NEW YORK — Even in the supposedly hostile territory of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry looked very comfortable in his center-court seat Monday night. He had on a black sweater with “BUCKS” embroidered in red on the front. As his team was registering its first victory of the season over the winless Nets, Lasry was joined by former President Bill Clinton. The two are buds, with Lasry a major donor and supporter of Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House.
As much as Lasry is at ease hanging out with white-haired former presidents, he’s proven during his short ownership stint to be equally adept at relating to the various, talented millennials who are fast turning the Bucks into a team on the rise in the NBA.
MORE: Early-season surprises: Whom were we sleeping on? | Bucks' time as contenders is now
“Great to see you’re coming back,” Lasry told Jabari Parker, when he greeted his second-year forward several hours after Parker’s New York-based doctor, David Altcheck, gave him clearance to start playing. “I can’t wait for Wednesday and the Philly game!”
Sidelined since last December after tearing the ACL in his left knee, Parker will make his season debut Wednesday in Milwaukee against the Sixers. Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo — as long as his surname, athletic and talented — are both only 20, and the Bucks boast the second-youngest roster in the NBA, with the average age of players just 23.9 years.
It’s a great time to be a Bucks fan, and the reason for optimism starts at the top, with Lasry and co-owner Wesley Edens, another New York resident. They came aboard in the spring of 2014 when the Bucks finished second in the lottery, where they selected Parker, who was having a solid rookie campaign until he went down 25 games into the season.
Marc Lasry, left, with Bill Clinton (AP Photo)
Since buying the Bucks from longtime owner and former Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl for $550 million, Lasry and Edens turned a mom-and-pop operation into a franchise with deep pockets. They hope to have a new arena, backed by public funds, up and running in three years.
When it comes to basketball, they have not tried to reinvent the wheel. Nor have they made the mistake of thinking they know the game. So they’ve avoided meddling in basketball operations, as some NBA owners have done, most notably the Knicks’ James Dolan and most recently in Sacramento with Vivek Ranadive.
“When we came in we looked at a lot of different teams, like the Spurs,” Lasry told Sporting News. “You look at, how did they have that success? What drove it? We spent a lot time trying to figure that out.”
MORE: On rookie Rashad Vaughn's emergence from hiding
It doesn’t take very long if you look at the Spurs. With San Antonio and other successful franchises, including the Heat, the common denominator is that ownership hires basketball-savvy executives to handle all of the basketball operations, starting with the procurement of talent. Whether it’s Spurs owner Peter Holt or his Miami counterpart, Micky Arison, they’re always around but trust their basketball people — R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and Pat Riley for the Heat — to make the right decisions. Then they’ll look at the bottom line and see if it makes sense.
In Milwaukee, all basketball decisions are made by the experts, GM John Hammond and coach Jason Kidd.
“It’s the same philosophy ‘Mr. D.’ used in Detroit,” said Hammond, referring to his days as a Pistons executive working under their legendary owner, Bill Davidson. “’Mr. D.’ hired the right people for the job and then allowed them to do their job.”
“We want to know everything that’s going on,” Lasry said. “But making basketball decisions on a day-to-day basis — that’s not our job. But if we’re going to spend money, we’ve got to sign off on that.”
MORE: Parker's return gives Bucks unique, long lineup
Which is exactly what Lasry and Edens did last summer when they gave free-agent big man Greg Monroe a three-year, $50 million deal; and when they re-signed Kris Middleton to a five-year, $70-million deal. They can use more 3-point shooters and have to hope that point guard Michael Carter-Williams matures under Kidd’s tutelage.
But otherwise, a franchise that appeared to be going nowhere only a few seasons ago has established a foundation that can spur one of the great runs in team history. Before going off to sit with Clinton, Lasry acknowledged that owning an NBA team “is not at all what you thought it would be. I thought I was a basketball fan before, but not like I am now. Now when we play, every shot is a big deal. It’s like going to your kid’s games.”
But as he did in Brooklyn, sitting next to the former president, he refrains from jumping around and screaming like another successful NBA owner, Dallas’ Mark Cuban.
“I want us to win,” Lasry said. “But I don’t need to go crazy.”
Slam dunks
• As much as everyone in Chicago is dying to tell you that Fred Hoiberg’s offense has turned everything around, the scoring averages for Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol are off from last season, and late in games they’ve been running some of Tom Thibodeau’s old sets. Just don’t tell that to general manager Gar Forman or vice president John Paxson.
• No surprise that Indiana has struggled out of the gate with its revamped uptempo offense. Coach Frank Vogel still is adjusting to coaching offensive-minded players.
• The feud between the Mavericks and Clippers over the DeAndre Jordan affair was put aside temporarily when Mark Cuban allowed Doc Rivers to catch a lift on his private jet that took Mavs coach Rick Carlisle and Kings coach George Karl from Los Angeles to Flip Saunders’ memorial service in Minnesota. Expect hostilities to resume Nov. 11 when Jordan pays his first visit of the season to Dallas.
• Saunders’ death after a brief battle with cancer at age 60 jolted Kevin Garnett to the point where when it was his turn to pay tribute to Saunders for a special pregame video tribute honoring the late team president and head coach on Monday, Garnett was so overcome with emotion that he got up from the taping without being able to voice his feelings.
