13 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks selected the youngest player in that year's NBA draft.
Giannis Antitikumpo, a lanky 18-year-old from Greece, was seen as a role of the dice by a struggling small market franchise.
But Giannis grew up, he put the Bucks on his shoulders, he won fans' hearts, and he made Milwaukee a champion.
That love affair is over now after the Bucks dealt Antitikumpo to the Miami Heat.
Here to discuss what Giannis meant to the city and where things went wrong is Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey.
James, welcome.
Hey, thanks for having me.
So, I suppose it's an emotional time, any time that a star player like Giannis gets dealt for the fans.
But it just seems to me like he had such an attachment to the city of Milwaukee.
How would you characterize it and, you know, what did he mean to the city?
Well, I like to put it to you this way.
Giannis was our son.
I mean, he came to us as a young man, very, very young.
And the city wrapped his arms around him and he embraced us.
He was our unicorn.
He was a guy who got us a championship.
He was a guy who, a funny story about him one time, he was trying to get to the arena and he got lost.
And somebody saw him on the side of the road and picked him up and dropped him off.
That's who Giannis is.
And that's who he was to us.
So losing Giannis is like losing a big part of our city.
He played for us for 13 years, one of the longest reigns in the NBA.
And he's going to be dearly missed.
But it was time for him to pursue other endeavors.
He's sort of a thoughtful guy, too.
Is he not the way he talks about success being a journey and living in the moment?
Oh, yeah, of course.
And, you know, he was more than just a basketball player.
He also organized a diaper drive that was critical for young moms who needed diapers for your babies.
Him and his wife were very sponsored that.
He was seen a lot in the community.
He was, like I said, he was our son and we embraced him and we loved on him.
And, you know, he got us our championship, our first championship in 50 years.
So that's something that can never be erased.
Yeah, I mean, it strikes me that his story is such a perfect storm.
He got so much better, so fast.
And, you know, then this Milwaukee downtown was rebuilt.
He had this state-of-the-art arena, the house that Giannis built.
You won the championship.
It just seemed like everything was going so great.
So why did it fall apart?
Well, it fell apart because, honestly, I believe it was a lot of bad moves by the Bucks,
trying to keep the team above water that didn't work, you know, the shuffling of the coaches that just didn't work.
And what we're hearing now is, like, not keeping Giannis in the loop.
And he was a person who honestly wanted to be kept inside the loop.
He wanted to know what was going on, what was the team's direction moving forward.
And it seemed like he was not privy to that type of information.
For a young man who gave his heart and soul to the team and to the city,
I wish that it could have been better and that communication should have been better.
And we know one thing, he always wanted to win.
And I think the Bucks tried to satisfy that, but at the same time,
I think he should have been privy to the inside dealings that they were trying to do to make sure that they happened.
You know, it's tempting for me to look at the Bucks and Giannis and think it's only been a few years
since they were on top of the world.
Why can't they just kind of force it?
Try a little harder, fix this thing.
Well, that's the NBA.
That's sports, actually.
You know, you think you're part of a dynasty and quickly things could change.
But it was a lot of things that happened.
No tin got hurt.
You know, the team seemed like it got old overnight.
The lead changed to a three-point shooting team and not so much downhill that made Giannis famous,
you know, charging to the basket.
So the league really adapted and changed and I don't think the Bucks were able to keep up
with those changes in how the league changed so quickly.
So Giannis is going to come back to Milwaukee this next season and that famous last name
is going to be on another team's jersey.
How do you think he's going to be received?
Oh, he's going to receive one of the loudest ovation ever.
One thing that I could say, Giannis never wanted to be the bad guy in this situation.
He never came out and we didn't hear him demand a trade even though, you know, some
rumblings within the Bucks organization that he wanted out, but he never made that public.
So I have to give him credit for that.
I really think he wanted it to work here, but he's going to receive probably a lot of
dissolvation ever for this city.
So I look forward to it and it's going to be the hottest ticket in town.
All right, James, we'll leave it there.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
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That's our program for tonight.
I'm Sean Johnson.
Have a good weekend.