It’s awkward, to say the least, when the owner of an NFL team in one market owns a sports team in another market. Especially since there’s a general rule of etiquette that the pro teams in a given market will support each other — even though they’re essentially in competition for the hearts, minds, and wallets of the same consumers.
In Cleveland, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam owns a significant piece of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. And Haslam is now taking on a bigger role in the basketball team.
Haslam appeared at and participated in a press conference introducing new Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins. And Haslam made it clear he’ll be more involved with the team.
“Do I think we’ll be here more?” Haslam said, via Jonathan X. Simmons of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I do.”
It was the first time Haslam spoke publicly as a member of the Bucks’ ownership team. His comments also addressed the future of star player Giannis Antetokounmpo, acknowledging that he may — or may not — be traded soon.
“We don’t know whether Giannis will stay with us or not, but we’ll work through that with Giannis in the coming weeks,” Haslam said, via the Associated Press.
Every person has only so much bandwidth. The more time Haslam spends on the Bucks, the less time he’ll have for the Browns. Which, frankly, could be good for the Browns.
Although Haslam consistently has denied meddling with football operations in Cleveland, it’s hard not to sense the presence of his fingerprints on the biggest blunders the Browns have made in his 14 years of owning the team. From the wasting of a first-round pick on quarterback Johnny Manziel to the failed effort to adopt baseball-style analytics through the tenure of Paul DiPodesta, to institutionalized tanking in the late 2010s via the offering of financial incentives based on the stockpiling of future draft picks and the carrying over of cap space to the single worst transaction in NFL history — the 2022 trade for and contract given to quarterback Deshaun Watson — none of those things happen if Haslam doesn’t want them to happen.
So, yes, maybe the Browns will benefit if Haslam is distracted by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Maybe the Cavaliers will, too.
