Nets, Liberty owner Tsai denies involvement in Mets bid

Joe Tsai, the e-commerce billionaire whose current sports investments include majority stakes in the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, dismissed rumors that he is involved in a star-studded bid for the New York Mets, which features retired baseball player Alex Rodriguez and singer Jennifer Lopez.

"Sorry Twitter, it is not true," Tsai tweeted Saturday. "I grew up as a Mets fan and I have a lot of respect for Alex and Jennifer. But I'm not involved in bidding for the Mets. Gotta focus on basketball."

The 56-year-old was responding to a blog post by current Denver Nuggets center Mason Plumlee, who was detailing his own involvement in the bid.

An earlier version of the post included this sentence: "And spoiler alert: we've now got another billionaire sports owner in the mix as a partner - Joe Tsai - who brings our collective net worth to the top of the bid list." Any mention of Tsai has since been deleted from the post.

While the Mets were recently valued at $2.8 billion by Forbes, the Wilpon family is reportedly losing as much as $90 million a year on the team. Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen came close to purchasing 80% of the team in February, though that deal ultimately fell through.