Milwaukee Bucks: Imagining a documentary on the early 2000s Bucks

In the early 2000’s, the Milwaukee Bucks had enjoyed an overdue renaissance, nearly reaching the NBA Finals in 2001. That and their incredibly swift downfall the following year would make for a perfect 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.

By the turn of the 21st century, the Milwaukee Bucks were simply looking for a way back to the dizzying heights that had all become a guarantee once upon a time.

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Throughout the majority of the 1990s, the Bucks had entirely lost their way, their look and their overall identity from being the perennial contender during the Don Nelson years.

There were the occasional building blocks present to provide hope for a potentially successful rebuild, but a revolving door of changes on the roster, coaching staff and management made a simple return back to the playoffs an unsuccessful pursuit throughout the decade.

Eventually, hope for the Bucks came in the form of four prominent figures: Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and George Karl.

The formation of all three players and Karl as the team’s head coach helped craft an incredibly memorable time in Bucks history and most specifically, their run all the way to the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals where they took and eventually fell to the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games.

After more than a decade, the Bucks had finally reached the highs they had been painstakingly searching for and were primed to be a respected title contender from the 2001-02 season onward. For a variety of factors as we’ll get into, that didn’t come to pass.

So without further ado, let’s detail why the 2001-02 Bucks season, their run leading up to and after their disastrous year, and the Bucks’ ‘Big 3’ era would make for an excellent Last Dance-style documentary series.