Steve Ballmer Intended To Keep Bucks In Milwaukee

New evidence suggests Steve Ballmer was wrongfully blackballed from Milwaukee Bucks purchase.

Let’s take a trip back in time. The year is 2014. The NBA regular season has just concluded, yet we remain weeks away from the San Antonio Spurs’ five-game beat-down of the Miami Heat in the Finals. The Milwaukee Bucks, on the other hand, just finished with the worst record in the league at 15 – 67.

U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl is eager to sell the team. But to make matters worse, Forbes completes a review of every NBA franchise, branding the Bucks a league-worst value of $405 million.

Taking into consideration league pressure to build a new arena, Kohl astonishingly blackballs now-Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer, electing instead to sell to a New York hedge fund group.

Additional details to this story unfolded last month on The Bill Simmons Podcast, where Ballmer invited listeners into a conversation with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

"“Without [league] expansion it’s wild, because you’d have to find a team at the end of their lease, for sale, in a market that might be iffy in terms of revenue from basketball. You know there aren’t that many of them.I actually looked at Milwaukee. I [had] just retired. I went to see Adam Silver and I said ‘I still really want to buy a team.’And he said, ‘Well, you can’t buy a team in the city and hope to bring it to Seattle. You’re going to have to work to keep it where it is.’And I said, ‘Does that mean I should go look in Milwaukee?’ because it was for sale at the time.He said, ‘Yeah, if you’re interested, go look at Milwaukee.’I flew to Milwaukee for a day. I drove the suburbs. I looked at the city. I went to a game and the owner at the time, Senator Kohl, had no interest in selling to me because I wore a ‘I’m moving to Seattle’ banner on my head. So that one didn’t work out…”"

For those without an Internet connection the better part of this decade, Steve Ballmer is overwhelmingly awesome; an over-the-top enthusiast and beloved lunatic for his Clippers team. Alone, he has installed a renewed energy to his franchise.

And as a former CEO of Microsoft, he is already looking into state-of-the-art opportunities to utilize technology and forever change how fans see the game.

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Seemingly oblivious to the relocation expectations of Commissioner Silver, Kohl turned down a $650 million offer from Ballmer and accepted a bid from hedge fund titans Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens for $100 million less, due in large part to an amplified anxiety of the team being moved.

Wisconsin taxpayers, now on tap to shoulder half the projected $500 million in new arena construction, were certainly excluded from the true reasoning behind this decision.

Fear had lingered, however, as blogs across the country exaggerated the chances of a new ownership group moving the Bucks to Seattle.

With the panic now long subsided, tension has eased surrounding the taxpayers’ burden towards a new arena. And while public funding has become typical for new arenas across the country, let us consider the alternative.

Later in 2014, Ballmer won a bidding war to purchase the Clippers for a reported $2 billion. And just a few years later, the owner is already discussing new arena possibilities in the Los Angeles area.

"“We have now seven years left on our lease and we have to think about [if] we stay in our current home, [or] do we look at a new home…They’re expensive! These arena things – they’re not cheap – and this is California, there’s no public money in this game.”"

Ignoring the fact that he would have had another $1.4 billion lying around following a Bucks purchase, Ballmer has the resources in place to fund the construction of his own arena without taxpayer assistance. This is huge.

Not only did Kohl miss out on an additional $100 million in his own pocket, he avoided an opportunity to dismiss any potential hardship on the community.

The real question is whether or not Kohl even spoke with Commissioner Silver regarding Ballmer as a potential buyer. The evidence before us would suggest he did not. While the sale of a team is ultimately up to current ownership, the league can be an incredibly helpful resource.

In fact, moving an NBA franchise is much more difficult than one might think. Ownership must first obtain consent from the NBA Board of Governors before involvement from the NBA Relocation Committee.

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Then, following proper investigation, a majority vote from the 30 governors is required for approval.

Thankfully, this committee has proven unafraid to decline requests. Most recently, the 2013 effort to move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle was crushed by a 22 – 8 rejection ballot.

In an attempt to repair the relationship and promote a revived commitment to the community, the Kings came together with the city of Sacramento to sign a team non-relocation agreement.

Admittedly, evidence suggests that an agreement of this sort is not absolutely binding, but at least provides substantial penalties to be awarded to the city should the team relocate.

If Ballmer’s recollection is accurate, it is fair to conclude that Sen. Kohl absolutely botched the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks. Disregarding the additional $100 million he lost himself, Wisconsin taxpayers are unnecessarily footing a portion of the new arena bill.

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Had a proper conversation with the league commissioner occurred, combined with a good-faith non-relocation agreement with the city of Milwaukee, even greater opportunity and excitement would surround the future of the Bucks.