History Of The Milwaukee Bucks In The Rising Stars Challenge

Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 30, 2016; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Milwaukee Bucks logo on the floor prior o the game against the Phoenix Suns at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Milwaukee won 105-94. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 30, 2016; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Milwaukee Bucks logo on the floor prior o the game against the Phoenix Suns at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Milwaukee won 105-94. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /

Glenn Robinson

Year(s): 1995

Glenn Robinson should have been the MVP of the 1995 Rookie Challenge. Big Dog was the best player on the winning team, as his White Team beat the Green Team 83-79 and he led his squad in scoring with 21 points.

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Eddie Jones walked away with MVP honors for scoring four more points than Robinson. That’s messed up for a few reasons, the first being that a win should be worth more than four points. Second, the only reason Jones scored more was because he played three more minutes than Big Dog! That’s just bad coaching on the White Team’s behalf.

In addition to his scoring, Robinson also posted four rebounds and three assists in the winning effort. He had easily the best season any Buck has had as a rookie or sophomore who got to play in one of these games (they didn’t exist for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s or Marques Johnson‘s rookie seasons.)

Robinson averaged 21.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game in his first NBA season. That Bucks team finished 34-48, but still that’s one hell of a rookie year. Still, it somehow took the NBA until 2000 to get Big Dog to an All-Star team, and he only made two of them in his career.

Next: 2017 Rising Stars Challenge Preview

Malcolm Brogdon could become the first Buck to win MVP in a Rising Stars Challenge, thanks to Big Dog getting cheated out of the honor in the game’s second year of existence. Oh well.