New Bucks owner Jimmy Haslam says he’s ready to listen, financially ‘committed

MILWAUKEE — On April 14, the NBA Board of Governors approved the ownership share purchase of the Milwaukee Bucks by Dee and Jimmy Haslam of the Haslam Sports Group from team co-owner Marc Lasry. With the sale now official, a new era of Bucks basketball began as the Haslam Sports Group joined Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan as co-owner of the team.

Lasry had been part of the ownership group since 2014, when he and Edens purchased the Bucks for $550 million from former Bucks owner Herb Kohl. In those nine years, the Bucks built a new arena (Fiserv Forum) and won their first NBA championship in 50 years in 2021 by defeating the Phoenix Suns.

Per the team’s press release for the sale, “together with Edens an Dinan, Haslam Sports Group will control and operate the Bucks; Fiserv Forum; the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center, the team’s training center; the Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ G League affiliate; and Bucks Gaming, the team’s 2K League affiliate.” Because of the ownership group’s unique structure, Edens and Haslam will split the responsibility of serving as governor of the Bucks in five-year terms — with Edens taking the next five years, succeeding Lasry in that role, before handing that role over to Haslam in 2028.

Haslam sat down with The Athletic, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Milwaukee Business Journal before the Bucks played the Heat in Game 2 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. The Q&A took place in Milwaukee, where Haslam addressed questions for six-and-a-half minutes alongside Edens. The two spoke about their partnership and Haslam’s new role in ownership with the Bucks.

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Jimmy, why the NBA and why the Bucks for the Haslam Sports Group?

Haslam: We’ve been involved in football first and then soccer but always admired and liked the NBA. I mean, it’s a great league. Basketball is played worldwide. There’s no question this is the best league in the world. I think it’s got great owners, including our new partners, great commissioner. We’ve looked at it a couple times before and this just happened. Wes and I had mutual acquaintances who introduced us and happened to come together. We’re really excited about the opportunity.

Did you know each other?

Haslam: It was kind of strange. We actually took a look at the Minnesota Timberwolves and a friend of mind said you should call Wes Edens, he operates a team in the upper Midwest, they’ve had great success ‘cause you’re concerned, can you attract players, can you win in a small market? So we had about an hour-and-a-half conversation and Wes was hugely helpful. We ended up not getting the Timberwolves and then like I said, we had mutual acquaintances who introduced us. So we never met, but we talked on the phone before.

So when did this partnership start in terms of purchasing the Bucks?

Edens: Probably at the end of last year. I think we…