After watching the Bucks win a championship for the first time in 50 years during the 2020/21 season, co-owner Marc Lasry is confident that the team will remain in the mix for a title again in ’21/22. Lasry told Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic that he views the Bucks and Nets as the top two teams in the East entering the fall.
Asked if the Heat – who eliminated the Bucks from the playoffs in 2020 – are in that top tier alongside Milwaukee and Brooklyn, Lasry praised Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, and P.J. Tucker, calling Miami a “really good” team. However, he said he believes the Bucks are better.
“Ultimately at the end of the day I’d rather have our team,” Lasry said. “… If we’re healthy, you know we should go pretty far.
“But I would say the same thing (about other teams). If the Nets are healthy, they should go pretty far. It’s who’s going to be the healthiest when you get there. And it’s been interesting trying to figure out (that part) because I bet you there’s going to be a lot of gaming of this… You want to be the No. 1 seed, but do you want to be the No. 1 seed, or do you want to make sure you’re the healthiest going into the playoffs?”
Lasry’s appearance on The Athletic’s Tampering podcast touched on several other topics of note. The discussion is worth checking out in full, but here are a few highlights from the Bucks’ co-owner, via Amick and Slater:
On head coach Mike Budenholzer getting a contract extension after being on the hot seat:
“Bud is really good. I mean, he is. He does have that quiet confidence, which is nice. So I think you go through all of this, and one of the things that I saw — and I told this to Bud — was I said, ‘Look, there was a huge amount of pressure on us, on him, on all of us, because everybody expects you to win.’ And what he showed us during that time is how well he handled the pressure, how well he prepared the team, and what a great job he did, so that after we won, we were like, ‘Look, it’s not like we want to reward you; we want to keep you.'”
On the 2020 acquisition of Jrue Holiday and how it influenced Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s decision to sign a long-term extension with the Bucks:
“(General manager) Jon Horst felt that (Holiday) was going to be the missing piece, and he was dead right. You know, I remember the first practice and Jrue is covering Giannis. And same thing — Giannis knew Jrue by reputation. After practice that day, Jon says to me, ‘Yeah, Giannis now knows how good he is. (Holiday’s) covering him. He’s good.’ It was actually great. It was. And I think 100 percent it was a huge factor in Giannis re-signing because he saw what we were willing to do.”
On the Bucks becoming a taxpayer in 2020/21 and going further into the tax in ’21/22:
“Look, (the tax) is a big part. I’m not going to tell you it’s not. I mean, it’s just — if you sign somebody for $5MM, you’re not signing him for $5MM, you’re signing him for $25MM, $20MM. You sort of look at that, and you’re trying to figure out, ‘Alright, look, if we’re going to do that, OK, there is a cost to it. Yeah, we want him, but that’s going to cost us $25MM or that’ll cost us $35MM.’ I mean, whatever the numbers are. And I think we’re very focused on that.
“Look, we’re a small-market team. It’s expensive. I mean, for us, this year we’re going to lose quite a bit of money. … But at the end of the day, the goal is that you want to keep winning a championship, so you’re going to spend the money.”
Yes, if you spend “$5M” with the tax it can be “$25M” out of pocket.
But that’s misleading. The player gets $5. The team spends $25. And the OWNER GAINS about $100-$200M for OWNING the team.
So, yes, poor baby he spent some of hiS PROFIT.
Oh and it’s not like any NBA loses money either. The way they account for the money can it seem that way for tax purposes. But they are huge profit machines. Why else would anyone pay BILLIONS to buy in ?
Bucks franchise value by year.
ONLY an $950M increase in value. Gee I wonder if spending an extra $25M was even noticeable. Other than for PR value. Poor billionaire. Maybe we should buy him a new arena. Lol.
I do note that 20-21 was ONLY an increase of $45M.
They are small market. The Lakers went up in value $200M in one year.
2021 1,625
2020 1,580
2019 1,350
2018 1,075
2017 785
2016 675
It is a bit unreal to the average person. In the other hand, it’s clear that disposable income has increased for the average US citizen too. You can see that in the way prices have increased and attendance still remains super high and sports events in general.
I remember tailgating at Packers and Brewers games in the 80s and 90s and u brought all your stuff along. They’ve figured out how to make a profit on that too by holding party tents and reducing parking (at least around Lambeau). People pay for convenience these days and really shell out the bucks! Everyone has jerseys and team merch. And the concession prices have skyrocketed. But people still pay. It’s really something…
You don’t make that money till you sell them. So value means nothing. It is not money in the pocket. Yeah my house is worth $60,000 more than I bought it for. Doesn’t mean crap unless I sell my house.
It means you get taxed more!
In no way am I crying for the owners here, but I think it’s silly to say paying $25 mil for a $5 mil player is ok ‘cuz the owners are billionaires.’
Try and think how irate you get when you calculate all the sales, property, and income tax you pay on your stuff, home, or hard earned wages..
And how miffed you’d be if the govt said you had to pay double what your new car cost in taxes, for reasons.
He said they are spending to win. I detect no lies♂️
The Bucks owners are Billonaries. Losing some odd million is not going to hurt them. Plus what the team value has increased since the bought the team has far made up for and more any kind of loss they have.