Looking for larger than life characters? The Milwaukee Bucks squads from the early 2010s would at least make for an entertaining Last Dance-style documentary.
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles where we’ll take a closer look at teams, seasons, and moments in Bucks History that could make for a documentary in the vein of ESPN’s The Last Dance (more details to be found here). Check back on Monday each week for a closer look at the candidates
For obvious reasons, mediocrity is generally never remembered. Quite simply, it’s not that interesting. The appeal of getting to know more about a great team is obvious, as in many ways it is for a terrible team too. There’s a sense of those kinds of teams helping us to learn something greater about the notions of winning and losing.
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But what about when there almost seems to be a maniacal commitment to mediocrity, in spite of the fact all rewards are to be found in pushing to take the paths toward either glittering success or complete, abject failure?
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the story of almost 15 years of early 21st century Milwaukee Bucks basketball.
By the time the Bucks entered the 2010s, they’d been distinctly mediocre since the Ray Allen trade. It had essentially become a way of life for the Bucks in a league that punishes nothing more harshly than it does continued mediocrity.
Neither memorable seasons or vast playoff revenue were coming Milwaukee’s way, but nor, more often than not, were top quality draft picks.
As we kicked off this series last week, the early 1970s Bucks, and the pinnacle in franchise history, seemed like an obvious place to start in terms of potential documentary subject matter. This time, though, let’s consider something entirely different.
This is a story of a team that had completely lost its way, a roster that was packed with larger than life characters who possessed largely misguided confidence, and a franchise that was on the precipice of hitting its nadir (albeit not entirely by design). This is the story of the last Bucks squad before Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton arrived, and brought with them a bright new dawn.
So, without further ado, let’s make the case for why a documentary series focused on the Bucks of the early 2010s, and specifically the 2012-13 season, could grip Milwaukee fans, even if it was frequently for all the wrong reasons.