Herb Kohl, who has owned the Bucks since 1985, has officially sold the team.(USATSI)
More NBA: Season Awards | Grades: East | Grades: West | Seasons in Review
Update: NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a statement: "We are pleased that Wes Edens and Marc Lasry have been approved as the new owners of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks and their fans will benefit greatly from their vast business experience, energy and strong commitment to Milwaukee. I would like to thank Senator Kohl again for his unprecedented and historic financial gift toward the construction of a new Milwaukee arena and for his outstanding service to the league and his community over his nearly 30-year tenure."
The sale of the Milwaukee Bucks to Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens was unanimously approved by the NBA board of governors, the league announced on Thursday.
There was a report earlier this week that the approval process was "moving quickly" and that has proven to be the case. Now-former owner Herb Kohl announced a month ago that an agreement had been reached.
Believe In Milwaukee.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 15, 2014Kohl, who purchased the Bucks in 1985, sold the team with the understanding that it would stay in Milwaukee and a new arena would be built. Kohl committed $100 million toward the new building, as did the new owners.
Lasry and Edens met with prominent Milwaukee business leaders in early May, according to Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The team sold for $550 million.
Basketball Hot News
Report: Phil Jackson focused on young coaches — Tyronn Lue, Luke Walton, Derek Fisher
As we told you before, Phil Jackson really didn’t have a fleshed out Plan B if Steve Kerr shot down the offer to be head coach of the Knicks, because who turns down Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks?
Well, Steve Kerr.
That news has led the forces of chaos in the New York to decry this as a disaster, as if the untested Steve Kerr was some kind of panacea. Kerr was an inexperienced coach Jackson thought he could mold.
So it turns out Phil Jackson’s Plan B is to find another inexperienced young coach with potential he can mold. That according to Marc Stein at ESPN, who throws out a couple names.
Three candidates who will thus receive consideration from Jackson, sources said, are Luke Walton and Tyronn Lue — former players under Jackson who have already begun their coaching careers — as well as Oklahoma City Thunder guard Derek Fisher — if Fisher elects to stop playing after this season as he has hinted.
Sources said Jackson also intends to explore whether the Denver Nuggets are in any way amenable to releasing Brian Shaw from his contract in exchange for some form of compensation. Shaw is a longtime Jackson favorite who, after missing out on numerous head-coaching jobs, just completed his first season with the Nuggets, posting a 36-46 record despite numerous injuries to front-line players.
Shaw has said he doesn’t want to leave Denver. He may mean that, but he would have to say that anyway to keep his players happy. What he would say when the check is on the table is another good question. However, the Shaw to New York odds are long for this reason — what compensation do the Knicks have that the Nuggets want? It would have to be a pick, the Nuggets would want a first rounder, and the Knicks don’t have one they can move until 2017.
I have this feeling Derek Fisher is going to make the Jason Kidd leap to the bench this summer. Maybe not in New York, but somewhere.
Jackson is apparently not very interested in more established coaches (ones who would come with their own ideas and ways of doing things).
He may bring in guys that he has close ties with from the past, such as Kurt Rambis or Jim Cleamons, but seems to prefer them in a lead assistant role.
The names Jackson likes are not very “sexy.”
But one source close to the situation insisted that Phil Jackson is not worried about selling New Yorkers on his eventual hire.
It’s going to be an interesting summer in New York.
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