Suns’ Mat Ishbia breaks silence on Tom Izzo claiming he turned down head coaching job

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia revealed whether he considered hiring Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo during his search for a new head coach in 2025. After the Suns’ reached the playoffs before a 4-0 sweep in the first round to the Oklahoma City Thunder ended their season, Ishbia cleared the air about the 2025-26 campaign.

Ishbia says that Izzo never turned down a Suns offer, he said, per AZCentral’s Duane Rankin.

“I talk to coach Izzo about everything all the time. He was not offered a job. I think people misunderstood what he said,” Ishbia said. “Either way, we talk to coach Izzo all the time when we’re doing a coaching search, asking what we should be looking for, how we think about building a culture. I admire Michigan State basketball. For 30 years, making the NCAA tournament every year, being consistently great, competing all the time, and coach Izzo is the leader.”

While Ishbia admits the Suns organization often turned to Izzo as a helpful resource ahead of their search for a new head coach last summer, the Michigan State head coach was never offered the position.

“I think people misunderstood what he said in a podcast,” Ishbia added. “But we definitely had conversations all the time last summer. He called me yesterday. We talk all the time. And I call him about his team. We talk about the good stuff about his team, the bad stuff, and we do the same thing with ours. Like I said, he’s a great mentor.”

Suns team owner Mat Ishbia said people "misunderstood" what Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said about being offered the Phoenix Suns head coaching job. #Suns pic.twitter.com/58iOxX5byE

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) April 30, 2026

Mat Ishbia says Tom Izzo has a similar relationship with Suns head coach Jordan Ott, and is a head coach he still speaks to regularly.

Suns GM’s encouraging take on first-round sweep vs. Thunder

Suns GM Brian Gregory is encouraged by a first-round sweep to the defending champion Thunder, who set the bar for the level of talent he hopes to see his team reach. Gregory says he saw growth in each of the Suns’ four losses in the best-of-7 series, which makes him excited about the future of his organization, he said, per AZCentral’s Duane Rankin.

“I think our player utilized that eight-day, 10-day period to see exactly where a historically strong team is at, where we stack up, what each of us needs to do differently in order to take a step to close that gap,” Gregory said. “Obviously, they’re an impressive team, but I agree — I think coach said it at the end of the series, and Mat said it today — we played OK in Game 1. Better in Game 2. Even better in Game 3, and better in Game 4.

“In Games 3 and 4, probably, I’ll say it, if we play just about anybody else, we either get a split or win both of those games. That’s how well we played. At the same time, it wasn’t good enough. So, what are we going to do about it? And that’s part of the challenge that we throw out.”

Suns GM Brian Gregory said they would've either split or won both Games 3 and 4 had they played anyone else other than OKC in making the point of how well they played in Game 3 and 4.

Thunder swept Suns in first round. #Suns #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/glSNxksnQK

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) April 30, 2026

The Suns improved by nine wins from last season with a 45-37 regular-season record.

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