For Forbes, Alamo City never far from heart
San Antonio home for Bucks guard
Milwaukee Bucks guard Bryn Forbes has no idea where the rest of his NBA career will take him.
But he is certain of one thing: No matter where he winds up, he will continue to call San Antonio home.
“My family is still there, living it up in the sun,” he said on a recent day when it was 75 degrees in the Alamo City and 39 in Brew Town. “San Antonio is probably going to be home for a long time. I bought a house.”
It’s been almost four months since Forbes signed a two-year, $4.8 million contract with the Bucks after four seasons with the Spurs. Despite the cold, he’s happy in Milwaukee, thriving in his role as a floor spacer for twotime reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo on an Eastern Conference power.
But hardly a day goes by when Forbes doesn’t think of San Antonio and the good times he had playing for the Spurs and Gregg Popovich.
“It was tough,” he said of leaving the city where he started his improbable NBA journey as an undrafted rookie out of Michigan State. “I would have loved to have played my whole career there.”
Saturday night in Milwaukee, Forbes will face his former team for the first time. It is by no means a revenge game for the 27-year-old Michigan native, who says he left the Spurs on good terms.
“It wasn’t easy leaving, but our relationships are still great,” he said. “I still speak to a lot of those guys. Pop texted me probably two days ago. I still talk to the assistant coaches all the time. This is just how the game goes sometimes.”
In Forbes, the Bucks found a more than suitable replacement for veteran sharpshooter Kyle Korver, who decided not to return after last season. Coming off the bench for 40 of his 46 games, Forbes is averaging 9.4 points — 18.3 per 36 minutes — while shooting a career-best 45.2 percent from beyond the arc on 4.7 attempts per game.
As of the start of play Thursday, Forbes ranked second on the Bucks in 3-point accuracy behind forward Bobby Portis (47.8 on 2.3 attempts per game) and seventh in the NBA. He has been particularly deadly in the third quarter, hitting 18 of 34 for 52.9 percent.
“He can shoot that thing,” Bucks guard Donte Divincenzo said of Forbes, a career 40.8 percent shooter from distance.
As a starter the last two seasons with the Spurs, Forbes averaged 11.8 points while shooting 42.6 from downtown in 2018-19 and 11.2 points with 38.8 percent accuracy from long range in 2019-20.
As usual, Forbes worked his tail off in the offseason to improve. But he has also benefited from playing 479 minutes alongside Antetokounmpo, whom he called “one of the best players I have ever played with, if not the best.”
“Playing with guys like Giannis and Khris (Middleton) and Jrue (Holiday), they draw a lot of attention, especially Giannis,” Forbes said. “Everybody is game planning for him, and it makes my job easier. Because there is so much focus on them, there are times I am left open or I can find my shots, where maybe I wouldn’t if I wasn’t playing with some of those guys.
“Playing with a very unselfish team and playing with very talented players makes my job extremely easy.”
Forbes has scored in double figures 21 times this season, including three games with 20 or more points. On March 11, he broke his own Bucks record for most 3-pointers in a game without a miss by going 7 of 7 during a 21-point outing against the New York Knicks.
“Bryn has been great,” said Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer, a former longtime Spurs assistant. “His shooting is incredibly valuable to us. Also, his ability to move without the ball and gets shots has been really good. He fits in and the guys love him. He’s been a really important, good addition to our group.” Divincenzo called Forbes an underrated “scrappy” defender who ‘”makes things happen” and an “amazing” teammate.
“He’s one of those guys you can go kick it with and hang out for a bunch of hours, and you don’t feel like you are forcing anything,” Divincenzo said.
It is a sentiment shared by Forbes’ former teammates.
“Bryn is one of the best teammates I’ve had,” Spurs guard Derrick White said. “I loved the time I spent with him. It’s great to see him doing well, shooting the ball well, doing what he does. It’s going to be exciting to see him.”
At the start of training camp last December, Popovich called Forbes a “great kid” and reflected fondly on how he developed through the years.
“The combination of what a player he became and what a wonderful human being he is, his mom, his family, that was a tough one,” Popovich said of saying goodbye to Forbes. “But that’s the business. You can’t have everybody you want. There are limits financially, and you just hope people that have to move on land in good places, and he obviously has.
“We are happy for him, but at the same time sad.”
Forbes said he believes the best part of an NBA career is the “people you get to meet along the way.” In San Antonio, he said he made several “lifelong friends.”
Another plus: He soaked up the city’s diverse culture with his two sons and his mother Sue, who moved to San Antonio from East Lansing, Mich., to help him raise Carter and Leo.
“The culture was different than anywhere I had ever seen,” he said. “And the way the city accepts their players, welcomes their players, is amazing. I felt at home from day one and really had fun there. And the weather is a whole lot better than Milwaukee.”