Bucks reporter Jim Owczarski talks season opener, Middleton injury
As the Milwaukee Bucks kick off the start of the season, it appears they’ll be without Khris Middleton. Jim Owczarski previews what’s ahead.
Milwaukee Bucks governor and co-owner Wes Edens sat down with the Journal Sentinel at the start of the season to go over a range of topics from the NBA All-Star Game, WNBA expansion, local broadcast issues and, of course, the 2024-25 season.
Edens, chairman and founder of the Fortress Investment Group and founder of New Fortress Energy, purchased his share of the team in 2014 from former Sen. Herb Kohl and co-owns the franchise along with Jimmy and Dee Haslam (Haslam Sports Group) and Jamie Dinan along with significant minority owners Junior Bridgeman and Mike Fascitelli.
Here are the highlights of his Q&A, lightly edited for clarity:
Q: Not too long ago the Haslam Sports Group bought in and now Junior Bridgeman is part of the ownership group. Were you looking for a single minority owner to join the organization?
Edens: Consolidating the ownership we thought was a real goal, for lots of reasons. No offense to the people who sold, they invested, they did really well in their investment, but I think having fewer owners in the group makes things a little easier to deal with. That said, Junior is a 10 out of 10 in terms of what we could have hoped for. He’s a legendary basketball player, he’s a legendary businessman, a very warm, wonderful guy.
Junior has forgotten more about basketball than I’m ever going to know, that’s for sure. And I’m just so excited to have him as a partner. I think he’s going to be a huge addition to us. Certainly on the business side, because he’s had great business experiences, but also in basketball. He brings a very unique and very relevant perspective. I think that’s really great.
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Q: When Fiserv Forum was opened in 2018, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sounded confident the city of Milwaukee would get an NBA All-Star Game. Many years and bids later, that has yet to happen. Will the Bucks host an All-Star Game?
Edens: I’m still optimistic we’ll get an All-Star Game here. I think we deserve to. This is a remarkable venue. It’s a remarkable city. The franchise has done so well, it’s so well supported in the region so I think it’s a great thing. I do think there is a warm weather bias for the All-Star Games, and who can blame them? It is in the middle of February when Los Angeles and Miami are probably a little bit more attractive venues than here. But that said, maybe my favorite All-Star Game that I’ve been to personally was the one up in Toronto (in 2016). So it’s not purely that a cold-weather venue is bad. You can have a great All-Star Game. That was a really, really fun weekend up there.
So, I’m hopeful for it. I think we deserve it. We talk about it and just our time has not yet come.
Q: Parts of the Bucks ownership group put a bid in for a WNBA expansion franchise. That bid did not include you or the Haslam Sports Group, but why is it important for the organization to support a return of women’s professional basketball to Milwaukee?
Edens: The WNBA is a remarkable story and it’s had a real renaissance and emergence the last couple years. They’ve had record viewership. The (finals) – Game 3 was one of the most exciting basketball games I’ve ever seen, forget about a men’s team or women’s team. It’s a great product. There’s so much excitement about Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and these really, really talented players coming out of college.
It’s an exciting time for the sport and if the circumstances were right I’d be delighted to have the team here town and prospectively be a part of it. It’s a really, really great time for women’s basketball.
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Q: The league struck a multibillion-dollar national media rights deal, but the local rights (now branded FanDuel Sports Network) have been in flux since Diamond Sports Group filed bankruptcy in 2023. Where do the Bucks stand in that regard?
Edens: Probably one of the hot topics in the owners meetings is local media. We’ve had so much success nationally and it seems like a logical thing to have a national-local deal so everybody can get access to it – like you do in the NFL, like you do in other sports. Obviously a very unfortunate circumstance, the bankruptcy. It affected a lot of teams negatively, it cost us some money as well. We were one of the lucky losers in the whole thing because overall the value of our media rights is still high so we were valued part of the equation, but I think it’s a temporary fix. There’s no doubt there’s going to be a lot more done with it.
The value of the product has never been higher. When you look at the national rights deals, I think it was $872 million when I bought into the franchise (in 2014) and it was $2.6 billion the last deal and now you’re $7.6 billion. It’s remarkable. But I still think that there is another step to go and I think the local is a big part of it. It’s the only part of the media package in the NBA which has actually declined over the last several years. It’s very aberrant when you compare the overall value. I think it has a lot to do with the structural imperfections of kind of how it’s distributed.
Obviously the goal is to make it so everybody in this region, everybody in Milwaukee – and out of the region – can see the Bucks play. That’s the goal.
Q: So nothing will be determined in the near future regarding how Bucks games will be carried locally?
Edens: We’re not gonna know. We know it’s gonna happen this year (with FSN). But I think over the next six to 12 months a lot could change.
Q: During the summer Bucks general manager Jon Horst was denied permission to interview for an executive job in Detroit. Why was it important to keep him with the franchise?
Edens: Look, I want everyone to have the best opportunities possible. Jon is under contract here. He’s been a huge part of the success of the franchise and we felt going into a very, very pivotal time in the organization – we’ve invested a lot and we’ve spent a lot of time creating where we are right now – and those last pieces in the situation we’re in are really important (in filling out the roster in the offseason).
And I think you saw it the other night (in the season opener Oct. 23 in Philadelphia) on the court. Obviously we think the world of Jon Horst, but our true north is what’s good for the organization and the basketball team and that’s where we are.
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Q: Doc Rivers had a full offseason with the team so has Damian Lillard. What is your feeling heading into this year?
Edens: It’s a very different feel. I think Doc is so credentialized, he’s had so much success for so long in the league and having a full training camp for him, having a full summer for him. It’s not just training camp – long before training camp he spent a lot of time with the players all over the world. Literally. It’s a very different feel for me this year. The preseason is kind of a warmup and you get glimpses of what it’ll look like but you don’t really know. Then the first regular season game comes and you’re like, “This looks pretty good to me.” Obviously we’re keen to see Khris (Middleton) get back out there, he’s another big piece. You saw in the playoffs last year who Khris Middleton is and how talented he is. We all know that, but he really showed you what he can still do.
So, I think if we stay healthy with the coaching staff and the players and the personnel that we’ve got, I think we’ve got a real chance. And I think for the first time in years we’re coming in as an underdog and I think that is a very healthy thing. We’ll get a pretty good sense of the early on with this game in Boston, we’ll have some good tests early on but it’s a long season. Good health, a little bit of good fortune and hopefully we’ll have a really, really good season.
Q: There is continued development around Fiserv Forum, including an office space just north of the Trade Hotel. Will the Bucks consider moving its offices out of Schlitz Park to anchor that building?
Edens: It’s one of the things we’ve considered. Putting those things together is kind of a jigsaw puzzle. We love our offices and where we are right now. I mean, I think if you’re in the best circumstance you’d be right next to the building (Fiserv Forum). That would be ideal to have everybody in the same place, but we’re in a good position where we are right now. Trying to figure it out.
Q: Is there another anchor tenant yet for that space?
Edens: There’s actually a lot of kind of good conversations happening. It’s interesting. I drove in tonight and I was talking to (a friend) about how different this place looks like than it did 10 years ago. It’s become much more vibrant. It’s still a little bit of gap-too-small, there’s still a few missing pieces, but so much has been done it’s actually really rewarding.