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>> All right, we'll leave
it there. Thanks so much

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for joining us.
>> My pleasure.

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>> 13 years ago, the
Milwaukee Bucks selected

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the youngest player in that
year's NBA draft.

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>> To be NBA. NBA player.
>> Giannis Antetokounmpo. A

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lanky 18 year old from
Greece, was seen as a roll

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of the dice by a struggling
small market franchise. But

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Giannis grew up. He put the
bucks on his shoulders. He

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won fans hearts, and he
made Milwaukee a champion.

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That love affair is over
now. After the bucks dealt

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Antetokounmpo to the Miami
Heat. Here to discuss what

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Giannis meant to the city
and where things went wrong

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is Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel columnist James

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Causey James. Welcome.
>> Hey, thanks for having

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me.
>> So I suppose it's an

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emotional time. 'Any time
that a star player like

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Giannis gets dealt for the
fans. But it just seems to

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me like he had such an
attachment to the city of

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Milwaukee. How would you
characterize it. And you

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know what did he mean to
the city.

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>> Well I like to put it to
you this way. Giannis was

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our son. I mean he came to
us as a young man very very

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young. And the city wrapped
his arms around him. And he

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embraced us. He was he was
our unicorn. He was a guy

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who got us a championship.
He was a guy who a funny

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story about him. One time
he was trying to get to the

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arena and he got lost, and
somebody saw him on the

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side of the road and picked
him up and dropped him off.

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That's who Giannis is and
that's who he was to us. So

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losing Giannis is like
losing a big part of of of

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our city. He played for us
for 13 years. One of the

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longest reigns in the NBA.
And he's going to be dearly

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missed. But it was it was
time for him to pursue

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other endeavors.
>> It's sort of a

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thoughtful guy too, is he
not the way he talks about

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success, being a journey
and living in the moment?

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>> Oh yeah, of course. And
you know, he was more than

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just a basketball player.
He also organized a diaper

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drive that was critical for
young moms who needed

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diapers for their babies.
Him and his wife were very

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sponsored that he, he he
was seen a lot in the

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community. He was like I
said, he was our son. And

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and we embraced him and we
loved on him. And, you know,

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he got us our championship,
our first championship in

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50 years. So that's
something 'that can never be

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erased.
>> Yeah. I mean, it strikes

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me that his story is such a
perfect storm. He got so

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much better, so fast. And,
you know, then this

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Milwaukee downtown was
rebuilt. You had this state

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of the art arena, the house
that Jack built. You won

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the championship. It just
seemed like everything was

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going so great. So why did
it fall apart?

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>> Well, it fell apart
because honestly, I believe

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it was a lot of bad moves
by the bucks trying to keep

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the team above water. That
didn't work. You know, the

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shuffling of coaches that
just didn't work. And what

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we're hearing now is like
not keeping Giannis in the

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loop. And he was a person
who honestly wanted to be

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kept inside the loop. He
wanted to know what was

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going on going on. What was
the team's direction moving

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forward. And it seemed like
he was not privy to that

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type of information. And
for, for a young man who

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gave his heart and soul to
the team and to the city, I.

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I wish that it could have
been better and that

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communication should have
been better. And we know

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one thing he always wanted
to win, and I think the

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bucks tried to satisfy that.
But at the same time, I

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think he should have been
privy of the inside

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dealings that they were
trying to do to make sure

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that that that happened.
>> You know, it's tempting

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for me to look at the Bucks
and Giannis and think it's

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only been a few years since
they were on top of the

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world. Why can't they just
kind of force it. Try a

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little harder fix this
thing.

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>> Well that's the NBA.
That's sports actually. You

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know you think you you're
part of a dynasty. And

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quickly things could change.
But it was a lot of things

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that happened. Middleton
seemed like it got old

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overnight. The league
changed to a three point

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shooting team. And not not
so much downhill. That made

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Giannis famous the you know
charging to the basket. So

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the league's really adapted
and changed. And I don't

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think the bucks were able
to keep up with those

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changes in how the league
changed so quickly.

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>> So Giannis is going to
come back to Milwaukee this

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next season. And that
famous last name is going

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to be on another team's
jersey. How do you think

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he's going to be received.
>> Well he's going to he's

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going to receive one of the
loudest ovations ever. I

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and one thing that I could
say Giannis never wanted to

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be the bad guy in this
situation. He never came

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out and we didn't hear him
demand a trade. Even though

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you know some rumblings in
within the bucks

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organization that he wanted
out. But he never made that

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public. So I I have to give
him credit for that. I, I

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really think he wanted it
to work here, but he's

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going to be, he's going to
receive probably the

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loudest ovation ever for
this, for this, for this,

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for this city. So I look
forward to it. And it's

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going to be the hottest
ticket in town.