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.

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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 →