Kevin Garnett recently announced his desire to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and even though he made a lot of money during his playing career (0ver $300 million), he’s nowhere near close the figure the team is asking for on a deal (around 1.2 billion).
But, back in 2003, team values were drastically lower than they are nowadays. That’s when Michael Jordan stepped up to make a bid for an NBA franchise and continue cementing his legacy in the league while making a lot of money in the meantime.
And, even though he ended up buying the Charlotte Hornets, he had meetings with the representatives of several other franchises, with the Milwaukee Bucks being the most likely candidate, according to Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune:
“League sources said Stern invited Jordan to New York last month to meet with representatives of five teams about full or partial ownership. They were believed to be Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, San Antonio, and Milwaukee. Because the Bucks have been for sale for a year, Stern and Jordan pursued that deal,” Smith reported.
The Bucks were struggling financially at the time and it seemed like it was just a matter of time before they changed hands. However, Jordan didn’t pull the trigger because the Bucks didn’t let him use their Draft pick unless a deal was already made:
“Michael Jordan was trying to buy the Bucks that night. They thought there was a deal in place at the time for Jordan to own the Bucks. One of the reasons they were pushing this was that Jordan wanted to make the draft pick for Milwaukee [in 2003]. But the Bucks weren’t going to let him make the draft pick unless this deal was done. Of course, it falls apart a day or so later.” Chad Ford recently said on The Bill Simmons podcast.
Jordan ended up acquiring the Hornets and the Bucks were sold eleven years later and the rest, as you know, it’s history.
