The NBA lottery has been run and won with the Cleveland Cavaliers once again winning the #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. The Milwaukee Bucks, despite entering the lottery with the highest chance at the first pick fell to second overall, with the Philadelphia 76’ers ending up with the 3rd pick.
Guest blogger Paul Henning gives his thoughts on the lottery.
The time has come for the Milwaukee Bucks to find out their fate.
The Bucks find themselves in an envious position as we head into the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery, which was not a sentiment they felt at all during the actual 2014 NBA season. In so many ways this Bucks season was the exact opposite of perfect. But the opportunity for a franchise player makes it all worth it at this point.
The season was wrecked without even having a chance to get started. The Bucks once again found themselves to be the ridicule of the league and a game on the schedule that every team penciled in a W for. This was not a new feeling for this team or its fans.
Exasperated and destitute a sizable number of Bucks fans banded together to put up a billboard giving the team a public endorsement at investing in the draft lottery for the first time in a decade. Far too long had short term goals outweighed long term investments. Tired of being the dreaded “treadmill” team, bottoming out was the only way back to the top. The thing that kept us going was the faith or hope that there would be a point to everything we had collectively gone through. This season was a journey and I’m proud of all the fans that kept going to games and supporting the team and Save Our Bucks. Thank You.
Hosted by Bucksketball & UrbanMilwaukee
Tuesday, May 20th 6pm-9pm
Upper 90 Sports Pub – 322 W State St, Milwaukee, WI
Earlier this season Save Our Bucks declared that “Winning Takes Balls” by putting up a billboard urging the Milwaukee Bucks to invest in the NBA Draft Lottery to acquire a franchise player and help bring our franchise back to glory.
Continue reading
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SaveOurBucks
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
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SaveOurBucks
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
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SaveOurBucks
We haven’t published two pieces in one day, but given the news broken by Bill Simmons that hedge fund managers Marc Lasry and Wes Edens are the front-runners to purchase the team, we felt there needed to be a bit more commentary on the subject.
In our earlier piece, we provided some background on Lasry and Edens for those unfamiliar with them. We encourage everyone to read that article first, as it will help provide context for this companion discussion. In this piece, we’d like to sound a note of caution for Bucks fans that the long-term future of the franchise could still be fragile if Senator Kohl goes forward with a sale to Lasry and Edens. Continue reading
Editors Note: After this piece was published, we followed up with a companion piece that talks in more detail about how the Bucks themselves make an attractive hedge fund target in a sense, and some of the potential risks of selling to Lasry and Edens.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SaveOurBucks
Most of you following the Bucks on social media received the news regarding the names of the front-runners to purchase the Bucks, as reported by Bill Simmons in his weekly “Mailbag” column over at Grantland. That said, we aren’t sure this giant tree falling in the forest made an impact locally, so we’re here to offer some thoughts on it.
A week ago this time, Simmons set Bucks Nation ablaze with his report that the Bucks were very close to being sold, for a price in the $525 million dollar range. That lead off a speculative frenzy as to who the potential buyers might be. We thought Rich Kirchen of The Business Journal might have nailed it with his profile of Chicagoan Dr. Richard Chaifetz, a self made millionaire who has in the past few years been linked to groups trying to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves and St. Louis Rams. Not the case, as Simmons followed up yesterday with his reporting that:
The guys who thought they had it as recently as two days ago? Hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, who slid under the radar this entire time and thought they landed the Bucks with an offer in the $550 million range (slightly more than Vivek Ranadivé paid for the equally unappealing Kings). As recently as Wednesday, Lasry and Edens were expecting the NBA to vote on their bid at next week’s Board of Governors meeting.
So … what happened? Continue reading
The Milwaukee Bucks 2013-2014 Campaign is coming to a close on April 16th vs the Atlanta Hawks.
Now’s the time to get out and SUPPORT the team by attending the final home game. Support the players who had to lace em up for countless games when they knew their fate was sealed. They’ve earned it.
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
On Tuesday March 11, 2014 at 6:00pm, there will be a public listening session at the Mardak Center (1558 N. 6th Street in Milwaukee) to allow the public to provide input to the Cultural and Entertainment Needs Task Force.
At this session the 48-member committee will be listening to input from the public on metropolitan capital needs (hint – a new arena) and how to pay for such a project. As Bucks’ fans, we strongly encourage you to attend, if only to show the committee that people are interested in the future of the team in Milwaukee. Our spokesman Paul Henning will be there, and afterwards there will be a SaveOurBucks viewing party of that night’s Bucks game against Minnesota at The Loaded Slate. For more information, check out the Facebook page we have set up for the meeting.
For those who are not able to make the meeting, do not despair. We are likely only in the second inning of a nine-inning ballgame. This is going to be a long-process and not something that is going to get decided in the next six-months. While the 2017 deadline set by the NBA for the Bucks to have a new facility is a real threat, the building does not need to be constructed by that date; the Bucks just need to have approved and firmly in place the plans for a new facility. They can always reside another year or two in the BMO Harris Bradley Center if needed while construction is completed on a new building.
With that overview, we’d like to note some things to watch for in the near future as it relates to a potential new home for the Milwaukee Bucks. Continue reading