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Milwaukee Bucks: Marques Johnson, others snubbed from NBA 2K All-Time Team

By Ti Windisch

MILWAUKEE, WI - CIRCA 1970s: Marques Johnson #8 of the Milwaukee Bucks in a game in the 1970s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/ Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI - CIRCA 1970s: Marques Johnson #8 of the Milwaukee Bucks in a game in the 1970s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/ Getty Images) /
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Marques Johnson somehow is not on the Milwaukee Bucks NBA 2K All-Time Team and that is upsetting.

Some deserving member of the Milwaukee Bucks was always going to be snubbed from the NBA 2K18 All-Time Team. That’s just how these things go–in making a game for fans of all 30 teams, it’s hard to nail any one specific team.

Still, the snubs on the Bucks All-Time Team are tough to swallow. Junior Bridgeman and Brian Winters both didn’t make the cut, which is somewhat understandable. Both players have their numbers retired with Milwaukee, but most of the guys who made it instead of them are deserving.

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Marques Johnson not being on the team is full-stop wrong, though. Marques is, in my estimation, one of the four or so greatest Bucks of all time. He spent seven seasons with Milwaukee and racked up four All-Star nods, an All-Rookie nod, an All-NBA first team appearance, and two All-NBA second team appearance.

The Bucks won five division titles with Marques around, and enjoyed the second-best run in franchise history while he was their best player. The original MJ averaged 21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in his Milwaukee tenure.

Not including Marques is a mistake, but sadly it’s not been an uncommon one lately. The Bucks still have yet to retire his number despite his Milwaukee accomplishments, and won’t do so anytime soon since Matthew Dellavedova is currently wearing Marques’ number 8 jersey.

As we’ve noted here for a while now, that’s easily the biggest omission from Milwaukee’s rafters. And, much like with this NBA 2K All-Time Team, some other inclusions make it look even worse.

For the retired numbers side of things, having Brian Winters and Bob Lanier have their jerseys in the rafters without including Marques’ feels so weird. Winters had a fine eight-season run in Milwaukee, but was never as good as Marques was in his Bucks days.

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The Dobber is an NBA legend, but most of his accomplishments came with the Detroit Pistons. He has one All-Star nod as a Buck, but he wasn’t the same guy in those seasons.

The worst part is both of them were on the 60-win Bucks team in the 1980-81 season that Marques led to those heights! Marques averaged more points, rebounds, assists, and steals per game than either Lanier or Winters did that season. He embodied the point forward role, and it resulted in one of Milwaukee’s finest seasons. Still, his number is yet to be retired.

Similarly, having guys like Brandon Jennings, Ricky Pierce, and again, Lanier, make the 2K All-Time Team over Marques just feels unacceptable. Marques Johnson is a Milwaukee Bucks legend and an NBA in general legend. It’s time people began to recognize that.

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Hopefully 2K can update the roster before the game launches. As fun as it will be to run out historic Bucks lineups and play with them on the game, it just won’t feel right without Marques involved on the team. And if it’s a rights issue, it’s one that needs to be resolved for these All-Time Teams to make sense.

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