As a longtime politician, Sen. Herb Kohl has taken plenty of jabs through the years. Kohl has also dodged the slings and arrows as owner of the Bucks since 1988.

Tuesday night, however, marked a first for Kohl. It was the first time he was booed by the announced crowd of 13,379 that watched the Bucks blow a nine-point lead to lose to the woeful Miami Heat.

The loss -- and the catcalls -- came just days after the Bucks were blown out by the Celtics and Kohl was approached by a group of fans wearing paper bags.

"My head told me the needs of our organization at this time were such that I believed we needed to have an outside person with a fresh approach to take a look at our basketball organization, to see how we can get better and get back to the playoffs," Kohl said.

Many have suggested that Harris' hands were tied, especially when it came to coaching choices and other personnel moves. Kohl has at times been accused of playing too great a role in hirings, firings and signings.

Though he admitted to nixing a proposed trade that would have shipped Bobby Simmons, Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell to New York in exchange for Zach Randolph and Fred Jones, Kohl denied rumors that he is a meddling owner.

"There has been a minimum of second-guessing, if any," Kohl said. "The only time I stepped in to differ with him to some degree was on this recent rumor of a trade for Zach Randolph. I personally thought that was not the right thing for us to do."

The three players that the Bucks would have given up in the deal represent some of Harris' bigger failures as general manager. All occurred during the tumultuous summer of 2005, which began with Harris putting his arm around head coach Terry Porter and telling the media that the two would "sink or swim together."

Just a few weeks later, Harris fired Porter. The Bucks, winners of the draft lottery that season, selected Andrew Bogut with the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft and introduced Terry Stotts as head coach a week later.

Harris started working over the roster during a 10-day span in August. He began by signing Simmons, the league's Most Improved Player in 2004-'05, to a five-year, $47 million deal on August 8. Four days later, Harris re-signed Gadzuric to a six-year contract worth $36 million. The next day, Michael Redd was signed to a maximum contract worth more than $90 million.

Kohl showed his support at the time by picking up an option on Harris' contract, keeping him on the job through the 2006-'07 season. The team would make the playoffs in 2005-'06, but lost a 4-1 series to the Detroit Pistons and haven't been back since.  Page 1 of 2 

Next >>

3 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...