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

The 2001-02 season

Once the 2001-02 season got underway, the Bucks had lived up to the hype of being a team to beat in the NBA. Milwaukee won nine of their first 10 games nearly a month into the campaign before enduring a five-game losing streak, headlined by a winless four-game road swing out West.

Even before that stretch, cracks began to show with Mason as he made it clear he didn’t truly buy into the team’s philosophy, and the system that had catapulted the Bucks the previous year. Take Mason’s words from a Baltimore Sun piece written by Don Markus from November 2001:

"“I play to a rhythm and try to play the right way. You can’t be throwing it inside after nine or 10 possessions. We’re trying to win a certain way, but I don’t know how you can be a championship team without any inside game.”"

Mason’s fitness and game shape quickly came under question. Add in rumors of a rift between Karl and Robinson, which was spurred on after Karl called out Robinson following the fifth straight loss, an 85-71 defeat to the New York Knicks. Upon learning of Karl’s remarks, Robinson was, uh, quite blunt on his view of Karl’s actions:

"“To tell the media and not tell me … that’s a coward. I thought we had a better relationship than that. Obviously, we don’t,” Robinson said."

Despite the growing discontent within the locker room and Karl’s ever-present need to rile up his players to get results on the court, though, the Bucks rebounded and rode plenty of ups and downs as they settled into the season. A four-game winning streak was followed by a four-game losing slump, which was then followed by an eight-game win streak in late January.

Entering the All-Star break, the Bucks held a 28-18 record and were first place in their division by the beginning of March. But the durability of their stars such as Allen and Robinson, along with key reserves such as Thomas and Michael Redd eventually set the stage for the brutal final month-and-a-half of the regular season.

Milwaukee suffered through multiple losing stretches over the course of March, winning just five of their 16 games that month. Obviously their grip on the best record in the division was lost completely, but Milwaukee’s dysfunction had completely spiraled on to the court.

Of course, that gave birth to one of the best moments in Bucks history where Cassell, after being called for an offensive foul at the end of the third quarter in a 107-98 loss to the Washington Wizards on March 29, 2002, promptly punted the ball in the stands and was ejected.

In many ways, Cassell’s punt would prove to be a fitting metaphor to the Bucks’ regular season collapse.

Milwaukee sank further into despair into April where, after suffering through a five-game losing streak, the Bucks slipped under. 500 at 39-40 heading into their final three games in the season and with a playoff berth on the line.

To his credit, Allen desperately tried to stave off the team’s fall out of the playoffs entirely. In a marquee matchup against the Charlotte Hornets on April 14, 2002, Allen turned in one hell of a performance as he scored 47 of the Bucks’ 98 points and hit a franchise-record 10 triples in a 98-91 victory.

Milwaukee followed up that win with a 105-89 victory over the Toronto Raptors two nights later to go back above .500 at 41-40. For the final game of the season, the Bucks had to travel to Detroit to take on a Pistons team that ended up taking the central division that year and Milwaukee simply had to win at all costs to clinch a playoff berth.

In the end, the Bucks stopped there. Their final game of the 01-02 season was a bloodbath that ended up being a 123-89 defeat, cementing their disastrous late-season collapse and missing a trip to the postseason nearly a year after coming within one game of the NBA Finals.

The Bucks had done the unthinkable and Allen discussed with ESPN’s David Aldridge going into the 2002-03 season, that he and every Bucks player, Karl and the organization had to live with their brutal demise the previous season:

"“I’m sure in each part of the world that each one of us was in (this summer), we all had some person, some situation, where we were being talked about, or somebody was laughing, or asking us what happened to the team,” Ray Allen says now. “And that’s embarrassing, too. You know, you have to give that explanation. Because a lot of people knew we were a good team and we were supposed to be in the playoffs.”"

With the way the Bucks’ 01-02 season ended, there was almost a guarantee for carnage in the offseason, especially as the Bucks’ brand of drama and palace intrigue continued to bubble toward the surface.