Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry in serious talks to sell stake in team

By Shams Charania, Eric Nehm and Sam Amick

American businessman Jimmy Haslam and Haslam Sports activities Group are in critical talks to purchase Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry’s stake within the Bucks, league sources inform The Athletic.

If Lasry agrees to finalize the deal, Haslam would be a part of the possession group with present co-owner Wes Edens. Lasry has spent latest weeks considering the choice to probably promote his Bucks stake to Haslam Sports activities Group, sources stated.

Edens and Lasry purchased the Bucks from Herb Kohl in 2014 for $550 million. As a part of the sale although, Kohl promised to donate $100 million to a brand new enviornment to assist make sure the staff remained in Milwaukee. That enviornment, Fiserv Discussion board, was constructed and opened in August of 2018 and hosted the Bucks’ 2021 NBA championship victory, the franchise’s first NBA title since 1971.

Sources who have been granted anonymity in order that they may communicate freely inform The Athletic this course of with Haslam started after Lasry thought-about promoting his stake within the Bucks to American businessman Mat Ishbia earlier than Ishbia purchased controlling curiosity of the Phoenix Suns. Haslam entered the dialog after Ishbia moved on to the Suns and joined Edens courtside for the Bucks’ 123-114 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 30, 2022.

Haslam, 68, is an American businessman, who’s the chairman of the board of the Pilot Flying J truck cease chain. His father, Jim, based the Pilot Oil Company in 1958 and Pilot Firm is now the fifth largest privately held firm in the USA, in response to a Forbes listing from 2022. Per Forbes, the corporate’s 2022 income was $41.9 billion and the corporate employs 30,000 individuals.

Haslam is already the proprietor of two skilled sports activities franchises, the Cleveland Browns within the NFL and the Columbus Crew within the MLS. Haslam has been concerned within the possession {of professional} sports activities franchises since 2008 when he purchased a minority curiosity within the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Haslam Sports activities Group has continued to scan the enterprise area for extra possession alternatives just lately, with a particular concentrate on the NBA.

In 2012, Haslam bought his minority stake within the Steelers to buy the Cleveland Browns from Randy Lerner and take management of the franchise for $1 billion. Since taking up the franchise halfway via the 2012 season, the Browns have a 55-113-1 document and so they’ve made only one playoff look in 2020. Haslam took over the Columbus Crew firstly of 2019 and the staff gained the MLS Cup in 2020.

(Picture: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP through Getty Photographs)