Bucks Leaving Milwaukee? Say It Ain't So!

Word leaked from the editor of The Seattle Times on Monday morning that the city of Seattle plans to target our own sleepy little town of Milwaukee if its bid to bring the Sonics back home, by way of relocating the Kings franchise, loses out to Mayor Kevin Johnson and Sacramento. 

What does this mean for all 37 Bucks fans out there who care (or even know about this)? 

Well, you could probably go out and interview each one individually, but to make it easier for you I reached out to a Bucks season ticket holder--who has literally bled, sweat and cried in the Bradley Center--for an e-mail exchange that could serve to speak for the fanbase in this time of crisis. The following is a conversation between myself and Tim Sabin that took place over the last two days: 

Michael Friday--I should be happy today. It's the first day of Masters week, another season of <em>Mad Men</em> is off and running (albeit rather slowly), the NCAA tournament crowns a champion tonight and baseball season is underway. But, here I am, waking up to the news that I could possibly be losing my city's NBA team?? I need to hear from another Bucks fan. Tim, what's your reaction? 

Tim Sabin--When I first heard about the news, I was not sad or angry. I was not even worried. I was excited. The Bucks need change and I can't think of a better kick in the ass than to be "targeted" by the city of Seattle. This news will get the Bucks to start competing for real (4 seed or better), build a new stadium, and best of all: It will bring back the closet Bucks fans who have been hiding since 2002. I know they're still out there! Milwaukee sports fans are good fans and they aren't dumb. They will support a team that deserves it and they will come out when they're needed. This threat will "wake up the echos" of Bucks past (and I'm not just referring to Sam Cassell being the coach next year). With that being said, I firmly believe there's NO WAY the Kings stay in Sacramento. They're dead. They've been threatening to leave for almost a decade now, the city and its fans don't really want them there, and this Chris Hansen guy from Seattle won't sleep until he brings the Sonics back. If I’m Stern, it’s a no brainer: Move the Kings to Seattle. If you don’t agree with my confidence, check out what The Journal had to say about the Seattle/Sacramento situation on Sunday:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/drawnout-fight-a-cautionary-tale-ci9div0-201695091.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/rich-basketball-fan-spurred-arena-effort-sr9d1v0-201695031.html

Friday–Ahh, wait, a twist! We’re joined by a third party who wants in on the conversation. It’s our friend @trebby, known to pretty much only his parents as Matt Trebby. What say you?

Matt Trebby–I don’t think people realize how realistic this is. They need a new arena in Milwaukee (personally, I like the BMO Bradley Center), and they don’t know how to pay for it because no one wants to. The main problem is that NBA franchises are supposed to be profitable not only as a business, but for the city. The Bucks are not profitable because no one cares, and no one cares because no one believes they can actually build a winning product. Even if they make the playoffs, they’re not going to win a series (er, I mean a game). Without this saving “new arena” I don’t see the Bucks staying in Milwaukee beyond 2020 at the latest. But the Bradley Center isn’t the problem here. People in Milwaukee will support a winner. The Bucks are by no means winners. In fact, ever since 2002 they have been losers.

Friday–If Seattle wants a team, the NBA should make it happen via expansion. It’s time for the league to branch out. In 1995, the two Canadian teams were added (Vancouver moved to Memphis six years later). Then, in 2004, Charlotte was awarded the Bobcats two years after their Hornets left for New Orleans. That means we’re right on schedule for another expansion draft, which the league should hold for two reasons: Firstly, the NBA has steadily grown in popularity over the LeBron/Super-Team Era, not looking back once it passed Major League Baseball in TV ratings. Secondly, and more importantly, we’ve reached the point where each roster is overflowing with starting-caliber talent. (Senses laughter). Seriously! Have you seen any D-League games lately?! There are guys like Marcus Landry and Travis Leslie throwing their primes away for minimal pay, while they could be solid rotation players for the 31st or 32nd NBA team. A guy like Dwight Buycks, who shined in the Vegas Summer League this year, is rotting overseas! What a waste! The NBA talent pool is not what it was ten or even five years ago. The one-and-done rule has substantially impacted the league. No longer do the end of benches look like police lineups (hat tip to Stern’s dress code policy aka the Allen Iverson Rule) or a “This Is Why You Stay In School” public service announcement to the kids out there. Today’s so-called also-rans are routinely starring in their starter’s absences. Look at Jeremy Lin. Look at Alexey Shved. It happens all the time. Also, someone like Jared Cunningham, who was drafted 24th overall by the Mavs, would never have been sent down to the D-League with his draft status five years ago. But the Mavs didn’t have room for him! The Lakers didn’t have room for DJO! All I’m saying is, the league could afford to add a couple teams. Make it 32. That fits the playoff structure perfectly. That way exactly half the teams from each conference would make the playoffs. I want the Kings to stay in Sacramento (which I ultimately think they will). Then, I want to add two expansion teams: One in Seattle and the other in…wait for it…Vegas, baby!

Sabin–It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Seattle fans. This song is on my iPod and I may have shed a tear while watching the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LruH69VwPAc

I am all for Seattle getting their Sonics back, but not at the expense of the Bucks and I’m not willing to add more teams to the league. I’ve been complaining about the lack of competitive balance for years now. We don’t need to add two more teams and we don’t need JR Smith dying mid-season when the Knicks visit Las Vegas. If the Kings to Seattle thing doesn’t work, why can’t we just send the Hawks there (11,000 fans at their last home game)? Or better yet, the Raptors! Isn’t this the NATIONAL Basketball Association?? I was in Toronto during the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals between the Cavs and Magic. They had just finished up Game 3 and SportsCenter led with highlights from the NHL Combine! Swear to God! That alone should send the Raptors packing for the Pacific Northwest.

Friday–Anyone who watched Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team knows how ugly it got for Sonics fans in the last days of their franchise. Shady businessman Clay Bennett and David Stern hatched their plan to bring basketball to Bennett’s hometown and they did so under dubious circumstances. Howard Schulz, rich Starbucks dude, thought he was selling the team to an ownership group that would keep the team in Seattle. He was wrong. No one can deny that they stole the Sonics from Seattle. And now Seattle wants to steal our Bucks? I don’t want to be hit with that gut punch. (By the way, Tim, I bet there are diehard Raptors and Hawks fans out there making the same “poor attendance” jokes about Bucks fans right now.) The people of Seattle could do nothing but hold “Save Our Sonics” pep rallies while they watched their beloved team with future superstar, Kevin Durant, slip through their fingers. I can’t shake this sad near-future image I have of us and a handful of other poor saps standing outside the BC on a cold Milwaukee morning wearing TJ Ford jerseys and holding “Save Our Bucks” signs, helplessly protesting the sale to Seattle. I really don’t want that for any of us. But, I fear that day is coming…

The biggest reason why I would hate to see the Bucks leave: I can’t live with all the Bucks history technically belonging to Seattle. The Sonics history would belong to Oklahoma Cityand the Bucks history would belong to Seattle, if Darren Rovell and the old terms of the Kings/Sonics proposed deal are to be believed:

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/289099296933023744

How messed up would that be? Does that mean we’d have to take down the banners at the Cousins Center and the BC?! (I refuse to call it the BMOBC.) If so, that’s just sick. Sure, the memories from the people who saw the Bucks win it all in 1971 would still belong to them. But I wasn’t alive and, dammit, I don’t want to lose that banner. Would it hang in the new Sonics arena? That would be downright criminal. And Moncrief? Robertson? Alcindor? All of them would belong to Seattle, too? They can have Jon McGlocklin–the only silver lining in the Bucks leaving, as we’d be liberated from his outdated references, obnoxious Homerism and guffawing at his own lame jokes on FSWisconsin telecasts. He and his broadcasting partner for the last 25 years, Jim Paschke, aren’t without blame in this whole fiasco. Those old hacks have been alienating potential young fans for a quarter century! And Bucks ticket brokers wonder why no one wants to come to these games…It doesn’t help that the voices of your franchise are dishonest about the team and turn the broadcast into a series of 25-year-old inside jokes that have about as much bite as a teething kitten. Paschke knows he’s lost his appeal to fans as he’s aged. There’s a reason you can’t find his birth date on the Internet. Unfortunately for McGlocklin, we can look up his stats on basketball-reference and find out he played in the NBA for something called the Cincinnati Royals in the early 60′s. The freaking 60′s! He was acquired by the Bucks a month after Martin Luther King was assassinated, the same year in which season six of Mad Men takes place. He retired on September 17th, 1976, fourteen years to the day before I was born. That’s thirteen years and six days before Brandon Jennings was born. And this fossil is still calling Bucks games. But by no means am I an ageist. A lot of old-timers remain relevant in their twilight years. Bill Raftery is one of my favorite basketball announcers. Milwaukee’s own icon, Bob Uecker, is still the funniest guy on the radio. Losing the interest of Bucks fans was a systemic problem that no one seemed willing to fix. The announcers hurt it, the poor product on the court hurt it, the market size hurt it, Larry Harris really hurt it, John Hammond hasn’t helped it and now we’re left with the reality that we could be orphaned NBA fans. We don’t have a serious financial backer who really cares about the team the way these other cities do. Seattle has Starbucks and Apple magnates. OKC has Bennett. Even Sacramento has the Maloof brothers. Sure, we have Herb Kohl, and he’s willing to put up some money for a new stadium. But there’s no way the city would ante up. We have to start bracing for what’s next. Trebby said to me the other day, he’d consider becoming a Bulls fan. I don’t know if I could do that. I think I’d go without a team for a month, maybe a year, then eventually lean toward Detroit to fill the Jerry West-shaped hole in my heart, mostly because I’d relate with their miserable city and NBA situation. It’s a bleak picture, isn’t it. Is this what’s to come of us if the Bucks leave? Now I’m not saying that we’re guaranteed to lose our team. I’m just saying IF we do, we should be prepared to accept grave alternatives, like cheering for a different team (until we get our Bucks back from some other city and this NBA Hunger Games cycle repeats itself).

Trebby–Tim brings up a good point about Atlanta…It’s not fair they should be able to keep the Hawks getting the arena barely half full while Milwaukee has proven that it will support a winner. Even when the Hawks were good, nobody cared there! If Dwight Howard signs there in the off-season (which I think is quite likely) they won’t care! What will they even talk about instead of that? Coke? Bulldogs football? I’m sure there are other things that Hawks “fans” talk about, but Milwaukee is a sports city, and just because Atlanta has a nicer arena doesn’t mean they deserve a franchise. Their attendance sucks even when the team is good. So what if the Phillips Arena is nicer than our beloved Bradley Center?

I’m hoping none of this becomes something we have to actually worry about, but if I’m the NBA then the Bucks are an easy target. Attendance is still poor, results have been worse, and apparently the most important factor (the arena) is the worst of them all!

Somebody tweeted at me and said as long as Herb Kohl is alive, the Bucks will be in Milwaukee. I hope so, but did fans in Sacramento really think their Kings would leave? Now they’re in the struggle of the century to keep them.

For me, it all comes back to the necessity of an arena to keep the team. I get that it’s a big-time money maker and obviously it is nice for the fans, but really the only thing that a good arena needs is a location. Cubs fans don’t stop going to Wrigley Field because it desperately needs renovations (granted Cubs fans are a bit different than Bucks fans, as in they go to games regardless of a team’s record or hope).

Unfortunately, it’s all about money. It also doesn’t help that Bucks fans have lost all hope for a successful team, but still, it’s money (and apparently a swanky arena).

Friday–Grantland’s Rembert Browne backs up everything you just said about Atlanta fans.

Oh, and Herb Kohl, sadly, is closer to death than Amanda Bynes, which leaves the Bucks future in Milwaukee looking about as grim as Stannis Baratheon under the spell of Melisandre.

Sabin–Trebby: You don’t honestly think the Bradley Center is good enough, do you? I mean, sure it’s my home away from home and I’ll be the first to admit it won’t feel right watching the Bucks in a brand new arena, but come on! The seats don’t even have cup holders! I got up at a recent game to use the restroom and a guy kicked over two beers ($15 value) standing up to make room for me. Also, those locker rooms aren’t NBA quality either. I recall Brandon Jennings tweeting about other locker rooms around the league (specifically Dallas) and how you have your very own TV in your locker. I know blue-collar Milwaukee guy might not understand that, but this is the NBA in 2013. These things matter and the BC is beyond outdated.

PS: No one’s biting on my Toronto suggestion? We’re cool with a professional sports team being called the Raptors and representing an entire country that doesn’t care about basketball? Ok.

Trebby–It’s not good enough, but I don’t think that it should be the reason that the Bucks leave Milwaukee. If the main argument for moving the franchise is that they are mediocre and cannot create a product that will make it a successful and profitable enough franchise in the mind of David Stern, then I would understand.

Friday–I want to know what we can do–or what events could occur–to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee. Would it take the unthinkable (I quiver to even suggest the possibility of this happening): the Bucks…beating…THE HEAT…in the first round??? (Waits for Dan LeBatard to strike me down for even going there).

Sabin–Yes, beating the Heat would assure the Bucks staying in Milwaukee forever. You can’t just relocate a team that pulled off the biggest upset in NBA history. Plus, winning a series like that would push the Bucks ahead of the Brewers in this city; causing a domino effect that will lead the Bucks into the Eastern Conference Finals and into an offseason where they sign J Smoove, Big Al, and Dwight H– ok fine, I’ll stop myself. But seriously, aside from doing the impossible and knocking out the Heatles I have a proposition for Bucks fans: We need to make the most out of these two Playoff home games and I say all Bucks fans at the games should spend $100 on concessions/merchandise. By doing that, we’ll make more money than the Hawks have made during their last three postseason appearances! This will make a STATEMENT to the league that Milwaukee fans want the Bucks to stay for good. Call me crazy now, but in hindsight Sonics fans would’ve done that in a heartbeat to save their team.

Trebby–One playoff series will not save the Bucks unless it creates a public campaign for the city of Milwaukee to help fund the construction of the “Herb Kohl Arena.”

Friday–I’ll take your Raptors bait, Tim. Sure, Toronto naming their team after a dinosaur from a popular movie at the time the franchise was founded wasn’t the best idea. They probably want that one back. But next year there will be a team called the Pelicans, so I can live with the Raptors. And that’s really the only bad thing I can think of about Toronto as an NBA city. If they had signed Steve Nash in the offseason, they’d have been buzzing with excitement. They need to have a hometown hero who they can really rally around. Can anyone say Andrew Wiggins??? Toronto winning the lottery next year is the biggest lock since Cleveland won the LeBron sweepstakes in 2003. Stern will consider it a going-away gift to our northern neighbor. Plus, that fanbase never has to worry about their team leaving. Stern’s too obsessed with growing the game globally to ever think about removing his only Canadian team. This is a guy who recently said that in twenty years he could see there being “multiple NBA international teams”. I share his vision. In fact, I don’t think he went far enough! I want a team in Shanghai by 2040! More everything! And I don’t think Adam Silver, his hand-picked successor, will have a different outlook when he takes over in 2014.

Trebby–The Wiggins theory makes sense, and I wouldn’t be surprised it that was made a reality. He is likely as close to LeBron as we’re going to see in the near future, so to put him in his hometown market and make that franchise pretty relevant again would make sense. The only issue is that it is not in the United States. I would think the NBA would like to build their Canadian fan base, but I have doubts. If it were an American city that had a hometown stud coming into the NBA, then I have a lot of confidence it would work (honestly, though, I don’t know if it would happen in Milwaukee).

Your global plan appears to have the NBA become the world’s best league, so then it would make sense. All I know for sure is if there ever is a franchise in Shanghai, I will have a tough time taking it seriously. Talk about a road trip…

Friday–I love how we talk about the idea of the commissioner of a professional sports league rigging its draft lottery like it’s standard procedure, without batting an eye. Tim–One more thing. Finish this paragraph: “If the Bucks left Milwaukee…”

Sabin–I would never watch competitive sports ever again. My reasoning: I am the original “Mr. NBA” (editor’s note: this is his nickname among our circle of friends, which I believe I gave him). My love for the NBA started with my love for the Milwaukee Bucks. Without the Milwaukee Bucks, there’s no NBA in my eyes. What about college basketball, you ask? That’s dead to me as well. And any other level of hoops. I only watch high school, college, and grade school to scout NBA talent (Jonathan Carson coming out for the 2015 Draft??). When I watch a Trey Burke, a Cody Zeller, even a MITCH MCGARY (All-Caps is totally necessary) the first thought that comes to my mind is: “Would he look good in a Bucks uniform?” I can’t watch basketball without the Bucks, but it doesn’t stop there. Without basketball, I wouldn’t be able to watch other competitive sports without feeling sad. Watching fans from various cities come together to support a team will make me miss my magical nights at the BC. Without the Bucks, I would essentially disappear from society. I would be the fan version of Bill Buckner. Just a hermit living God knows where after being screwed over by a franchise for committing a fatal error–not renewing my season tickets for next year due to increased prices.

Friday–Damn. That took a depressing turn. And I thought I took it too far when I said I might become a Pistons fan…

Oh, and then there’s this:

https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/321802599013699584

#SaveOurBucks

–Michael Friday
@FreddiePhysical

–Tim Sabin
@TSabin15

–Matt Trebby
@trebby