The thoroughly pimped-out Jimmy Goldstein, a courtside fixture in LA and at many of the NBA’s postseason games in other cities, is “tight lipped about the details of his personal wealth,”, writes the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Ben Steele. Not so secretive, however, about an alleged overture from the NBA Commissioner about purchasing his hometown team.
According to Goldstein, David Stern gauged Goldstein’s interest in owning the Bucks when Herb Kohl considered selling the team in 2003.
“David Stern knew that the condition for the sale of team was that it had to stay in Milwaukee,” Goldstein said. “(He) knew I was from Milwaukee and would be a logical buyer for the team because of my strong NBA interest and Milwaukee background.”
Goldstein said Stern “threw out a price to me which was higher than what I heard the team could be bought for.”
“At any rate, before I ever got to first base, so to speak, of speaking with Herb Kohl, of getting any of the financial information, Michael Jordan came along and that was sort of the end of it,” Goldstein said.
Jordan showed serious interest in buying the Bucks, but Kohl kept the team.
Frank, the NBA communications executive, said “the commissioner doesn’t recall any such conversations with Jimmy regarding the Bucks.”
Goldstein never flirted with the idea of ownership again.
“For a good portion of my life, my ambition was to own an NBA team,” he said. “But as my personal wealth grew over the years, the price of teams was growing faster.”