The owners of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team are apologizing for the way the hiring of the team’s new coach was handled.
Bucks owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry hired Jason Kidd from the Brooklyn Nets earlier this week. They did not inform Bucks General Manager John Hammond right away of their decision, which also resulted in the sudden firing of former coach Larry Drew.
The Bucks held a midday news conference to introduce Kidd. Lasry chalked up the snafu to being a new owner.
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“I would tell you it’s very much newness,” said Lasry. “We made a mistake.”
Lasry said Kidd’s agent first reached out to the new Bucks owners about Kidd’s interest in a job with the Bucks.
For his part, Kidd said that professional basketball is a business. In Milwaukee, it’s a business that is still trying to reverse a decline in attendance, and one that may soon ask local taxpayers to help the new Bucks owners and former owner Herb Kohl pay for a new arena.
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