The Life And Times Of Being A Milwaukee Bucks Fan

As the Milwaukee Bucks are building for bigger and better things in the near future, it’s hard to shake what had become to define the team in their recent past.

Growing up in the state of Wisconsin, you have to go out of your way not to be a sports fan. Around the state, the Green Bay Packers and football in general obviously reign supreme, but having the rich history of both the NBA as well as the MLB in the city of Milwaukee gives Wisconsinites a team to root for all year round.

I, like many of you reading this, quickly fell into this pattern as a fan as soon as I started growing up. But when it came to the NBA specifically, what first peaked my interest in the league was in an entirely different manner than I had with first experienced with other sports.

Growing up during the time of the Chicago Bulls’ last title in their second “three-peat” run as well as the start of the Los Angeles Lakers’ dominance with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal gave me my first glimpses of seeing what the NBA was during those years and laid the groundwork for me following the sport of basketball.

Eventually though, there was a connection missing, although I really wasn’t aware of it at the time. Looking back at it now, I wanted to have the same feeling I had following the Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers, which led me to follow my local team, the Milwaukee Bucks.

My earliest Bucks memories just so happen to be during the team’s (somewhat) recent high point, during the time of the “Big 3” era. It seems surreal to think about it now, but the relative star power of the team’s core trio, the atmosphere of going to my first games at the Bradley Center (and those Darvin Ham dunks) and just the all around excitement of that team during that time was an incredibly thrilling experience, even to this day.

Of course, the apex of the team’s run is what every Bucks fan still covets even now. I still remember where I was watching the Bucks comeback to win Game 7 of the Conference Semifinals matchup against the Charlotte Hornets and the heartbreak we all would feel at the end of the Conference Finals showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers (all those free-throws…).

Since then, we all know the course the Bucks would take after that monumental season very well. From the tear-down of that iteration of the team, with the capper being the stunning Ray Allen trade, to the steady decline and mediocrity of the team during the mid-2000’s, the Bucks were steadily losing the buzz that was around the team.

It was during those years where, and I’m sure this will go against my Bucks fan card, where I gradually lost interest in the team. Sure, there were other reasons involved such as finding other interests and life generally getting in the way, but I felt like I had seen this old song and dance one too many times from the Bucks.

Apr 30, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks fans hold up a sign during the game against the Chicago Bulls in game six of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Chicago won 120-66. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Slowly but surely, though, I began to get back into the swing of things and was quickly reminded of what I was missing out on in the few years I was out of the loop. With that, however, I quickly began to feel the same agony and the same frustration I had comfortably gotten used to over the years following the team.

However, that’s an image that’s slowly being erased over time, based on where the team is at right now. Between the young, burgeoning core of the team, the overall rebranding and the increasing involvement in local communities, the Bucks have reshaped their identity around the NBA as well as the state of Wisconsin in relatively short amount of time.

That’s not that much of a coincidence with the change in ownership over two years ago, but considering where the feelings around the team were not long before that, it’s almost night and day where the Bucks stand as an organization now and project to be in the future.

Yet as the team’s profile continues to grow, I can’t help but find myself struggling to get past this “same ol’ Bucks” mentality that has become almost second nature to me. It’s not necessarily an indictment of how I view the team, the vision of ownership or specifically the players themselves, but for as I long as I have been aware and have followed the Bucks as a fan, rarely has anything gone according to plan.

Hearing fans talk of eventual super stardom with any of the Bucks young players or aspirations to one day bring home a championship from team officials are all things I ultimately root for and want to see happen. At the same time, though, all these things sound so foreign to me, so much so that it’s tough to comprehend if either could actually be a remote possibility down the line.

That leads to where we are now, and where the Bucks are at this point in time. With the team’s young core only just scratching the surface of what could eventually be the team’s future, we’re in a sweet spot of not knowing where all of this leads us as soon as next season, much less years from now.