Milwaukee Bucks: 3 biggest ‘what ifs’ during the Bucks’ 1970s run
The Milwaukee Bucks’ run through the early 1970s was quite prosperous, but it wasn’t without some moves and decisions that may have led to their eventual downfall.
When people think of the Milwaukee Bucks historically, it’s hard not to immediately go to the early years of their life in the NBA.
The heights that the Bucks reached during this golden era have yet to be seen again in the subsequent years and decades that have passed, though recent history has been far kinder to the Bucks in this sense.
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Still, this is still a Bucks run, which featured all-time greats such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and Bob Dandridge, that only had one NBA title to show for it.
Considering how those Milwaukee teams were viewed at the time, that would have been considered a massive disappointment under today’s prism.
Leave it to Robertson to say what he thought of the Bucks falling short more often than they won titles, as he said this to On Milwaukee back in June of 2014:
"“Three or four rings (in that era), look, you’ve got play when the game’s on the line. You can’t play 40 years later. I’ve played a lot of games in high school, a lot in college, a lot in the pros. I love to win but it’s a game of basketball. You can’t always go back and recapture the thing. When people get into you life you’ve got to live today and tomorrow. You can’t go back and recapture anything. I’d love to do it sometime. A lot of things I think I could’ve done better, but it happened.”"
Of course, we often take for granted the perpetual climb to simply be on the cusp of glory and reach that level of immortality, as even the slightest or overlooked moves and decisions can sink a team’s championship aspirations or even lead to its eventual undoing.
So without further ado, let’s run through the three biggest “what if” questions that hung over the Bucks’ glory days throughout the early 1970s.