Milwaukee Bucks: Tex Winter’s connection to 1970-71 title-winning team

The triangle offense, which was made popular by famed coach Tex Winter, was the basis behind the Milwaukee Bucks’ offensive system during their championship-winning 1970-71 season.

ESPN’s The Last Dance has certainly enthralled all basketball fans during this basketball-less time due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As it chronicles the greatness of the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty during the 1990s while culminating in their titular last dance during the 1997-98 season, the teams they went on to surpass have been showcased and the Milwaukee Bucks haven’t been an exception in that regard.

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Those Bulls teams helmed by legendary head coach Phil Jackson featured the famed triangle system that was popularized by Chicago assistant coach Tex Winter, as the fourth hour of the docuseries analyzed.

Chicago’s dynastic run certainly shone a light on how that system and overall brand of basketball could lead to championships, but they weren’t the first team to deploy the system en route to winning an NBA title.

That’s right, the 1970-71 Bucks, the lone team in franchise history to win an NBA championship, had used a triangle-based system under head coach Larry Costello.

It was Winter’s guidance, who was the head coach of Kansas State University in Manhattan, that helped Costello and Bucks assistant coach Tom Nissalke to create a foundation for their success, as Nissalke told Tom Oates of Madison.com back in May of 2011:

"“After the Bucks drafted Alcindor, Costello and Nissalke had traveled to Kansas State to learn the triangle offense from coach Tex Winter. Yes, that’s the same offense coach Phil Jackson used much later to win 11 NBA titles.“Oscar would have fit into whatever we were running, but we were running the triangle,” Nissalke said. “He fit right in with running everything and being the floor leader.”"

Costello, who was known for his thorough and vast playbook, which seemingly grew by the day, and exacting coaching style, designed the system around the extraordinary talents of Bucks center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the late Dr. Jack Ramsay wrote about for ESPN following Costello’s death in December of 2001:

"Costy drew up an offense similar to the “triangle” style that has gained so much recognition with the champion Chicago Bulls and L.A. Lakers. Costello’s offense was designed to involve Abdul-Jabbar on every possession. In that season, the Bucks won 56 games. The next year (1971), the team acquired Oscar Robertson, Abdul-Jabbar led the league in scoring, and the Bucks won the NBA title.”Jack McKinney, an assistant to Costello at Milwaukee from 1974-76, says that Costy had a playbook that included over 80 plays; about half of which were designed for getting the ball to Kareem. McKinney credits Costello for giving Kareem a positive start to his great NBA career.“Costy was obsessed with the game of basketball, and was always thinking up new plays. Whenever we’d lose a game, Costy would come to practice the next day with a new play or two. The players would sometimes roll their eyes as the playbook grew larger and larger, but the plays always worked.”"

While Winter went on to say that the Bucks used “the basic structure of the triangle offense without any of the details” in More Than A Game by Phil Jackson and Charley Rosen published in 2002, Costello’s intricate, detailed system clearly catapulted the Bucks to success during that era.

The Bucks’ personnel, headlined by Abdul-Jabbar as well as perennial All-Star guard and one-time MVP, Oscar Robertson, and the dependable Bob Dandridge, were tailor-made for the active and spaced out halfcourt offense that is a staple within the triangle to pair with that breakneck, up-tempo transition game.

And unsurprisingly, it was during the Bucks’ title-winning 70-71 campaign that their offense was at the peak of its powers throughout their formative years and Abdul-Jabbar’s time in Milwaukee. Per Basketball-Reference, the Bucks had the highest offensive efficiency that season and led the league in averaging 118.4 points per game while shooting a then-record 50.9 percent from the field as a team.

Winter’s influence with the triangle offense and the game of basketball as a whole is certainly exemplified by his time on Jackson’s staff in Chicago and later with the Los Angeles Lakers. But it was already being felt five decades ago when the Bucks reigned supreme.