Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 1970s All-Decade Team

Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 1970s All-Decades Team – Brian Winters

While Jon McGlocklin had supplanted himself as the first sharpshooter and All-Star in Bucks history, dating back to the 1968 NBA Expansion Draft, his physical decline and role changes throughout the 1970s forced us to look elsewhere on this list.

In many ways, Brian Winters delivered the same elite outside shooting, both on and off the ball, by the time he arrived in Milwaukee in the summer of 1975 when the Bucks dealt Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Winters, Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers and Elmore Smith.

It was Winters who stood as the big sticking point in the trade discussions between the two teams and then-Bucks general manager Wayne Embry recounted shutting down trade talks at one point with the Lakers with their reluctance to include the 2-guard as discussions heated up:

"“Still no Winters, still no damn deal!” Embry exclaimed.”"

With Winters in Milwaukee, the Bucks had an essential building block in place in the post-Abdul-Jabbar years and he helped quickly expedite their rebuilding process under a young, promising head coach in Don Nelson. And Winters grew into a two-time All-Star and eventually had his number 32 retired by the team following his retirement after the 1982-83 season.

Winters’ shooting stroke clearly had an impact on all players at the time, most notably the legendary Michael Jordan as he put Winters in the class of best pure shooters when speaking to Cigar Aficionado in August of 2005:

"“Pure shooter, I would say Brian Winters, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks. He had the most beautiful stroke of all the people whom I can think of.”"

During his 582 appearances with the Bucks, Winters averaged 16.7 points on .478/.363/.843 shooting splits, 4.3 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals over 31.7 minutes per game.