Surprisingly, the Bucks announced this morning that longtime team president Peter Feigin is stepping down from his position within the franchise, to be replaced by former Columbus Crew interim president of business Josh Glessing, a member of Haslam Sports Group. There had been no previous indication that Feigin, who isn’t of typical retirement age, was looking to depart. Nor is there any indication where this decision came from: if it was mutual or one of the sides looking to make a change. All we
have from him is this statement:
“Serving as President of the Milwaukee Bucks has been the honor of my professional life. Together with our ownership group, partners, players, and an incredible staff, we built something truly special for this city and state. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and confident that the organization is in tremendous shape.”
Feigin was somewhat of a transformational figure for the Bucks. He was hired several months after a group led by Wes Edens, Jamie Dinan, and Marc Lasry purchased the team from Senator Herb Kohl in April 2014. His background in marketing and business development took him from Six Flags to New York City, where he was a VP of marketing for Madison Square Garden, then spent a few years away from sports. Under his leadership, the Bucks rebranded, secured a new arena, thus cementing a long-term future in Milwaukee amid relocation rumors, built the Deer District into a destination, and won the 2021 NBA title. He was a major part of rescuing the Bucks from national and even local irrelevance, which they were mired in for a good two decades. All in all, a successful tenure.
Now onto his replacement, which might give you some pause because of where he’s worked the past few seasons. Glessing, a Wisconsin native, has some history with the team dating back to six years as a VP at Goldman Sachs in their “global sports finance and advisory group within the investment banking division.” While there, he worked with Bucks ownership to finance Fiserv Forum before joining Haslam Sports Group in 2019 as chief of strategy and development. During that time, he’s focused on “strategic business and growth initiatives for the HSG portfolio of companies encompassing the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, HSG Ventures, and HSG Real Estate.” Indeed, he led HSG’s purchase of a 25% stake in the Bucks in early 2023, installing Jimmy Haslam—who will take over from Edens as governor in 2029—as an equal partner alongside Edens and Dinan.
Glessing’s most significant role, though, has been with the group’s MLS team in Columbus, where he took over in October 2023, two months before the Crew won the MLS Cup, Haslam’s only championship. As you might guess, they’ve done lucrative business by MLS standards over the past few years, though he almost certainly wasn’t responsible for their success on the field while “overseeing business operations, strategy, partnerships, and venue management.” Especially for that 2023 title. The Bucks say that Glessing will “oversee team business operations” and “work closely with Feigin during the coming months to ensure a seamless transition.”
The good news is that Glessing attests to his Bucks fandom, saying, “I was born a Bucks fan and I don’t need to learn what this team means to Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin. I have known it my entire life.” What’s concerning is the fact that he’s a Haslam guy. While buying Lasry’s stake certainly helped the team from a financial perspective and likely allowed them to continue fielding one of the league’s most expensive rosters until this past summer, the Bucks have dropped off since Haslam came into the fold. How much that has to do with the billionaire owner of Flying J truck stops, we don’t really know.
But we do know how things have gone in the 13 years he’s owned the Browns: a 70-123-1 record, including consecutive 1-15 and 0-16 seasons. While they rebounded in the earlier part of this decade with two winning seasons, they only won a single postseason game in two appearances and have since slid back into the AFC North basement. Infamously, they traded three first-round picks for quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022, who faced 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct at the time and hadn’t played a game since January 2020. When he wasn’t charged criminally, the Browns made their move and gave him a five-year, $230m deal that was the most guaranteed money ever given to a football player at the time. The NFL suspended him for 11 games, and the contract immediately went south: Watson has sustained numerous injuries, including a torn Achilles that kept him out all of 2025. He’s played just 19 games over four full seasons, and underperformed when on the field. For on- and off-field reasons, it’s regarded as one of the worst contracts and decisions in pro sports history.
That, plus the Browns’ historical ineptitude, has garnered Haslam a reputation as one of sports’ worst owners. So Bucks fans were naturally wary when he got involved with the team. Reportedly, he and ownership pushed for Doc Rivers, one of the least popular coaches in the league, to be hired in January 2024 over the recommendation of GM Jon Horst. The news that Haslam is bringing in an exec who had at least some involvement with the Browns during the Watson debacle is not exactly great.
At the same time, Feigin’s role with the team was never about basketball operations. While he reported to ownership, he oversaw business operations involving the Bucks and Fiserv Forum but had no decision-making power in terms of players or coaching. That should continue to be the case, and Horst will maintain his current level of front office autonomy (which has unfortunately been overruled in the two most recent coaching searches). There may be nothing to worry about here.
But Feigin seems to be pretty close with Giannis, and I imagine it’s bittersweet for the big fella to see him go. That may be the worst part of this, though I’m sure Giannis understands and holds no ill will anywhere, if it was indeed Feigin’s decision. Fewer and fewer people remain in the organization since Giannis came to Milwaukee, not to mention since the 2021 championship. As fans, let’s hope Glessing continues the very good work Feigin did, doesn’t meddle with basketball ops, and doesn’t Haslamify the franchise any further. Things need to go better when Haslam becomes governor in 2029 than they’ve gone in Cleveland.
