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.
More from Bucks History
- The 3 biggest “What Ifs” in Milwaukee Bucks’ franchise history
- 6 Underrated Milwaukee Bucks of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era
- Ranking Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 10 best Bucks teammates of all time
- How well do you know the Milwaukee Bucks’ top 20 career point leaders?
- Looking at important playoff numbers in Milwaukee Bucks franchise history
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.
The injury of Lucius Allen
Starting us off, it’s been well-documented just how Lucius Allen‘s knee injury went on to doom the Bucks during their run to the 1974 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
Allen had been a valuable rotation piece for the Bucks and head coach Larry Costello throughout their run in the early ’70s and was a part of the title-winning team in 1970-71.
But it was the UCLA product’s emergence in the 1973-74 season that was crucial to the Bucks’ run as he was able to give the Bucks a dynamic, speedy attacker that was necessary to alleviate the load off of the aging Robertson, and to play off of Abdul-Jabbar, whom Allen had built a bond with since their college days.
Of course, Allen’s breakout campaign was cut short when he suffered a bizarre knee injury when he slipped on a warmup jacket during a mid-March tilt against the Detroit Pistons.
Milwaukee was able to soldier on to finish out the regular season with a league-leading 59 wins and roll on to the Finals without their starting 2-guard, but Allen’s absence in Milwaukee’s clash against the Celtics can be directly tied to the bitter way their season and their overall run ended.
As Allen said himself in On Milwaukee’s retrospective on the 40th Anniversary of that Finals loss back in June of 2014, the swift dissolution of the team’s foundation made it a tougher pill to swallow, which included Allen being dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers the following season:
"“I look back at that time, and I look at (how) Oscar Robertson aged. I looked at the components of our team. I was hurt. I was an unproven commodity at that time. Oscar was hurt. The only skill players that were there were Bob Dandridge and Abdul-Jabbar. They needed guard play. I believe it was Wayne Embry at the time who was our general manager, I think they decided that was the time to start to break that team up because we had failed three straight years to win that championship. It was time to break that time up and when they traded me (on Nov. 8, 1974) that signaled the start of the breaking up of that Milwaukee Buck team.”"
Had Allen not gotten hurt, especially in the manner that he did, one can only wonder how the scope of the franchise could have changed.
Not running it back in 1971-72
All Bucks fans know the core players that were instrumental in winning the franchise’s only NBA title in 1970-71 and in the manner they mowed through the opposition, including sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals.
The Bucks’ dominance created such a weight of expectations that they would win night after night and Allen admitted to Sports Illustrated in May of ’71 that it took some of the excitement out of it:
"“People expect us to win,” he said. “Everything we see in the paper says we’ll win. It takes some of the excitement away from us. And I guess if you get right to it, we’re not a very emotional bunch.”"
Those pieces obviously remained when the Bucks were looking to defend their title the following season, but their roster depth significantly changed year over year and subtly changed the complexion of the roster. Key reserves either retired (Bob Boozer), were traded (Dick Cunningham) or released (McCoy McLemore) in the lead up to and before the start of the 1971-72 campaign.
The biggest move in this regard, though, was the decision to trade starting forward Greg Smith as well as a third round pick in the 1973 Draft to the Houston Rockets in exchange for second-year forward Curtis Perry and a first rounder in the ’73 Draft.
Smith had fortified the Bucks’ starting unit throughout the championship-winning season and what he lacked in size at the power forward position, his quickness, athleticism and versatility made him ideal for what they did defensively and especially in their uptempo, fast breaking game.
That made his and Dandridge’s partnership a special one as they actively switched off in spending time defending bigger and more powerful forwards at that time as The Greyhound reflected on in March of 2015 to Bucks.com’s Truman Reed:
"“We made that work,” Dandridge said. “Neither one of us was capable of guarding a power forward night-in and night-out because of our size, so we switched off. This was something Larry Costello didn’t have to tell us.”"
In contrast, Perry was a more bruising athlete that offered up more size that could help the squad on the boards, but was rawer than Smith and prone to getting into foul trouble early into his Bucks stint.
Wayne Embry recounted to NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner in March of 2017 the intent of the move from the Bucks’ side of things and why he views the trading of Smith as something that bit the Bucks in the end:
"“At that point, I was trying to not screw it up. And I was always afraid that trading Greg Smith screwed it up because we were trying to get bigger at the power forward position. That’s when we brought Curtis Perry in. There were a couple years there where we got beat in the playoffs [by the Lakers and the Warriors], and then we got back to the Finals in ’74. We lost the final game in Milwaukee, which was a heartbreaker.”"
Abdul-Jabbar was more direct on what was lost specifically when Smith was dealt to Houston:
"“We had one guy who was the key to that team, Greg Smith, a 6-5 power forward. Nobody could understand it, but Greg could could rebound with the 6-9 guys and run with the guards. He was as fast as the guards, and it was a unique combination that gave everybody fits. Guys like Gus Johnson and Dave DeBusschere used to hate to see Greg come into the gym. After we lost him, we lost that advantage.”"
As the old saying goes, all of the pieces matter and Smith’s departure is far from the first thing remembered for why the Bucks didn’t end up enjoying a dynastic run during this era. However, given how the Bucks quickly aged and were injured over this run, losing Smith’s positional and style fit didn’t help their championship pursuits following the 70-71 year.
What if Dr. J was a Buck?
Arguably the biggest ‘what if’ in the scope of the franchise, the Bucks losing out on Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving in 1972 could have have single-handedly changed that era in an instant.
For those not in the know, the Bucks had selected Erving with the 12th overall pick in the 1972 NBA Draft.
Erving, who had already been a star in the ABA with the Virginia Squires the previous year, had illegally signed a contract with the Atlanta Hawks right before the draft after he discovered his agent, Steve Arnold, had not acted in his best financial interests as he was being compensated by the ABA and the Squires at the time of negotiating Erving’s deal.
Trying to make the switch to the NBA, a major legal struggle between the Bucks, the Hawks and the ABA ensued and Erving was intent on playing for the Hawks for the 1972-73 season. Still, the illegal nature of the deal left Embry steaming:
"“As far as the by-laws of the National Basketball Association go, the rights to Julius Erving belong to the Milwaukee Bucks-it’s as clear cut as that.”"
With the Bucks having the trump card of holding the draft rights to Erving, there was a palpable fear that they would became an even greater superpower than they were with Abdul-Jabbar, Dandridge and Robertson. Chicago Bulls head coach Dick Motta was blunt about what it would mean if Erving went to Milwaukee as Sports Illustrated relayed in October of 1972:
"“The Bucks also have the NBA draft rights to Julius Erving who, some scouts think, is at worst the best offensive forward since Elgin Baylor. Erving is likely to return to the ABA, but the courts could still assign him to Milwaukee. ‘If they put him on the Bucks, this is going to be the most boring league ever,’ says Chicago Coach Dick Motta.”"
With the Hawks getting fined for Erving’s appearances in exhibition games, the NBA stepped in and said Erving belonged to the Bucks. The Hawks remained defiant, filing an antitrust suit towards the league, but the federal court eventually ruled that Erving had to honor his contract with the Squires and continue playing in the ABA. The Bucks eventually were compensated with a pair of draft picks and $100,000 from Atlanta.
Embry discussed the whole ordeal with The Athletic’s Eric Nehm ($) in February of 2019, including pursuing Erving a second time after the ABA-NBA merger and who the Bucks took with one of the picks from the Hawks:
"“It was disturbing, but I still think it was worth the risk. If he could come, we’d be the Boston Celtics of the ’50s and ’60s and won a string of championships. I learned later one of the reasons why he didn’t want to come to Milwaukee was because we already had Oscar and Kareem. We tried to sign him after the ABA folded, since we held his rights, and that was when his agent informed me then. Atlanta signed him illegally and the league penalized them. Atlanta gave us cash and two second-round picks. With one of those picks, we drafted another Hall of Famer with one of those picks, Alex English.”"
It goes without saying just how transformative of a quartet Abdul-Jabbar, Dandridge, Erving and Robertson could have been, had the Bucks’ drafting of Dr. J been honored. Ultimately, the presence of Erving could have extended an incredibly prosperous era of Bucks basketball and potentially prevented them from trading away Abdul-Jabbar, versus how it all quickly ended following the trip to the 1974 NBA Finals.
Alas, we’ll never know and it’s a part of what makes the Bucks’ golden era such a fascinating period to relive and rediscover time and time again.