>> All right, we'll leave it there. Thanks so much
for joining us. >> My pleasure.
>> 13 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks selected
the youngest player in that year's NBA draft.
>> To be NBA. NBA player. >> Giannis Antetokounmpo. A
lanky 18 year old from Greece, was seen as a roll
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
Antetokounmpo 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 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 of 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 it was time for him to pursue
other endeavors. >> It'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 their babies. Him and his wife were very
sponsored that he, he he was seen a lot in the
community. He was like I said, he was our son. And
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. You had this state
of the art arena, the house that Jack 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 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 going on. What was the team's direction moving
forward. And it seemed like he was not privy to that
type of information. And for, for a young man who
gave his heart and soul to the team and to the city, I.
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 of the inside
dealings that they were trying to do to make sure
that that that 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 you're part of a dynasty. And
quickly things could change. But it was a lot of things
that happened. Middleton seemed like it got old
overnight. The league changed to a three point
shooting team. And not not so much downhill. That made
Giannis famous the you know charging to the basket. So
the league's 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. >> Well he's going to he's
going to receive one of the loudest ovations ever. I
and 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 in within the bucks
organization that he wanted out. But he never made that
public. So I I have to give him credit for that. I, I
really think he wanted it to work here, but he's
going to be, he's going to receive probably the
loudest ovation ever for this, for this, for this,
for this city. So I look forward to it. And it's
going to be the hottest ticket in town.