Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks were formed in January 1968 when the NBA awarded a franchise to Milwaukee Professional Sports and Services, Inc. (Milwaukee Pro), a group headed by Wesley Pavalon and Marvin Fishman. In October, the Bucks played their first NBA regular season game against the Chicago Bulls before a Milwaukee Arena crowd of 8,467. As is typical with expansion teams, the Bucks’ first season, 1968–69, was a struggle. Their first victory came in their 6th game as the Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons 134–118; they would win only 26 more games in their first year. The Bucks’ record that year earned them a coin flip against their expansion brethren, the Phoenix Suns, to see who would get the first pick in the upcoming draft. It was a foregone conclusion that the first pick in the draft would be Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971, after converting to Islam) of UCLA. The Bucks won the coin flip, but had to win a bidding war with the upstart American Basketball Association to secure him.

In the 2009 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks selected promising point guard Brandon Jennings, who had not gone to college, but played in Italy the previous year. The play of Jennings, along with the improvement of Andrew Bogut, the surprisingly improved Ersan Ilyasova, and the John Salmons trade, have catapulted the team to be a playoff contender. In October, Milwaukee surprised many by taking a commanding lead in the Central division. The Bucks quickly fell behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. Milwaukee ultimately clinched a playoff berth on April 6, 2010 with a road win over the Chicago Bulls. It was during this time that the phrase “Fear The Deer” started, most likely by an ESPN commentator and adopted on message boards and within Andrew Bogut’s Squad 6. The slogan rang well with Bucks fans, who started bringing signs with the phrase to games. The slogan became the team’s battle cry in the NBA Playoffs. The Bucks finished the season with a record of 46-36.