milwaukee bucks history
milwaukee bucks history
Grab your Milwaukee Bucks tickets and head out to the Bradley Center. What will you get for your time and effort? A chance to see what may be the most improved team in the NBA and the start of a winning streak that could propel Bucks tickets into the stratosphere.
Entering the NBA in 1968 as an expansion team, an historic coin toss landed Milwaukee the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Talk about luck. Pairing Jabbar with another NBA superstar in guard Oscar Robinson gave the Milwaukee Bucks and NBA title only three years after entering the league.
Jabbar gave Milwaukee Bucks ticket holders six years of All-Star play. The former UCLA Bruin won the Rookie of the Year and landed three NBA MVP honors. His trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975 was a move from which the Bucks have been trying to recover from for decades.
Despite the loss of Jabbar, the Milwaukee Bucks managed to stay competitive in the 70’s and 80’s, with a string of a dozen years in which the Bucks posted winning records and playoff berths. That streak fell by the wayside after 1992 though, and the Bucks were on the outside of the NBA Playoffs for seven seasons.
The hiring of head coach George Karl in 1998 proved to be a major success. Karl had the Bucks back into the playoffs soon after, utilizing the talents of Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson to return the Bucks back to respectability. When Robinson and Allen were traded away in 2002, it marked a major change in the face of the franchise.
The youth movement in Milwaukee began with the hiring of head coach Terry Porter in 2003. Porter selected T. J Ford, the NCAA College Player of the Year, with his first selection and surrounded him with a mixture of veteran support in Toni Kucoc and Joe Smith. The move paid off with a 42-win season and a playoff spot in 2003, and again in 2004 with a 36-win season and another playoff appearance. But the 2005 season ended in disappointment and a house cleaning by the Bucks management. Porter was given his walking papers and Terry Stotts, former head man in Atlanta was brought in to take over head coaching duties. Stotts, with an eye to creating an offensive oriented team, drafted Andrew Bogut, a 7’ 0” center with the team’s first pick.
Fans with Milwaukee Bucks tickets are getting a whole new experience in 2005-2006. A new head coach, a No. 1 draft pick in Andrew Bogut, free agent Ersan Iiyasova, a 6’ 9” forward from Turkey, and free agent Bobby Simmons from the Clippers. It’s a whole new team set to hit the floor at the Bradley Center and it looks like the dawn of a new winning attitude available for 18,000 NBA enthusiasts smart enough to lock in their Milwaukee Bucks tickets early.
