Marc Lasry is in serious talks to sell his stake in the Milwaukee Bucks to Jimmy Haslam and Haslam Sports Group.

Haslam would join the ownership group with current co-owner Wes Edens. 

Edens and Lasry bought the Bucks from Herb Kohl in 2014 for $550 million. 

The process with Haslam began after Lasry considered selling his stake in the Bucks to Mat Ishbia, who instead bought controlling interest in the Phoenix Suns.

Haslam is already the owner of two professional sports franchises, the Cleveland Browns in the NFL and the Columbus Crew in the MLS.

The NBA owners have given up their desire to add a hard cap to its next collective bargaining agreement with players.

The NBPA was prepared to fight against the hard cap, which the league office has euphemistically called an upper spending limit, and there likely would have been a lockout over the issue.

Beyond the inevitable resistance from the union, there was also skepticism among smaller market teams that a hard cap would even be successful in creating competitive parity that was the goal of the initiative. 

The hard cap would have ended the current luxury tax system, so the league would have had to create a new mechanism to supplement revenue sharing.

The league is now focused on keeping the current elements while also finding other ways to limit high spending teams from retaining and acquiring talent in what is considered by some to be funnier.

The union would also like to create more opportunities for middle and lower spending teams to sign players as well.

The NBA and NBPA will extend an early opt-out deadline of the current collective bargaining agreement to March 31st as talks continues without a new deal.

The NBA's seven-year CBA expires following the 23-24 season and has been pushed back once already from Dec. 15th.

There had been some hope from teams that a deal would be in place by the trade deadline in order to inform future payroll planning based on potential rule changes. 

The league has shown a willingness to give up its push to implement a hard cap, which has been called an upper spending limit. 

The top priorities remaining in CBA talks include finding mechanisms to incentivize top players to participate in more regular season games, a "smoothing" plan for the next cap spike, and to end the one-and-done rule.

The NBA and NBPA continue to negotiate their next collective bargaining agreement. One part of the talks that is not expected to be part of the final agreement is a hard cap, which the NBA has euphemistically called an "Upper Spending Limit."

In early December, Marc Stein of Substack reported that the NBA was genuine in their pursuit of a hard cap and that it wasn't simply a negotiating tactic. 

"There's not going to be a hard salary cap... I don't think," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "I don't want to talk in absolutes. I think if that was really on the table, I don't think we'd be hearing there's momentum in talks. 

"There sounds like there will be changes to the luxury tax system. Potentially making the high payrolls even more penal to try to get them under control. Also, possibly changing the levels of which teams are taxed, so there may be a give and take."