Connecticut native Vin Baker was dubbed “America’s Best-Kept Secret” while putting up monster stat lines for the small school University of Hartford. That perhaps was a key factor in Baker sliding to eighth in the 1993 NBA Draft, where the Bucks selected him.
The 6-foot-11 Baker played all 82 games as a rookie, averaging double-digit points from the jump and for all of his four seasons with the team. By his sophomore season, he was an NBA All-Star for a struggling Bucks team, the first of three consecutive trips to the glorified exhibition. By his third season, he was averaging 21 points per game.
Baker was a workhorse for Milwaukee, averaging over 40 minutes per game in three separate seasons. By his fourth season, he was a dominant two-way force, making an All-NBA team. Yet by the end of that season the Bucks, unable to put together a winning team around Baker, traded him as part of a three-team deal to retool.
He would go on to put up another pair of dominant seasons with the then-Seattle SuperSonics before earning notoriety for the large contract he signed, one he largely did not live up to.
The Bucks would package the pick they received for Baker, along with the draft rights to Dirk Nowitzki, for the rights to draft Robert Traylor, a deal that will go down in Bucks’ lore for one of the worst in franchise history. Yet for everything that came after, Baker was a solid piece for the Bucks at a time when they did not have many bright spots.