Justin Timberlake, the Grammy Award winning pop artist, is set to become the latest in a growing line of entertainers-cum-basketball owners with reports indicating that Timberlake is to become a minority shareholder in the new ownership group of the Memphis Grizzlies. Timberlake grew up right near Memphis, and Robert Pera, the head of the new ownership group has called the star to come on board with the movement to secure local minority owners.

The NBA still needs to approve the final sale of the deal.

From the Memphis Commercial-Appeal :

Pera, 34, agreed in June to the purchase and continues to undergo the standard vetting by the NBA. The league's majority owners will have to vote to approve his ownership bid, but if it's approved, he'll become just the second majority owner in the franchise's 11-plus years in Memphis.

Timberlake has won six Grammy Awards and an Emmy with his role as a solo entertainer and with the group *NSYNC. He grew up in Shelby Forest and attended E.E. Jeter Elementary before leaving the area to pursue his musical career.

In focusing on his hometown in recent years, he spent heavily to transform the old Big Creek Golf Course near Millington into Mirimichi and has donated hundred of thousands toward Memphis music.

Pera representatives have been in Memphis recently on what was called a "listening tour" and an effort to secure local minority owners.

Timberlake would join other entertainer owners such as, Jay Z (Brooklyn), rapper, Nelly (Charlotte) and singer, Usher (Cleveland) in the ownership stakes.