Two NBA legends have joined the NFL as owners. 

Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter are among a group of minority stakeholders joining the ownership group of the Buffalo Bills, the team announced Wednesday. 

Jozy Altidore, the former U.S. men’s national soccer team star, is also in the group of 10. 

This is the first time in franchise history the Pegula family has brought in secondary shareholders for their team. The Pegulas remain the principal owners. 

According to the Bills, the private equity firm Arctos is also entering the fold as part of the new ownership group. Arctos has stakes in many leagues, including the NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS. 

NBA LEGEND VINCE CARTER TO GET 2 JERSEY RETIREMENT CEREMONIES DURING 2024-25 SEASON: REPORTS

It is unclear just how much each new shareholder paid for a piece of the team, which is valued at $4.2 billion, according to Forbes. 

For McGrady and Carter, ownership runs in the family now. They are cousins who played as teammates early in their illustrious NBA careers with the Toronto Raptors.

McGrady was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017, and Carter entered in October.

Workers clear snow in Highmark Stadium in preparation for a game between the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers in Orchard Park, N.Y., Dec. 1, 2024.  (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

McGrady was a seven-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection and a two-time scoring champion over his 15-year career. 

“T-Mac” spent his first three years in Toronto after being taken ninth overall in the 1997 NBA Draft. But his All-Star seasons — seven straight — came with the Orlando Magic over four seasons, followed by the Houston Rockets, where he was an All-Star three out of his six seasons with the team. 

McGrady also played for the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks before ending his career in 2012. 

Carter spent 22 seasons in the NBA, earning eight All-Star bids and two All-NBA nods. Most of his seasons came with the Raptors, who just retired his No. 15. He averaged 23.4 points per game over 403 games with the franchise.

Former Toronto Raptors player Vince Carter reacts during the ceremony to retire his number at halftime of a game against the Sacramento Kings.  (John E. Sokolowski/Imagn Images)

Carter moved on to the New Jersey Nets, followed by the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks, Magic, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. Carter retired after the 2019-20 campaign. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Go to Phoenix on Monday, play Tuesday. Fly to San Antonio late Tuesday and play the next day. Back to Los Angeles late on Thanksgiving eve, off for the holiday and then play the Thunder on Friday. Fly to Utah the next day, play the Jazz on Sunday. Then off to Minnesota on Sunday night, land late and play the Timberwolves on Monday. Then go to Miami for a game Wednesday. Then go to Atlanta for a game Friday. Off for a day, then host Portland on Sunday.

And then, for the first time in weeks, exhale for 48 hours.

The Lakers practiced Wednesday after two full days off, a rare oasis in an early schedule that featured them playing six preseason games outside of Los Angeles only to begin the season with the second-most road games in the Western Conference through their first 24 contests.

The time off is a benefit of elimination from the NBA Cup, the Lakers idle during the knockout games this week. While the more than $500,000 in prize money eluded them, they got something that could be more valuable.

JJ Redick said the team used the time to first relax and then regroup. The Lakers coach met individually with players Tuesday as the team begins an advantageous stretch of schedule. Wednesday the Lakers tried to maximize it with the kind of practice, Redick said, they haven’t had in two months.

“We have a great opportunity the rest of the month. Today was one of six potential practice days that we have and we got a lot done today,” Redick said. “And I think the group came with a good, workmanlike approach and yeah, we’re going to try to get better. We’re going to try to get better. I thought coming off of Friday, coming off of Sunday — where we played the right way where we were competitive, we were together, connected, all of those things — we have something to build on.”

The building, though, didn’t begin with a whole team. LeBron James didn’t meet with Redick on Tuesday and didn’t practice Wednesday, an excused absence for personal reasons keeping him away from the court. Redick said he was unsure whether James would travel with the team to Minneapolis.

Austin Reaves, who has missed the Lakers’ last five games after a scary fall during the loss to Oklahoma City, returned to practice and is trending toward a return.

“Both of them, it seems like, are sort of day to day and just kind of wait and see how it looks tomorrow and see how it looks Friday,” Redick said when asked about James and Reaves.

After games with Minnesota on Friday and Memphis at home Sunday, the Lakers again have another three-day stretch between games, giving them more chances for physical practices like Wednesday’s workout.

“It’s good, honestly, just to get to bump against each other, I think, because that’s how it is in a game, right?” guard Max Christie said. “You’re going to be bumping against guys and bruising against guys. So it’s good to kind of feel that competitive level and competitive energy — even against each other as teammates — because it makes it that much easier to compete with each other when we’re out playing in a real game. So I think it’s advantageous, for sure.”

Plans to expand Wimbledon are set to go before the U.K. High Court.

The All England Club (AELTC), host of the third Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, wants to add a third stadium court and 38 further courts to its footprint, tripling its size in works expected to cost over £200million ($254.8million).

The Greater London Authority (GLA) granted planning permission in September, but campaign group Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) has now instructed lawyers to challenge the decision, which could ultimately lead to a judicial review in the High Court.

It has “sent a lengthy formal letter setting out our case to the GLA, copied to both Merton and Wandsworth Councils and to the AELTC,” according to a spokesperson’s statement seen by The Athletic Wednesday December 11.

The letter is required as part of the “pre-action protocol” for a judicial review. In it, SWP’s law firm, Russell Cooke, invites the GLA to confirm it will reconsider the planning permission. This would involve quashing the grant. The firm requests a “substantive reply” by December 16; the letter is dated December 6.

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said: “The Mayor believes this scheme will bring a significant range of benefits including economic, social and cultural benefits to the local area, the wider capital and the UK economy, creating new jobs and cementing Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world.

“City Hall will respond to Save Wimbledon Park’s letter in due course.”

Separately, the AELTC confirmed December 1 that it will challenge a key tenet of SWP and other residents’ groups objections to the plans in the High Court. SWP argues that when AELTC bought the freehold to the Wimbledon site and the adjacent park in 1993, it fell under a statutory trust which requires that land to be kept free for public recreation.

The AELTC argues that “there is not, nor has there ever been, a statutory trust affecting the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course land”. It will now take this argument to the High Court in a bid to prove itself right.

The AELTC bought the golf course — whose lease was set to expire in 2041 — for £65million (now $87.1m) in 2018. This led to each member receiving £85,000, and the AELTC argues that it being a private club voids the concept of a statutory trust.

“We have been pointing out for a considerable time that the statutory public recreation trust on which the AELTC hold the heritage golf course land is a fundamental block on the proposed AELTC development,” an SWP spokesperson said.

“We are glad to hear that the AELTC now recognise our point of view and note that they wish to take this to litigation rather than engage in any discussion.”

The AELTC believes its plans will ensure that Wimbledon does not fall behind the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens in terms of prestige.

One of the 39 new courts will be an 8,000-seater stadium, and the other 38 will allow the AELTC to bring the qualifying event on-site. That event is held the week before the main tournament starts, and Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam of the four not to already have its qualifying event on-site. Wimbledon’s third show court, No. 2 Court, is the smallest of the third courts across the majors.

Planning permission for the expansion went to the GLA after Merton and Wandsworth councils failed to agree on them. Merton granted permission in October 2023, before Wandsworth refused it a month later. There is no expected timeline for the AELTC’s case, nor for the judicial review proposed by SWP. AELTC chair Deborah Jevans has said that it wants the new courts in play by the early 2030s.

(Julian Finney / Getty Images)