The Milwaukee Bucks and All-Star weekend: Looking at franchise's history at the event

Bucks players at the All-Star Game

The Milwaukee Bucks franchise was born in 1968 and debuted in the NBA in the 68-69 season, in which they had their first All-Star: Jon McGlocklin. This might seem surprising, but we need to take into account that the NBA was a smaller league at the time. There were only 14 franchises, and 24 players were selected, so every team got at least one All-Star that year.

That was the reason why the Bucks had such an early All-Star, but it wasn’t the reason anymore after the 1969 Draft, where they picked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor at the time) first and made themselves one of the powerhouses of the league. He was an instant lock, making the All-Star Game during all of his seasons as a Buck. In fact, he only missed one All-Star in his whole career, the 1978 one, because of a broken hand.

He wasn’t the only All-Star on the team, though. Flynn Robinson, Oscar Robertson, Bob Dandridge and Jim Price joined him at some points of this tenure, so Milwaukee had a solid presence at the event in its first years.

Abdul-Jabbar's departure wasn’t dramatic in this particular aspect either. The Bucks had their first non-All-Star year in 1977, but Brian Winters and Marques Johnson quickly got the team back on track. In the early 80s, Milwaukee had a great stretch that helped the team keep its presence at the All-Star event despite the league expansion. Sidney Moncrief and Terry Cummings joined Johnson as usual players in the game, and even Bob Lainer got selected once, keeping the team at a good pace in All-Star appearances.

Things started to get trickier in the late 80s, though. The franchise had no All-Stars for the second time in its history in 1987 and made it two years in a row in 1988, starting a stretch where All-Star selections become less usual. Terry Cummings made the event in 1989, and Rick Pierce and Alvin Robertson both got selected in 1991, but that little drought was a warning of what was to come.

After 1991, Vin Baker was the only Bucks All-Star for eight years, making the game for three seasons in a row (1994-1996). With the new century, Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen brought some light again from 2000 to 2002, and Michael Redd followed their steps in 2004, seemingly starting a new era of the franchise becoming somewhat usual in the All-Star. But that was not the case. That was indeed a bit of a swan song.

The Bucks went 12 All-Stars weekends in a row without any of their players being selected, getting close to the all-time record set by the Golden State Warriors between Latrell Sprewell's selection in 1997 and David Lee's in 2012. Giannis Antetokounmpo broke the streak and got the franchise to its current state, which hasn't been the norm at all.

The Greek Freak has since broken most All-Star-related franchise records. He's played the game eight times, scored 35 points in a single game and has 176 points total, being the Bucks' all-time leader in those categories, an honor he will probably keep for a while.