John Christopher Cohan (born January 2, 1950) is an American entrepreneur who was founder of Sonic Communications and was owner of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA.
Early life and education
Cohan was born in 1950 in Hanford, California, the only child of John and Helen Cohan, who divorced when he was seven.
He assumed control of the Golden State Warriors in October 1994 prior to the 1994-95 season for a reported fee totaling at $130 million As of 2005, Cohan's net worth was around $325 million.
In May 2007, Cohan was reportedly fighting a $160 million tax-evasion charge in federal court in the aftermath of his 1998 sale of Sonic Communications for more than $200 million.
In May 2009, Sports Illustrated listed the top ten best and worst owners of basketball teams, ranking Cohan as fourth worst. SI criticized Cohan for sticking with coach Don Nelson as part of the Warriors' generally poor performance apart from their 2007 playoff first-round upset of the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks, and pointed out that Golden State was repeatedly rebuilding without much success.
In the wake of such criticism and controversy, he finally sold the Warriors to Peter Guber and Joe Lacob for $450 million in July 2010.
Cohan has homes in San Francisco, California and East Hampton, New York.