $9.5 billion to $12.5 billion.
Joe Tsai (R), Clara Wu Tsai (L) and children Jacob Tsai, Alex Tsai and Dash Tsai (L-R) in 2022
Joe and Jacob Tsai play basketball at Barclays Center during TAAF Heritage Month
Liberty stars Jonquel Q Jones (left), Sabrina Ionescu (near right) and Breanna Stewart (right) attend the 2025 Met Gala with Clara Wu Tsai (near left). Joe Tsai did not attend the event
Joe, 62, is a Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire philanthropist and co-founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group. Clara, 60, has been a constant presence alongside her now-former husband and has been increasingly visible in recent years.
She was a featured speaker at the 2026 Forbes Iconoclast Summit and made a striking appearance at the 2025 Met Gala alongside several Liberty players, although Joe was not in attendance.
And a year earlier, it was Clara who delivered remarks at the team’s victory parade in New York after winning the 2024 WNBA title.
The couple has three children: daughter Alex as well as sons Dash and Jacob, the latter of whom followed in his father’s footsteps to Yale and even played on the Bulldogs basketball team last season.
Aside from Alibaba and the Nets, Joe is known for his passionate love of lacrosse and even owns the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League.
Clara attended Stanford and Harvard University, according to the couple’s 1996 wedding announcement in The New York Times.
‘She is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. De-Min Wu of Lawrence, Kan., where Dr. Wu is a professor of economics at the University of Kansas,’ read the article.
Both Alex and Dash followed in their mother’s footsteps to Stanford, where they each played lacrosse.
