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13 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks

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selected the youngest player in

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that year's NBA draft.

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I want to be an NBA

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player.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo, a lanky

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18-year-old from Greece, was seen

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as a roll of the dice by a

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struggling small market franchise.

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But Giannis grew up, he put the Bucs

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on his shoulders, he won fans'

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hearts, and he made Milwaukee a

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champion.

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That love affair is over now after

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the Bucks dealt Antetocounm po to

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the Miami Heat.

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Here to discuss what Giannis meant

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to the city and where things went

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wrong is Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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columnist, James Causey.

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James, welcome.

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Hey, thanks for having me.

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I suppose it's an emotional

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time anytime that

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a star player like Giannis

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gets dealt for the

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fans, but it just seems to me like

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he had such an

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attachment to the city of Milwaukee.

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How would you characterize it and

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what did he mean to the City?

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Well, I like to put it to

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you this way.

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Giannis was our son.

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I mean, he came to us as a young

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man, very, very young,

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and the city wrapped its arms around

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him and he embraced us.

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He was our unicorn.

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He was a guy who got us a

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championship.

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He was the guy who,

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a funny story about him, one time he

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was trying to get to the

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arena and he got lost and somebody

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saw him on the side of the road and

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picked him up and dropped him off.

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That's who Yannis is, and that's

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who he was to us.

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So losing Yannas is like losing

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a big part of our

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city. He played for us for 13 years,

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one of the longest reigns in the

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NBA, and

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he's gonna be dearly missed,

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but it was time for him

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to pursue other endeavors.

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He's sort of a thoughtful guy too,

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is he not? The way he talks about

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success being a journey and

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living in the moment.

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Oh, yeah, of course.

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And you know, he was more than just

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a basketball player.

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He also organized a

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diaper drive that

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was critical for

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young moms who needed diapers

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for their babies.

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Him and his wife were very

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sponsored that he

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he was seen a lot in

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the community.

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He was like I said he was

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our son and and we

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embraced him and we loved on him

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in You know, he got us

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our championship, our first

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championship in 50 years.

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So that's something that can never

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be erased.

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Yeah, I mean, it strikes me that his

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story is such a perfect storm.

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He got so much better,

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so fast.

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And then this

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Milwaukee downtown was rebuilt.

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You had this state of the art arena,

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the house that Yannis built.

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You won the championship.

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It just seemed like everything was

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going so great.

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So why did it fall apart?

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Well, it fell apart because

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honestly, I believe it was

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a lot of bad moves by

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the Bucks trying to

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keep the team

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above water that didn't work,

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you know, the shuffling of coaches

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that just didn't work.

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And what we're hearing now

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is not keeping Giannis in the

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loop. And he was a person who

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honestly wanted to be kept inside

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the loop, he wanted to know what was

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going on, what was the team's

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direction. Moving forward, and

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it seemed like he was not privy

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to that type of information.

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And for a young man who

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gave his heart and soul to the

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team and to the city, I wish

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that it could have been better and

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that communication should have been

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better.

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And we know one

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thing, he always wanted to win.

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And I think the Bucs tried to

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satisfy that, but at the same time,

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I think he should have been privy of

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the inside dealings that they were

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trying to do to make sure that that

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happened.

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You know, it's tempting for me to

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look at the Bucs and

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Yonis and think it's only been a few

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years since they were on top of the

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world.

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Why can't they just kind of

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force it? Try a little harder.

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Fix this thing.

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Well, that's the NBA.

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That's sports, actually.

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You know, you think you're part of a

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dynasty and quickly things

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could change. But it was a lot of

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things that happened.

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Middleton got hurt.

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You know the team seemed like it got

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old overnight.

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The league changed to a

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three-point shooting team and not

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so much downhill that made

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Giannis famous, the, you know,

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charging to the basket.

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So the league. Really adapted and

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changed. And I don't think the Bucks

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were able to keep up with those

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changes in how to lead change

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so quickly.

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So Yannis is gonna come back to

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Milwaukee this next season

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and that famous last name is

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gonna be on another team's

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jersey, how do you think he's gonna

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be received?

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He's gonna he's going to receive

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one of the loudest ovations ever

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and one thing that I could say

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you know I just never wanted to be

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the bad guy in this situation he

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never came out and

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we didn't hear him demand a trade

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even though you know some rumblings

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within the Bucks organization

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that he wanted out but he never made

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that public so I have

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to give him credit for that I really

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think he wanted it to work here but

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he's He's gonna be, he's gonna

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receive probably the loudest

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ovation. Ever for

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this for this city.

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So I look forward to it and it's

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going to be the hottest ticket in

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town.

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All right, James, we'll leave it

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there. Thank you so much for joining

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us.

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Thank you for having me.

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For more on this and other issues

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facing Wisconsin, visit our website

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at pbswisconsin.org

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and then click on the news tab.

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That's our program for tonight.

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I'm Shawn Johnson.

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Have a good weekend.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.