MORE BANG FOR BUCKS
Hey, Bulls fans, winning basketball closer than you think
Ask a Chicagoan whether he or she wants to go to Milwaukee, and the response will be: ‘‘What for?’’ Here’s what for: the Bucks.
The Bucks are 38-6, by far the best record in the NBA. They have a superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is worth the trip by himself.
This young man, nicknamed the ‘‘Greek Freak,’’ hails from Athens, where he was born to immigrant Nigerian parents. His early years were tough because his parents’ immigration status and his own citizenship were always in doubt. Indeed, until he was 18, he was stateless, with a passport from neither country.
Things got better when he was selected by the Bucks 15th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft. Since then, the Bucks methodically have risen to the top of the Eastern Conference and might be in the best position to threaten the Western Conference teams for total dominance.
They sure looked dominant Friday, when I traveled up I-94 to Fiserv Forum to see them beat the Celtics in a game that was a rout until, in typical NBA fashion, it got close at the end. That was victory No. 37. No. 38 came Saturday against the Nets in New York.
One would guess victory No. 39 will come when the 16-28 Bulls visit for their Martin Luther King Day game this afternoon. If the Bucks can stretch their record to 48-6, they would be right where the legendary 1995-96 Bulls were when they went a then-record 72-10.
That’s unlikely to happen. This Bucks team is very good, but it has much to prove before it can be called great.
Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper and many others helping him along. The transcendent Warriors of recent seasons had Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. The Bucks have Giannis (pronounced ‘‘Yonn-is’’) and, well, Khris Middleton.
Still, their features are plenty. And the thing that makes those features so attractive is that Milwaukee is about as close as the United Center to much of the Chicago area on a jam-packed, trafficjammed Friday night.
Anybody remember when coach Phil Jackson and some of the Bulls who lived in the northern suburbs complained about how they barely could make it to the United Center in time for warmups on nights when traffic was out of control?
Milwaukee is straight up the highway from Chicago, anywhere from 60 to
90 miles north, and you can make it there from the northern suburbs in a little more than an hour. Even from way south, you’re talking no more than 90 minutes if the coast is clear.
It’s not like I’m promoting this place, but those of you who are tired of the same old Bulls rebuild might find the whole Bucks/ Milwaukee adventure to your liking.
Bucks president Peter Feigin sure thinks you’ll dig it.
‘‘Sample our city,’’ he says.
While he won’t come out and say he’d like Chicagoans to make the trip to see the Bucks — there are NBA rules and big fines associated with marketing outside your team’s basic radius — I have no problem saying it. Milwaukee is kind of Chicago light, with beautiful architecture, fine arts, a lovely lakefront, nice restaurants and walking paths — everything just like we have, only on a smaller and less expensive scale.
And friendliness? Maybe the employees at Fiserv have been brainwashed or flogged into submission, but you would be hardpressed to find a mean, bored or rude person there. Why, the parking-garage attendant, wearing a ‘‘Fear the Deer’’ cap, even wanted to know whether I had ‘‘a nice trip in.’’
‘‘[Bulls president] Michael Reinsdorf is a great friend,’’ Feigin tells me. ‘‘Nothing could be better than a great Bulls-Bucks rivalry, something like the Cubs and Brewers.’’
Hard to disagree. But you can’t have a rivalry with a team that is lousy.
Sorry, Bulls. Buck up.