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Marc Lasry, a co-owner of the N.B.A.’s Milwaukee Bucks, has reached an settlement to promote his share of the crew to Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who personal the N.F.L.’s Cleveland Browns, in response to an individual aware of the deal.
The transaction values the Bucks at $3.5 billion. Spokesmen for the Browns and the Bucks declined to remark.
Lasry purchased the team in 2014 for $550 million together with Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan, with every buying an equal share of the group.
Lasry is presently the crew’s governor, which is the highest decision-making place in an N.B.A. group. He and Edens alternate within the position, and the Haslams may have the identical association inside the possession group, the particular person aware of the deal stated.
Lasry helped preside over one of the crucial profitable eras for the franchise, partially due to the transcendent expertise of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was drafted in 2013.
Antetokounmpo gained the league’s Most Invaluable Participant Award in 2019 and 2020. He led the Bucks to an N.B.A. championship in 2021, the second in Bucks historical past. Their first got here in 1971.
The Haslams have had much less success within the N.F.L. The Browns have had a profitable document solely as soon as because the Haslams bought the crew in 2012, and went winless in 2017.
In 2022, the Haslams traded for quarterback Deshaun Watson and awarded him a totally assured five-year, $230 million contract after greater than two dozen ladies accused Watson of sexual misconduct throughout therapeutic massage appointments. The Haslams and the Browns got here underneath scrutiny for not speaking to any of Watson’s accusers or their legal professionals earlier than making the commerce, after which three new lawsuits had been filed in opposition to him.
Watson has denied the accusations in opposition to him. Two Texas grand juries declined to indict Watson on prison expenses, and Watson settled 23 of the 26 lawsuits filed in opposition to him (one case was withdrawn for privateness causes).
The Haslams’ deal to buy a share of the Bucks would increase their sports activities holdings into a 3rd American sports activities league. Along with the Browns, the Haslams additionally personal the Columbus Crew in Main League Soccer. The Haslams’ possession group took over the soccer crew in 2019, holding it in Ohio after its earlier proprietor had threatened to maneuver the crew to Texas.
Earlier than the sale of the Bucks turns into official, the N.B.A. will full a background verify on the Haslams. Then the league’s board of governors will vote on whether or not to approve the sale. As soon as the league has authorized a purchaser, the board’s vote is taken into account a formality.
The settlement between Lasry and the Haslams comes two months after Mat Ishbia reached an settlement to buy a majority share of the Phoenix Suns. Ishbia bought 57 p.c of the Suns, which had been valued at $4 billion as a part of that deal. His buy included all the portion that had belonged to Robert Sarver. Sarver determined to promote the crew underneath strain after an N.B.A. investigation discovered that he had engaged in pervasive misconduct whereas proudly owning the group, together with utilizing racial slurs in opposition to Black individuals and treating feminine staff unfairly.
Ishbia was authorized by the board of governors with a 29-to-0 vote; the Cleveland Cavaliers proprietor Dan Gilbert, Ishbia’s rival within the mortgage enterprise, abstained.
If authorized, the Haslams would be a part of a small group of billionaires with main possession stakes in each the N.B.A. and the N.F.L. Jodie Allen is the controlling proprietor of the N.F.L.’s Seattle Seahawks and the N.B.A.’s Portland Path Blazers. Gayle Benson owns the N.F.L. and N.B.A. groups in New Orleans. Stan Kroenke’s holdings embrace the N.F.L.’s Los Angeles Rams and the N.B.A.’s Denver Nuggets.
Andrew Das contributed reporting.
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