One of the richest people owns the Grizzlies?

Hyde, the wealthy founder of auto parts retailer AutoZone, was a co-owner of the Grizzlies and more than twice Pera’s age. As they ate, Hyde told a story that captivated Pera, then 34. Hyde told him it was around 1978, the year Pera was born, when Hyde was only 36 and had joined Walmart’s board of directors. Walmart founder Sam Walton himself drove to the airport to pick Hyde up in a beat-up van and then drove them back to his spartan corporate office, where the “boardroom” had folding tables and chairs.

Pera liked to think of himself as the personification of Walton in those days. Just as Walton’s retail chain began selling low-priced products to underserved villages in the 1960s, Pera’s networking company, Ubiquiti Networks, sold Wi-Fi to underserved corners of the world, from Africa to Asia.

Walmart became the world’s largest company (as of 2001, according to Fortune) and Walton one of its richest people. After the meeting with Hyde, Pera took to his personal blog and wrote, “I also aspire to drive Ubiquiti’s transformation from David to Goliath someday, just as Walton did.”

A decade later, Pera is richer than Walton ever was. His company has skyrocketed and so has his net worth to $15 billion and rising. The average NBA fan may know that the richest owners in the league are Steve Ballmer of the LA Clippers, worth about $100 billion depending on how Microsoft stock performs on any given day, and Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, worth more than $20 billion. But Pera, who ranks third among the league’s owners, is a relative ghost, rarely seen and never heard from, unlike some of his peers who like to support sitting courtside.

Because of Pera’s ever-deepening pockets (he’s in line to receive $135 million this year from his Ubiquiti stock dividends alone), the Grizzlies are in position to keep their current roster of players and potentially add more.

This summer, Grizzlies franchise player Ja Morant is in line to receive his first big contract, one that could exceed $200 million, putting him on par with young star Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks. Earlier this offseason, Grizzlies cornerstone Jaren Jackson Jr. signed a $105 million extension. Over the next two years, key young players Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, Brandon Clarke and Tyus Jones will look to get paid.

In conversations internally and with executives from other teams, the Grizzlies have been consistent with their message: when the time is right, Pera will spend what it takes.

The time appears to be right.

IN THE MONTHS after Pera bought the Grizzlies in June 2012, he was caught in a financial whirlwind. His company was accused by the U.S. government of violating sanctions by selling products to Iran and North Korea, and faced fierce battles with counterfeiters, a problem the media in China alleged the company handled by working with the Chinese mafia.

Ubiquiti’s stock price plummeted as much as 75%.

Pera rushed to defend his firm, while at the same time trying to buy the Memphis franchise. He flew from one of his bases in Taiwan around the United States to try to secure financing. As part of that effort, Pera found himself on the set of the movie “Runner Runner” in Puerto Rico, where he met and courted musician Justin Timberlake to become an investor in the Grizzlies.

“From day one, [Pera is] someone who worked hard to make things happen behind the scenes,” says former NBA player Elliott Perry, who is one of the team’s co-owners. “He was always redoubling his efforts and trying to find ways to support the team.”

It took five months, but Pera found partners. He paid a $377 million value but controlled only about 25% of the shares. Then NBA commissioner David Stern, who had seen Pera’s net worth rise and fall dramatically and was aware of the financial scandals that had engulfed Pera’s company, engineered an obscure deal that threw Pera a lifeline. Stern allowed him to close the transaction, with no guarantee that he could keep the team for the long term. Stern installed an unusual “buy-sell clause” that would force Pera to buy out his two largest partners or sell the team to them after five years, essentially forcing him to buy the team twice.