Jennings posted a picture of he and Sampson, who was an assistant with the Bucks for three seasons before he went to Houston to become Kevin McHale’s top assistant.  As a caption, he added, “This my guy for Life. He needs to be a Head Coach in the NBA.”

Sampson interviewed for the Milwaukee coaching vacancy nearly three weeks ago and Jennings, of course, is a restricted free agent.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:  Flynn Robinson, who led the Bucks in scoring in their inaugural season, passed away at age 72 in Los Angeles this week.

Flynn Robinson receives a plaque for being the most outstanding player after the ’68-69 season.

Robinson, a 6’1″ guard, helped popularize the NBA in Milwaukee in their opening campaign in much the same way that Jennings’ 55-point game kicked off the ‘Fear the Deer’ era in 2008.  In February 1969, Robinson scored 41, 43, and 45 points in consecutive wins over the Lakers, Hawks and Pistons.  Play-by-play announcer Eddie Doucette nicknamed him the ‘Electric Eye’ for his sharpshooting ways.

Robinson was traded away for Oscar Robertson prior the Bucks’ championship season, and a season later, he was the Lakers’ top scorer off the bench during their (still record) 33-game winning streak.

Yahoo Sports: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore his shorts backwards for an entire game and it looked to be rather uncomfortable predicament.

Asked about his sartorial mistake, Abdul-Jabbar grinned and said, “Somebody told me about it shortly after the game started, but we were going by then.”

Since the Bucks’ trunks are the boxer type, the only visible evidence that Abdul-Jabbar had them on backward was that the club emblem was in the back instead of the front. And he didn’t bother to turn them around at halftime.

ESPN:  In an attempt to trump up the Red Wings’ 3-1 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks, ESPN’s Steve Levy made the worst inter-sports analogy in the history of sports broadcasting.

Perhaps Mr. Levy should not attempt to explain the NHL to hockey naifs in terms of a sport which he clearly comprehends as a naif.

A few brief rebuttals:

• The Red Wings have already won a playoff series this year. The Bucks did not win a playoff game.
• Detroit finished the regular season with a .583 winning percentage, while the Bucks ended at .463.
• Since 1996, the Red Wings have won four Stanley Cups. In the same time, the Bucks have won three playoff series.

In summary, no.

Bucksketball: Mitch Vonhof conjures up a word cloud that depicts the Bucks’ 2012-13 season.

Jersey Chaser: In a much fairer sports analogy, Marques Johnson compared Paul George’s massive challenge against LeBron James to his own quest of overtaking Julius Erving as the best small forward back in the early ’80s NBA.

After Game 1, he wrote:

Fortunately for Heat fans, Pacer coach Frank Vogel got way too overly analytical in his decision to sit Roy Hibbert the final play.

Couple that with a complete brain spasm by Paul George and his funnel to the hole defensive approach on The King, and it is Golden Opportunity blown.

Of course, Vogel sharpened his defensive strategy in Game 2.  When James drove to the hoop for a potentially game-tying basket at the end of regulation (below), George stayed with him and Hibbert hung around enough (while sagging off Chris Bosh) to be a bother.

May 24, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) is defended by Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert (55) and small forward Paul George in the fourth quarter of game two of the Eastern Conference finals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Arena. The Pacers won 97-93. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

Grantland:  Speaking of Hibbert’s interior defense, only one player altered shots better in the paint than Hibbert did: Larry Sanders.

I evaluated a set of thousands of NBA close-range shots in which an NBA big man was protecting the basket. These were shots from the 2012-13 regular season in which a qualifying interior defender was within 5 feet of the rim and also within 5 feet of the shot location.

In such cases, the opponents made 48 percent of their shots. When Hibbert was protecting the basket, however, the number dropped to 38 percent. Only one player in the NBA reduced close-range shooting efficiency more than Hibbert; of course, that was LARRY SANDERS!, who held opponents to a ghastly 32 percent. For context, both Marc Gasol and Tyson Chandler — the last two winners of the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award — held opponents to a respectable 44 percent.

The Pacers are three wins away from the NBA finals.  The Bucks need better defenders around Sanders — especially around the perimeter — to take advantage of the unbelievable advantage that Sanders lends them.

If you believe some insightful NBA officials, it’s simply because the Bucks are playing the waiting game. They are biding their time until the Memphis Grizzlies’ season ends and they can talk to Grizzlies free-agent in-waiting coach Lionel Hollins.

Some NBA insiders claim Hollins is still very interested in the Bucks’ job. They note Hollins enjoyed his brief stint in Milwaukee, forged a good rapport with the Bucks’ management and is even intrigued by a few of the team’s players.

NBA.com: Cleveland won the NBA’s draft lottery last night for the second time in three years (and the third time in the past 11 years).  With a core of Kyrie Irving (and perhaps Nerlens Noel?), the Cavs threaten to be the future Central Division roadblock that Chicago and Indiana are for the time being.

There’s the show on ESPN that announces the winners, but prior to that, there’s the show before the show, the one where the lottery balls are plucked out and four-ball combinations determine the first, second, and third draft picks.

I bet these two guys can make a hell of a smoothie.

Twitter:  Larry Sanders has an invite to tryout for the U.S. men’s basketball team this summer.

Just found out I got selected to workout/tryout for the USA Basketball team this summer! Such and amazing honor,Glory be to God! #Olympics

— Nappy Gilmore(@LarrySanders) May 22, 2013

All this lottery buzz for Cleveland lends itself to thinking about Mike Brown and LeBron James’ time with the Cavs.  For a while, LeBron played like the player with the most talent, but also like a player who had no idea how to put it to good use.  There were too many offensive possessions that ended without anyone but him touching the ball.  He looked uncoached or uncoachable, for lack of a better phrase. His scoring and defense were amazing almost from the start, but he had room to grow with respect to rebounding, playing offense from the paint, and passing in the overall context of a team’s offense.

In 2013, he dominates the NBA and has now make a case for himself as one of the all-time greatest players.  What happened in-between? Could it have been his experience in international play?

Back in 2008, Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski threatened to leave LeBron off the Olympic team.  Four years later, they were singing his praise as the world’s greatest player.

“LeBron James is a different player and a different person than he was in ’06,” Colangelo said in a private moment after the United States’ 107-100 gold medal victory. “And I say that with exclamation marks. He’s matured incredibly as a person, player and leader.”

Sanders isn’t LeBron James, of course.  But he could mature a bit.  And playing with the world’s greatest assemblage of talent on one team and learning from Krzyzewski or a Kryzewski-level coach can’t hurt, can it? What if we assume that Sanders doesn’t suffer a physical injury during international play?

The U.S. men’s basketball team holds a mini-camp July 22-25 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  Despite still technically being the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, Larry Drew interviewed for an identical position with the Milwaukee Bucks Monday.  According to Chris Vivlamore, Drew communicated via text message that the meeting “went well”.