Tag Archives: Herb Kohl

Ownership Change?

Greetings! 

For many of you, this is your first time reading this website. And that’s a good thing, because it means the Milwaukee Bucks have now re-established their prominence in the NBA, and won over thousands of new fans in the State of Wisconsin. 

Ten years ago, I started this site with the help of Australian based Bucks fan, Paul Cousins. It was done out of love for the team, a team that had unfortunately become irrelevant in most circles. After launch of this site in November of 2013, things took off. That’s when Paul Henning joined the team, to be the public spokesman (most of you know him on twitter as @BrewCityPaul). Together, with many of you, we brought needed awareness to the state of the team. Looking back, it has been a wonderful past decade. Everything with the team is in great health, and hopefully on track for another championship run this spring.

That said, today’s news that Marc Lasry is selling his ownership stake to Jimmy Haslam, is creating a great deal of angst for the Bucks social media community. In Star Wars terms, it has brought a disturbance to the Force.  

What is written below is only the opinion of one person, namely mine. That said, my hope is that all Bucks fans and stakeholders in the State of Wisconsin will reflect on it, in an effort to sort out the short and long-term future of the team. There will be agreement and disagreement on this piece, similar to the debate over the trade of a popular player. That said, in the spirit of the original Save Our Bucks, the goal is to provide a framework for public dialogue. 

As with all SOB writings, this is a long-form piece. Stay until the end, where the critical topic of franchise relocation will be addressed. It will be up to our local media to help sort all of this out. 

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All Roads Lead to Greece (and Greivis)

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Last week’s resignation by John Hammond to take the Orlando GM job was viewed as a shocker by the local media and a portion of the fan base. Many lamented the loss of the man who drafted Giannis and who they were convinced would take the Bucks to The Finals in the years ahead.

Meanwhile another group of fans were relieved to see Hammond move on after nine years as GM. A period in which the team failed to win a playoff series or post a 50-win season, two common benchmarks of NBA success.

How do two subsets of fans of the same team have such different perceptions of the Hammond era? It comes down to his complicated tenure which can be summed up in two words: Giannis and Greivis. Continue reading

How Milwaukee built the NBA Champion Warriors (and other stuff)

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Greetings from your SOB Editor! These pages have been silent for almost a year now, but from time to time certain topics arise related to the history of the Bucks that deserve some commentary.

With the Bucks future in Milwaukee secure and the new arena groundbreaking coming up this month, it is a great time to be a Bucks fan. We can now emotionally invest in the team without the existential threat of relocation that hung over the franchise for much of the past decade.

That said, Bucks fans witnessed enough front office dysfunction the past quarter century that it is instructive from time to time to revisit some of the events of the past, to help guide a better path in the future. To that end, this piece will take on two topics. The first is how the Milwaukee Bucks, Herb Kohl and John Hammond were integral in building the NBA champion Golden State Warriors roster. Most in the media aren’t aware of how these two franchises intersected during the 2010-2012 period with personnel moves. We’ll also debunk a bit the recent blurb where former Bucks GM Mike Dunleavy relays how he had a tremendous deal in place to draft Kobe Bryant back in 1996 but was vetoed by owner Herb Kohl.

How the Bucks helped the Warriors grow

A decade ago, when Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks were atop the Western Conference, it was a common theme for NBA announcers to proclaim: “Boy, I bet the Milwaukee Bucks wished they never dealt Dirk Nowitzki to the Mavericks“.  The reality of that story is a little more complicated, as the Mavericks made that 1998 draft day trade with the Bucks contingent on Nowitzki being available to them. Dirk had a strong relationship with the Mavericks front office and always was going to be a Maverick. He was never on the Bucks radar nor would he likely have come over from Europe to play for the Bucks.

That said, we haven’t heard much commentary from NBA announcers regarding key trades and decisions made by our Milwaukee Bucks that helped the current Warriors team come together (trade links courtesy of BasketballReference.com) :
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Victory! Bucks Plan Passes Final Hurdle!

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With today’s 12-3 vote in the Milwaukee Common Council, the Bucks arena plan has now cleared its last legislative hurdle. All the major stakeholders involved have approved the measure and we head into the design and development phase.

We want to thank the State, County, City, Bucks organization and taxpayers for negotiating this exciting partnership that will secure the future of the team in Wisconsin for many years to come. We also want to thank you the fans who supported the project via the many letters, emails and phone calls to your respective elected officials over the past six-months. There were a few points along the way where things got a bit dicey and you helped stiffen the resolve of the politicians as to the benefits of this project. We hope this project can be a case study for bipartisan cooperation as political leaders on both sides of the aisle took courageous steps that made the new arena a reality.

Also take some time in your day to remember two partners we all worked with in this process. Marc Marotta, former chairman of the Bradley Center board and Don Walker, longtime reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These two were as involved as anyone with the new arena but unfortunately were taken from us unexpectedly last Spring at too young an age. We know somewhere they are both smiling upon today’s events.

Most importantly we want to thank Senator Herb Kohl. This website began two years ago with one important goal and that was change. Change in the status quo. As fans we knew that our organization was living on borrowed time and something had to happen to set things on a different path. While this site was not without controversy, our goal was to initiate a much needed conversation on the future of the team.

Senator Kohl reflected on the situation and made some critical decisions that made today possible. He located a top tier ownership group and creatively transitioned the team in such a way that ensured the franchise would remain in Milwaukee. Along the way he made sure the new seeds he planted would take root with his $100 million contribution for the new arena. He can now enjoy the Bucks future in Milwaukee and his personal legacy in securing that future for a new generation of Bucks fans.

With today’s vote, we will wind things down here and start to enjoy the actual basketball games soon to come. This website will keep going with the occasional tweet or update during the construction process. As a word of caution, projects this large always seem to hit a few snags. So be prepared for a lawsuit, construction delay or political squabble as specifics of the arena lease or other issues such as the potential closing of 4th street are decided in the months ahead. This is a normal part of the process with a project this large and with this many stakeholders involved.

On a personal note, as your SOB editor I want to thank Paul Henning and Paul Cousins who played huge roles that helped make the SOB movement possible. Paul Henning who most of you already know was our spokesman and the key driver at endless meetings, rallies and talk show appearances to keep the momentum going. He was the man on the ground helping to tie all of you together in a relentless effort to Save Our Bucks.

Less known is Paul Cousins, a Bucks fan from Australia who runs a website development company and has donated countless hours of time, expertise and hosting capacity for everything that SOB has done online. I knew when this thing started we needed a website that wasn’t flashy but at the same time helped present our message professionally and reliably. Paul Cousins continues to donate his efforts there. Our goal is to get him over here to the States for a Bucks game in the new arena after it opens.

Finally a thank you to the Milwaukee Bucks online combillboardphoto-editmunity at over at the RealGM Forums. The SaveOurBucks.com website germinated from ideas stemming from long discussions that took place in the RealGM forum over a period of years. The posters over there helped at every step of the way in driving this movement, including the creation and funding of as Darren Rovell called it “Bucks fans controversial billboard“. Kudos to all at RealGM who stepped up and assisted whenever and wherever necessary.

Training camp begins next week and the first exhibition game is only two weeks away. The team enters the season with arguably as much momentum as any time since the 1980’s. The new ownership group has done a magnificent job in transforming the organization both on and off the court. We are thrilled that we can now 100% emotionally invest in the Bucks knowing they will be in Milwaukee for generations to come!

Go Bucks!

PaulPressey25
@PaulPressey25

Your SOB Editor

 

What to Build and Where to Build It?

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Summer league is complete, LeBron and Love are settled in Cleveland, Packer season is upon us and the Brewers are in a tight division race. All reasons why the NBA and new arena will likely slip from the minds of Bucks fans for the next 60-days.

We want to use this opportunity to offer our thoughts on where the new arena should be located and how the building should be designed taking into account some of the lessons learned from the 1985 construction of the Bradley Center. Strap in and let’s go!

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Four Thoughts for the 4th!

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Happy Independence Day!

We thought we’d take this time for some thoughts coming off this past week’s umm, interesting series of events.

Can the Bucks New Management Model Work?

As it relates to the head-coaching position, the Bucks experienced a significant upgrade with the hiring of Jason Kidd. After a rough start, by all accounts Kidd made significant adjustments in New Jersey last season, allowing the team to finish with a 34-17 record down the stretch, including reaching the second round of the playoffs. He employed some creative lineups and helped reclaim the careers of a few veterans as well. Kidd appears to hold significant promise as a coach in the NBA and we welcome him to Milwaukee.

Our questions of Kidd relate to his future input into player personnel matters. We at SaveOurBucks.com have been consistently in favor of an organizational model whereby the Bucks locate and hire a sharp General Manager, and provide that person with full organizational control. The GM in turn then hires their own coach, much like the model employed by the Green Bay Packers in 1991 when the team hired Ron Wolf, and he in turn identified his coach, sending a second round draft pick to the San Francisco 49’ers as compensation to free Mike Holmgren from his contract to come to Green Bay. That model is the one that works more often than not and has the fewest inherent conflicts. Models where there is an unclear delineation of power between the owner, coach and GM aren’t always the most successful.
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Some Thoughts on Last Week……

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Last week was a great time for all Bucks fans as new owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry made the rounds, talking about themselves, the Bucks and their plans for the future.

Frank Madden at Brewhoop has a nice summary of some of the sportstalk radio interviews. They are worth listening to if you have not already.

We have a few observations on what all went down last week and wanted to share them — better late than never! Continue reading

A Few Thoughts on Questions Raised by @SykesCharlie

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We had a chance to listen to the 11:00am hour of the Charlie Sykes Show this morning on WTMJ 620 AM, the flagship station of the Bucks. Between Charlie, Jeff Wagner and various callers, there were a number of reasonable questions raised regarding the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks and their future in Milwaukee. Some of the discussion revolved around points raised in our article from yesterday that we encourage you to read in conjunction with the Q & A below.

We didn’t take detailed notes on each question or point discussed on Sykes show, but there were clearly some common themes that we wanted to provide our thoughts on, thus we’ve paraphrased questions raised during the show and offered our thoughts to those questions below. So let’s get started! Continue reading

The Next Chapter Begins……

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It has been 48-hours since the sale of the Bucks was announced. We wanted to wait before posting our thoughts, to allow some time to absorb the details. Our reaction to the news is extremely positive and we are optimistic about the team’s long-term future in the City.  Let’s now talk specifics: Continue reading

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The New Arena Debate – How You Can Help!

The local debate regarding a new arena facility is just starting to heat up in earnest. While we are all very interested and want to have our voice heard, we still don’t yet have any details on an arena plan or location. As we noted in our prior article, this process is going to take some time to play out. We are only in the early innings. That said, we’d like to suggest two ways that you can help right now. Continue reading