Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from 118-108 win over Orlando Magic

At long last

Excuse me for deviating from the events of the game itself, but the truth is if any moments from Saturday are remembered at the end of the season, they’ll be from the Fox Sports Wisconsin broadcast and centered around the important announcement that took place mid-game.

Finally, the unnecessarily long wait is over for one of the greatest players to ever suit up for the Milwaukee Bucks. Marques Johnson‘s No. 8 jersey will hang from the rafters at Fiserv Forum.

The news was first reported by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, yet with word breaking while Johnson was on-air commentating, the subsequent announcement by Jim Paschke on Fox Sports Wisconsin gifted Bucks fans the chance to soak in how much the honor means to Johnson.

Johnson was one of the true standouts of the great Bucks team that emerged at the end of the 1970’s and ultimately went on to win at an elite rate, even beyond Johnson’s stay, into the late 1980’s.

The former UCLA Bruin was a key driver of Don Nelson‘s success with the Bucks, and of a greater shift in how the NBA is played to this very day, as he embraced a point forward role which allowed him to demonstrate his wide and varied range of skills.

Since returning to Milwaukee in recent years, Johnson has again become a fan favorite for a whole new generation of Bucks fans. The 62-year-old’s insight and humor have made Bucks’ broadcasts some of the best in the league, and coincided with the emergence of what may prove to be the franchise’s best team since the era of Johnson and his teammates.

Johnson will receive the ultimate honor the franchise can bestow on March 24, when the Bucks host the Cleveland Cavaliers. He will be the ninth Buck to see his jersey number hoisted to the rafters, and the first since the move to Fiserv Forum.