The Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst have agreed to a multiyear contract extension, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
The Bucks’ ownership and Horst’s agent, Brian Elfus, reached a new deal late Wednesday night for the NBA championship executive and 2019 NBA exec of the year before his contract expired.
The Bucks have made the playoffs in all eight of Horst’s seasons as general manager and have a .647 winning percentage — second best in the NBA during that span, per ESPN Research. Horst, 42, started in basketball operations roles in Milwaukee and Detroit before being promoted to Bucks GM in 2017.
“Just the news I’ve been waiting for,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after Thursday’s practice. “I’m just very happy for him. He’s done an amazing job. We have an amazing relationship. It just creates stability. I just am a big believer in stability in organizations. That’s how you build teams.”
Horst, the architect of the Bucks’ 2021 championship — their first in 50 years — has made several signature transactions as the leader of the franchise’s basketball operations. In 2018, he led the hiring of head coach Mike Budenholzer and signed Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis as free agents. He traded for Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker in 2020-21, and then he landed Damian Lillard in a blockbuster deal right before the 2023 NBA season.
The Bucks (48-34) finished this season with the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee is down 2-0 to the Indiana Pacers in their first-round playoff series, despite a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo averaging 35.0 points, 15.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists on 65% shooting.
Horst’s sometimes bold acquisitions have led to Antetokounmpo signing two extensions with the Bucks — a five-year supermax contract in 2020 and then a three-year supermax extension in 2023.
The pairing of Antetokounmpo and Lillard, however, has yet to lead to the kind of results that Milwaukee envisioned when they made the trade. The Bucks are still searching for their first playoff series win since the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
Rivers, who was hired in January 2024, said the connection between the front office and coaching staff is the key to winning franchises, and he lauded his connection with Horst since arriving in Milwaukee.
“It’s the best connected I’ve been since I’ve been in Boston,” Rivers said. “It matters so much for coaches. … The team starts upstairs in front office first, and coaches, then everybody else sees that it’s a team. We have that.”
ESPN’s Jamal Collier contributed to this report.
