Milwaukee Bucks: P.J. Tucker relives epic championship parade

Even though he’s gone to an Eastern Conference rival, the P.J. Tucker era of Milwaukee Bucks basketball will live forever after he helped deliver the first championship in 50 years to the franchise. He was a fan favorite, many were disappointed that he wasn’t brought back, and he’ll get a loud ovation when he returns to Fiserv Forum later this year with the Miami Heat.

It was also one of the biggest moments, if not the biggest moment, of Tucker’s NBA career and that was a big topic of conversation in his appearance on J.J. Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast where they touched on everything from his house that he has just for his shoes to a meeting that changed his career to his championship run with the Bucks. Oh, and his incredible performance at the championship parade.

Tucker has been very candid about how his exit was handled by the Bucks and that he was expecting to come back, but did not. He keeps the same candor in this appearance, but he was much happier and nostalgic for this one.

P.J. Tucker relives his championship run & parade experience with the Milwaukee Bucks

It’s clear that Tucker thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Bucks, due in part to them winning the championship, I’m sure. But Milwaukee wasn’t the destination that he initially thought he was headed before the trade deadline last year.

"“It’s crazy. It was just those two [Milwaukee and Miami], right? But the way things were looking, I thought Miami was going to be the one. All the telltale signs were saying Miami at the time. … And then, the Milwaukee thing just happened like *snaps fingers* boom. It just happened and I was like ‘wait, what happened?’ like I really didn’t think so.”"

The rumors leading up to that point were that the Bucks and Heat were both heavily interested in Tucker, but it’s interesting to hear that he thought he was definitely going to be playing for the Heat and it’s now especially interesting given that he signed with Miami in the offseason.

Tucker then got into some of the more in-depth moments from the championship run, including their epic seven-game series against the Brooklyn Nets. Tucker notably went to battle with good friend Kevin Durant throughout the entirety of that series and even got into it with Durant’s mom who was sitting courtside.

"“So, I was talking… crazy. I was in him, I had got him a few times like some real tough hits. She was like ‘he’s not playing basketball, he’s playing football! He out there tackling him, blah blah blah.’ She’s going at me, someone’s shooting a free throw, and I hear her. I turn around and I said ‘I love you, mom.’ And she, I mean right as dry, she says ‘I love you too.’ I can’t believe TNT caught it … that was my moment of the playoffs.”"

He gave a very detailed answer about how he has to trick himself mentally when guarding Kevin Durant because he’s going to score, but as Tucker puts it, he has to tell himself that Durant can’t keep making those shots. His mindset was to make it as tough for Durant to score as possible, even if he’s going to drop 50 points regardless. That was something that came through to me where he was going to work extremely hard and make Durant work extremely hard to get his points.

Tucker also talked about how tough that Nets series was mentally for the entire team and that he was almost surprised when the series was over that they had to play more games. That series felt like a Finals series for the team and for the fans with all of the emotional highs and lows coming from that series.

The best moment of the podcast for me, however, was when he talked about the championship parade and his epic performance throughout. Tucker was the life of the party and it was great seeing him partying with the fans after the championship.

"“Listen, I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t think I slept for like five days straight. Have you been to Milwaukee in the summer, like when it’s nice out? Milwuakee is actually a nice place [Redick: I love Milwaukee], Milwaukee is really nice actually, in the summertime it is delightful. And when the Bucks are winning it’s even better. I couldn’t pay for a drink. … I just enjoyed it with the fans because I knew how much it meant to them. It could never mean as much to me as it did to them. “"

Tucker also decided to take it upon himself to turn up the parade by himself because, as he describes, the Bucks big three doesn’t get too wild. He noted that the stars aren’t really big party people and that he decided to go crazy (despite some protesting from Khris Middleton for him to take it easy). He then went into detail about his speech at the parade and what led to one of the best moments of the whole season.

"“I was starting to lose my voice from the parade from yelling the whole time. … I had just finished one [bottle of champagne] and then my boy hands me another huge bottle and this is like right before. Right when I get up there, they say my name and I’m like ‘oh it’s my turn, alright.’ I didn’t say anything that I told myself I was going to say because I was ending that like but it ended up being my whole speech, I forgot everything before so that’s when I knew I was drunk. The sip wasn’t supposed to be that. I was going to take a sip and spray it but, you know, it happens.”"

It was a great interview and Tucker is one of the best personalities in the entire league, so getting to hear him tell stories from the championship run from his perspective was a very enjoyable hour or so. I highly recommend listening for the Bucks stories but also about his journey through his basketball career, because it’s a really great story of perseverance.

Tucker will make his much-anticipated return to Fiserv Forum on December 4th where the Bucks will look to get revenge for that ugly loss in the second game of the season.