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SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL Table of Contents A Look Back ............................................................................................................................................ 7 The Regular Season .......................................................................................................... 19 The Playoffs ....................................................................................................................................... 49 NBA Finals .............................................................................................................................................. 97 Parade ........................................................................................................................................................ 151
MIKE
INTRODUCTION • 5
OPPOSITE: Fans gather in the Deer District outside Fisrev Forum during the Milwaukee Bucks’ 118-107 victory over the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference finals on July 3, 2021, to advance to their first NBA Finals since 1974. DE
Lew Alcindor, the No. 1 overall pick out of UCLA, won the Rookie of the Year Award. With Alcindor, who would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the conclusion of the 1970–71 campaign, the Bucks knew they were title contenders. But in the offseason, two things hap pened that helped set a course to history.
More than a dozen former Bucks and Baltimore Bullets share their memories of the last championship for a Milwaukee major pro sports team.
A LOOK BACK • 7
Fifty years ago this week, the Milwaukee Bucks won not only their first championship, but just the second among the major professional sports teams that Milwaukee could call its own.
50 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks were NBA champions: An oral history of the 1970–71 season
A LOOK BACK
In this oral history, the people who lived it tell the tale of the 1970–71 Bucks championship campaign. Prelude to a special season
OPPOSITE: The 1970–71 Milwaukee Bucks, front row from left, Jon McGlocklin, Larry Costello, Oscar Robertson; standing from left, Bob Dandridge, Lew Alcindor, Greg Smith. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
The Milwaukee Bucks, in only their second year of existence, ended the 1969–70 season with a 56-26 record in the regular season and lost to the eventual champion New York Knicks in five games in the Eastern Division finals.
The first was out of the Bucks’ control. With the NBA expanding by three teams, including teams in Buffalo and Cleveland, the league pushed the Bucks out of the East and into the Midwest Division of the Western Conference. That got the Knicks out of their way regarding theAndplayoffs.inCincinnati, a boiling conflict between a star player and star coach had caught the attention of Milwaukee president and general manager Ray Patterson.
BY JIM OWCZARSKI • MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL • APRIL 22, 2021
There has not been another banner to hangThesince.Bucks’ lone title was won in four games in the NBA Finals against the Baltimore Bullets and clinched on April 30, 1971. To commemorate that historic season, the Journal Sentinel spoke to more than a dozen surviving players, staff and family members from both teams and distilled it down to several of its most memorable people and events.
The trade for Oscar Robertson Steve Patterson, Ray’s son: “Oscar, that was amazing. We flew out of Madison on (owner) Wes Pavalon’s Learjet, for a little kid was kind of an amazing experience. There weren’t that many people that had private jets. It’s not like today. We flew to Fort Lauderdale or Miami, I forget. The pilot was supposed to turn around and fly to Cincinnati and pick up Oscar and his agent, Ron Grinker. And between the time we landed and he was supposed to take off and fly back to Cincinnati, he had a heart attack and died. Yeah. So everyone was a little freaked out. You’re trying to do this deal and if it had been a few hours either way, it would’ve killed us or killed Oscar and his agent. That would’ve changed things a little bit. I think they wound up flying commercial and they came down and did the deal and signed Oscar. They had been work ing on it since the previous season.”
JON MCGLOCKLIN, ON OSCAR ROBINSON
8 • HISTORY MAKERS
Bob Cousy, via ESPN: “It wasn’t an ego thing. I could continue with, you know, simply letting Oscar get whatever number of points he wanted to get. He was still capable of doing that at the time. But in the long-range planning, this wasn’t the way we wanted to go.”
Oscar Robertson, Bucks point guard: “Actually I don’t understand why they didn’t read my contract, to be hon est. Because their attorney, the attorney for the basketball team, put (a no-trade clause) in there because he wanted me to finish my career out with Cincinnati and never leave the team. They put it in and then (Royals coach Bob) Cousy comes in town. There’s a big thing in the papers about how I hadn’t done anything and all these things. It’s truly amazing when you make all-pro, the first-five team for 10 straight years, then all of a sudden because someone comes in who did play basketball (Cousy) and they had the press. You know, Blacks didn’t have the press. All of a sudden he comes in and they know everything about the game and no one else knows anything at all.”
Jon McGlocklin, Bucks guard who played with Robertson in Cincinnati and Milwaukee: “I knew he was great. See, I describe Oscar this way: Oscar as a basketball player was perfect. He was perfect. He did everything around a basketball game, being a player, perfectly. The way he warmed up. The way he practiced. The way he played the game. The way he saw the game. He was perfect. If he had a flaw, I don’t know what it was.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, via Minority of One: “The point guard position “Oscar as a basketball player was perfect. … The way he warmed up. The way he practiced. The way he played the game. The way he saw the game. He was perfect. If he had a flaw, I don’t know what it was.”
A LOOK BACK • 9 really was a position that we needed to improve. After my rookie year, the people in the Bucks organization said we’re going to try to get Oscar. I said, well, geez, he’s kind of old isn’t he?”
Greg Smith, Bucks forward: “Oscar was the cat’s meow at that time.”
Jim Foley, Bucks public relations director: “Oscar was like the preMagic, the pre-Michael. Believe me Oscar was as good as anybody. I hesitate to rank players in the league, but Oscar matches up with them all.”
Robertson: “I never thought of a championship whatsoever. It didn’t even cross my mind. I was in a situation, I had three daughters, and my wife and I were talking about the school situation and the type of place where she’d like to go live and she picked Milwaukee. We were very lucky, we moved right next to George Priester on Kenboern Drive (in Glendale) and it was wonderful.”
Eddie Doucette, Bucks radio play-by-play broadcaster: “He chose to come to Milwaukee to play with the greatest, at that time, center in the game, and the focal point of everybody’s basketball conversation. What would this do for the game, to have a thirdyear team evolve to the point where they were now a threat for the champi onship? People were excited, there was a lot of conversation.”
Bob Dandridge, Bucks forward: “Championship had not — the signifi cance of one — had not really dawned on me. I think for me it was just the thought of playing with the ‘Big O,’ who was the greatest player in the game at that particular time as far as a guy who could control a team and have tremendous numbers. So when I heard he was coming, I was more excited about playing with Oscar Robertson than my thoughts were of a championship team.”
Bill Zopf, Bucks guard: “He was all in. He was all in. When players get older, some times they get cranky. Sometimes they get cranky. They don’t think they foul. But he was all in. I will say this, if we were in a game where maybe the standard stuff wasn’t working or whatever, I think (head coach) Larry (Costello) may bounce something off Oscar. There was definitely a mutual respect. Larry was strong-willed, but I also think that he was open.”
ABOVE: Bucks coach Larry Costello and superstar Oscar Robertson at the Pfister Hotel.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL OPPOSITE: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) celebrating during the Milwaukee Bucks’ 1970–71 season.
Steve Patterson: “By far and away the most intimidating guy I’ve ever met. … He told everybody what to do. And you better listen or it’s going to be one hell of a tongue-lashing.”
Larry Costello and his playbook
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
Jeff Webb, Bucks guard: “It’s hard to describe playing with somebody like Oscar. He was head and heels over. Built like steel. You just bounced off the guy. He was a professor on the floor. He got everyone in the right place at the right time. He directed traffic.”
The Bucks were coached by just two men, head coach Larry Costello and assistant Tom Nissalke, a Madison native who began his coaching career at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wis. Costello was just 39 years old and only two years removed from his last season playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. Doucette: “Larry Costello, he was a winner. When we talk about this team, we don’t talk too much or hear too much about Larry Costello. He was the architect that put together the offense and brought together two of the greatest players of all time; that could have been a clash and never was.”
THE PLAYOFFS • 73
BY JIM OWCZARSKI • MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
L 110-88
The exclamation point came on a Bogdan Bogdanovic three-pointer off a John Collins offensive rebound that forced a Bucks timeout with 4:16 to go, with the Hawks’ guard crouched and fist-pumping to the crowd. The Bucks never got back into the game from there and finished the night shooting 39.3% from the floor and 20.5% from behind the three-point line. “They are competing trying to play a game,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said of his team. “Obviously Giannis is a big part of our soul and our fiber. I’m sure there’s the human element where the concern, care, for him is real. But they are in the heat of the battle. They are playing. They are competing. They are trying to get stops, trying to get rebounds, trying to do things, trying to find a way to be there for him while he’s not able to be on the court, and I’m sure that’s what they will do.”
BRETT DAVIS / USA TODAY SPORTS 29, 2021 • VS ATLANTA HAWKS •
JUNE
ATLANTA — The tenor of the Eastern Conference finals felt like it changed late in the third quarter of Game 3 when Atlanta’s diminutive star Trae Young stepped on an official, bruising a bone in hisAfoot.collision among three giants a little less than halfway through the third quarter of Game 4 Tuesday night at State Farm Arena didn’t just change the pitch of the series, but completely rewrote the sonnet as the Atlanta Hawks evened the series 2-2 with a 110-88 victory.
With Atlanta up 60-52 at the 7-minute, 19-second mark Hawks guard Lou Williams threaded a lob to a soaring Clint Capela, who slid behind Brook Lopez and in front of Giannis Antetokoumpo.LopezandAntetokounmpo leapt to challenge the attempt, but Capela put it down. The trio of descending bodies pushed into the two-time Most Valuable Player’s left knee, and Antetokounmpo went down in a heap, yelling, and Capela toppled over him. Down under the basket for a few minutes, Antetokounmpo eventually walked off under his own power but with the assistance of Bucks staff and his brother, Thanasis. He briefly appeared at the end of the Bucks bench in full uniform shortly thereafter but returned to the locker room and was ruled out with a left knee hyperextension.Understandably, the momentum of the game turned. Jrue Holiday hit a bucket to cut the Hawks lead to 62-54 but the Hawks went on a 15-0 run to blow the game open and take a 77-54 lead. In that stretch, the Bucks missed four straight shots while the Hawks collected two offensive rebounds that led to points.
Game 5 will be Thursday night at Fiserv Forum at 7:30 p.m. and Game 6 will be back in Atlanta on Saturday, July 3 at 7:30 p.m.
OPPOSITE: Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) and Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela (15) fall to the floor as Antetokounmpo (34) is injured on the play in the third quarter during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals for the 2021 NBA Playoffs at State Farm Arena, June 29, 2021.
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS • GAME 4
An evening that goes from bad to worse as Giannis Antetokounmpo leaves with knee injury and Bucks lose by 22
Antetokounmpo (34) dunks at the final minutes of the fourth quarter of Game 5. MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL “We
RIGHT: Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis had each I think really brought us together us that we can we’ve still got
other’s backs and there was ebbs and flows to the game that
and showed
fight through adversity. But
one more.” PAT CONNAUGHTON, ON GAME 5
132 • HISTORY MAKERS
LEFT: Milwaukee Bucks, from left, guard Jrue Holiday (21), Pat Connaughton (24) and P.J. Tucker (17) celebrate the win after Game 5.
ABOVE: Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) and Milwaukee Bucks forward P.J. Tucker (17) celebrate after the Bucks’ 123-119 win over the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals at Footprint Center in Phoenix on July 17, 2021. MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
NBA FINALS • 133
MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
McCarthy was there with her 2-yearold son Remy. “If anything, I hope he can grow up remembering Milwaukee like this, and show him these positive examples,” she said. “I’m really proud of how it’s only been a positive experience, and it’s really for everyone.”
Robert Watson, 63, of Milwaukee, talked about how so many people had come together.
BY BILL GLAUBER • MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL • JULY 22, 2021 By the tens of thousands they came into downtown Milwaukee, fans filling the streets as double-decker buses rolled on by carrying a championship team in its full glory. It was all so loud and joyous, the roars echoing off buildings, confetti shot in the air, a sublime moment for a city that had spent five decades waiting for another championship. Thursday, Milwaukee was trans formed into Bucks Town as fans and players celebrated the NBA title with a parade, a short ceremony and some brief, yet heartfelt remarks.
PARADE
“All the diverse people down here, everyone getting along and having fun,” he said. “That’s the best part about the wholeRebeccathing.”McCarthy of Milwaukee was also struck by the sense of community.
PARADE • 151
Sen. Herb Kohl, the ex-owner who saved the team twice, first by buying it and then by selling it to the new ownership group seven years ago, led off the parade riding in a jeep behind six Milwaukee police officers on horseback. Down the parade went, from East Wisconsin Avenue to North Water Street, over East Knapp Street and across the Milwaukee River, past businesses and shops, bars and restaurants, past City Hall.Destination: a plot of land outside the team’s home, Fiserv Forum.
OPPOSITE: Confetti flies as part of the celebration of the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA championship in the downtown Deer District near Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 22, 2021.
Aaron Terry of Milwaukee said: “It means a lot for the city. It’s a big thing to bring people together.”
One by one onstage at the end of the parade, they paid tribute to each other, the organization and the city.
“It’s the most I’ve ever seen the city come together, and especially after everything we’ve been through the last two years, it’s just amazing to see everyone so together,” she said.
The fans along the parade route were overjoyed.“It’sabeautiful thing,” said Dwight Vickers, who was selling hot dogs on East Wisconsin Avenue. “Milwaukee needs something good to happen and we got it. This is so beautiful.”
As much as the fans came to see the players, the players also acknowledged the importance of the local support.
MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL ‘Milwaukee, we did it baby’: Tens of thousands of Bucks fans gather for the title parade through downtown
“Milwaukee, we did it baby! We did it. … This is our city,” Giannis Antetokounmpo told the crowd assembled outside Fiserv Forum.Fans and players were still trying to put into words what this entire experi ence has felt like, as the Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night to win the NBATheytitle.turned a long-ago phrase, “Bucks in 6,” into a prophecy. They even got the guy who first uttered the phrase, ex-Bucks player Brandon Jennings, into theFormerparade.U.S.