JEFFREY PHELPS/NBAE
A superb piece from Grantland’s Amos Barshad went up today, if you haven’t yet read it you should. Barshad muses on all things Milwaukee Bucks but in particular on the focus and pressure being put on sublimely talented Bucks youngster Giannis Antetokounmpo and how important his development is to the Bucks future, as well as chronicling his inspiring past.
The piece also focusses on Senator Kohl’s tenure and gives SaveOurBucks.com a couple of solid shoutouts. Barshad met with Save Our Bucks own Paul Henning while in Milwaukee for the story recently and the two had a great chat, some of which is detailed in the article.
“If Gorzalski and his fellow basketball fans in Milwaukee’s arts community represent the more urbane side of Bucks fandom, then the members of the online community Save Our Bucks are the G8 protesters with the Molotov cocktails in hand. The group grew out of the lively Bucks forum on RealGM.com; now its members publicly hammer the franchise for its sins. Earlier this year, they stirred up quite a hubbub when they crowd-funded a billboard, near the city along Interstate 43, that reads “Winning Takes Balls” — the ones bouncing around inside the NBA’s lottery machine.
I meet Paul Henning, the 33-year-old public face of Save Our Bucks, at a footbridge near the billboard. Befitting the renegade vibe, the group’s primary benefactor has chosen to remain anonymous and no one — not even Henning — has met him. “He’d rather be the Hannibal Smith,” Henning says. “He just loves it when a plan comes together.”
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“Save Our Bucks wants smart new management that’s in tune with current analytics-heavy NBA philosophy. They pine for a crusading member of the local media to call out the team’s years of ineptitude. But they also just want to remind people that they’re here. “It’s a very sick relationship that Bucks fans have with the franchise,” Henning says. “But I love the city of Milwaukee more than anything. And I love the Bucks basketball team. And I’d be crushed if this team leaves.”
Bill Simmons told us a couple of months ago that he had our backs, we guess he wasn’t kidding! The entire article is definitely worth a read, one of the best Milwaukee Bucks pieces we’ve read in recent times.