Underrated Bucks & Giannis’ Bronze w/ Evan Cohen + #BucksPodFest w/ Brew Hoop (Hear District Ep. 81)

Underrated Bucks & Giannis’ Bronze w/ Evan Cohen + #BucksPodFest w/ Brew Hoop (Hear District Ep. 81)

Tell me the NBA team that would not sign up for Miles Turner. Most coveted free agent out there. Bobby Portoris. He’s now not going to be asked to be in a role that is any different than the role that he’s thrived in. You get Gary Trent Jr. for about $10 an hour. If you take the glass half full approach, I don’t see why they can’t be a 50 plus win team this year. Five time allarcus alongside Marcus Johnson. What’s up everybody? Hey, this is the here district captain of this vessel and I got my first mate, my number one son, Christian Johnson. What up? Talk to me. Holla. Let it rain, man. Let it rain. I guess I go guess what go. Welcome everybody to the here district. Marcus Johnson. You’re listening to a Bucks Plus audio production on the Bucks Plus Network. Your weekly pulse on the Milwaukee Bucks straight from a Bucks legend. This is Here District with Marcus Johnson alongside his son and 1995 NCAA champion Chris. Here’s MJ. All right, welcome everybody to Here District. I’m the captain of this vessel, Marcus Johnson. Got my first mate, Chris Johnson. What’s up, Chris? What’s up? Oh man, it’s all good, man. We have got a spectacular show for you today. We’ve got uh the one and only Evan Cohen, uh the host of Unsportsmanlike on ESPN Radio every weekday from what time is that? 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. Man, he’s an early riser. Uh we’ve got uh we’ve got some other Brew Hoop extraordinaire reporters coming on to talk about the Bucks. Give us the inside skinny on this basketball team. Chris, where can you hear us? You can check us out on the official Milwaukee Bucks YouTube channel. Throw us a like over there. Uh if you want to listen to the audio version of the podcast, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, first mate. You ready to get to it? Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it. First up, Evan Cohen. Hey, welcome to Here District. Marcus Johnson, Chris Johnson, the captain of this vessel on this fantastic voyage. And uh we’re going to make a little detour, Chris, through Madison, Wisconsin. Okay. Only momentarily though, Big 10 country. We’re Bruins. We’re in Big 10 country now. Even though we can’t we can’t beat Mountain West schools uh in football games, but that’s a that’s that’s a whole other story. But but Evan Evan Cohen, we welcome you to hear District Man. Thank you so much for joining us. Well, it’s an honor. I appreciate you guys having me. And I got to tell you, I don’t know how many people say what I’m about to say, but I’m a huge I’m a huge fan of yours on the court, but Marcus, I’m not talking to you as much. Okay, Chris, I freaking loved you at UCLA. I I’m going to tell you why. I am going to tell you why. Okay, so Marcus, you are amazing. Everyone knows your There’s no debatable ideas or concepts. We don’t need to go on ESPN radio or ESPN 2 in the mornings with that sportsman like and debate was Marcus Johnson an all-time great. Everyone knows the answer is yes on that. But let me tell you something. My basketball career was crappy. I played a little bit in high school. I was not particularly good. But what I did when I played basketball was I despised one thing that most people love, which was shooting. I just wanted to pass. But I was I’m 6 foot one. And when I was growing up, what did I play? What’s your Twitter handle? Point. Yeah. And so watching and I am I was born in 1980. So when you guys are winning a title 94.95, that’s the prime of my sports career your freshman year. And I’m following that team and I’m like I understand Oannons, George Zedic, Toby Bailey, which I have a question for you on in a second, but it’s the other guy that I like. I love watching Chris Johnson because that’s how I play. I swear to God, I have been asked I I have asked to come on the podcast because I didn’t want to be too like I didn’t want to be too forward, but I I’ve been saving this take for this moment because I love Chris Johnson as a player. Well, and well, you should. We’ve just come into some some knowledge over the last couple of months, but Chris is one of three players, Evan, in UCLA in the storied history uh to finish at 50% from the field, 40% from the three-point line, plus 80 from the free throw line. And the other two are Reggie Miller and Tracy Murray. So, that’s pretty pretty illustrious company that he’s that he’s in. And just so many so many um outstanding achievements. He was uh number 24 all-time leading scoreer in UCLA history. And you know, you think about all the greats that have gone through UCLA to finish in the top 25 after four years is is substantial. And to me, he’s always been one of the most and I say this yes because he’s my son, but because it’s true most of all, but he’s always been one of the most underrated all through his life. Two state championships at Krenshaw, the the most valuable player in the city of Los Angeles his junior year over Tummaine who who wound up in the NBA. Okay, I’m just saying he’s let it happen, young fellow. But he’s always been underrated, underappreciated. Let me put it that way. So that he come out. Not by me. And this is this is this is this is beautiful. This is beautiful. So I’m going to tell you something. I’m going to tell you something. So my son So now I’m going to talk to Marcus as a dad, even though Chris is probably we’re right around the is same age, right? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll help. So my son is 12 years old. My daughter’s 9 years old, right? They’re they’re playing basketball here in New York and they’re not your level obviously, but I try to explain to them, I’m like, you want to make these teams play defense and be pass first because every other kid wants to shoot all the time, right? And when I was watching those UCLA teams, I’m like, this Chris Johnson guy is the one that I like because he’s not ripped like Ed Oannon. I’m not I wasn’t calling him fat. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying like physically. Portley Portley. portly is what I look at me I’m with you. So, and I’m like he’s always finding the open man. I love basketball players that find the open man. Like Andre Jackson on your squad when he was coming out of college at Yukon. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I was I told people with the Bucks I’m like that’s my favorite player in the draft. They’re like this is before the draft. Like really? Of all the I’m like yeah because plays defense and pass first. Like those are my kind of players. But here’s the question I’ve been dying to know for so that was 94 95 so it’s 30 years no one has answered this. If Toby Bailey left early after his freshman year when he had a better NBA career because I think he would have been a lottery pick I think teams would have invested in him and I actually think he’s one of the few players that made a huge mistake staying in college. Am I right about that Chris or no? I mean I talked to Tove about it all the time. We talk about it all the time over the years and he’ll tell you himself, you know, he should have bounced. He should have left. He should have left early. There’s your stock is is never going to be higher than, you know, 26 points, nine rebounds against Arkansas in the national championship game. Would have been a first rounder. And the thing about being a lottery or first rounder versus a second rounder, as you know, you guys both know, you get the opportunity when you’re in that first round. So whether you do good or bad, you know, whatever is going on, we’re going to put you out there. You go play the minutes. And for Toby with his size, athleticism, ability to play multiple positions at the at both guard spots, right, he would have been all right in in the NBA. No question about it if he’s head bounce, right? But that’s like growing up here in New York. So we had a mega star in high school at Rice High School, Felipe. Lopez. Oh yeah, we saw him. We saw him at ABCD. I saw him all over the place in high school. Yes. He’s our era. My dad is a huge basketball fan. So much so. And that’s where I got it. So much so that when Felipe was in high school, he’d go and drive to watch this kid play at the time in high school. And Felipe goes to St. John’s. Yeah. And he ended up being a first round pick, I want to say, by the Spurs, but didn’t have a long NBA career, unfortunately for him. But if Felipe Lopez left out of high school, he probably would have been the number one pick in the draft. No question. There’s no guy No guy had more hype that I in my basketball lifetime than I think like LeBron and Felipe. Like Felipe was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but it was he was talked about in almost mythical proportions. Like you had to see him play. He jumped. Look, we were down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Beach Ball Classic, one of the biggest tournaments in the country. It’s the tournament where Kevin Garnett was at that same year and Toby was there, a bunch of people. Felipe was there with um their whole crew, Scientific Map, at the Rice team. I don’t know if you remember Majestic Majestic Map, but these guys, but they all played at the Rice Crew, right? They also had a guy named Souvenir Caldwell. Souvenir Caldwell. No, they they were the all Rice that year was You guys are making this crap up. No, not at all. Listen, listen. This dude Felipe jumped on in the dunk contest. This dude put So, we sat down High School, his team sat down. Toby Bailey loyal. So we had about 30 guys sitting down and they gave him a little space to jump and he took off from damn near the free throw line, jumped over everybody in the gym and dunked the ball when he no gas. He in high school he was one of them dudes for sure. So can I just ask another f I know this is the I’m supposed to be the one interviewed but this is I interview for a living too and I want to I just picking your brain on a couple things here. So, like Giannis when he was drafted by the Bucks, which was what, 15th overall or something like that when he was drafted? 16. Yeah, maybe somewhere. I’m not sure. I don’t remember. Yeah. At the time, at the time he was drafted, comes in the league or you see him overseas, you’re like, maybe he’s good, maybe he’s not. He’s one of the greatest players to ever play. He’s one of the greatest faces of the franchise you could ever want, right? He’s I’m not I don’t know him, so I don’t want to say, “Oh, role model.” I’m of people I don’t know. what I know of him would be a role model for kids. But to the point that that Chris Marcus that we’re talking about here with like Toby Bailey and Felipe, what if he went in the second round, right? Like is he you he may not get the investment from not for a second from other right if you’re wrong like that. You won’t you won’t unless you’re really one of those guys that are just a dog like a Gilbert Arena some manuili where they take you in the second round and you’re just undeniable. You will not get that same opportunity as a first round. Giannis being his size, his height, not having the jumper at first. He could have easily been a guy that I feel like people could have given up on and not given a shot. So, so the Bucks actually taking that flyer firstrounder and saying, “Hey, we’re committed to developing this dude.” That was career uh trajectory altering move. Well, and Evan, you make a great point because so a couple of things. We talked with U. Tracy Murray at a at a showcase. His daughter’s a really good high school player going into what, the eighth grade or ninth grade, Chris? Eth really going to be a spectacular player. And but but I had advised Tracy after his junior year at UCLA, averaged 20 a game, had a great junior season. He’s like, you know, ovet, what should I do? Stay in school or come out? I was like, “Man, look, you you you’ve done pretty much everything you could do just to enhance your your value. If you want to come out while the irons are hot, you need to come out now.” So, I asked him, man, I was like, you know, this is years and years after the fact. This is like two weeks ago. Tracy, I gave you that advice. How do you look back upon it? And he told me, you know, it’s just it was about who you who you went with. He went with Portland, I believe, right, Chris? I mean, and they had a a veteran laden team and he didn’t get the minutes. Um, who was the coach? Uh, the Rick, Rick, Rick Alman was a coach, veteran coach. They never practiced. He never got a chance to work on and improve his skills and develop like a rookie needs to develop. And he wound up losing his confidence, you know. So, if he goes to another team, my point is another team that’s maybe a lottery team or somebody that he’s going to start and play 30 35 minutes, his narrative could be 180 degrees different than it is what right now. And he still had a 50 plus point game when he was with Washington DC, somebody. Yeah. Yeah. still had some good games. But so it’s all about where you wind up. And that point about Giannis with Milwaukee and the and the and the and the support system, Dave Dean taught him how to drive and John Horse was a youngster and everybody, you know, just loved on him and and and just made him feel so special and at home and it’s Milwaukee and so it makes a huge difference in terms of, you know, kind of the trajectory of your career where you start out with. on that point, the Jason Kid thing of Running Point Giannis giving him that opportunity for like an extended period of time as a as a huge dude that you would never see in that slot really like that really changed his life. I mean, that changed his confidence, his his belief in himself as far as bringing the ball up and now he makes it look like child’s play. But if that doesn’t happen, you know, I’m not sure what we will be seeing, what version of Giannis we will see, right? Well, and to that point, I came in Evan u with the Bucks. I always get it confused, but I think was going into his second year year, maybe his third. He was still young, like 19, 20 years old. He was turning 20 that December, I believe. And I thought that his ceiling, realistically, I said to myself, watching him that first year or so, if he can average 18, get about eight or nine rebounds, sneak sneak into an All-Star game or two over the course of his of his 13 to 14 year career, that would be the ceiling for this young man where he is now. Who knew when Chris talked about Jason Kid putting him at the point uh forward point guard position, putting the ball in his hands, that was the second half of the season. We weren’t going to the playoffs. Giannis from that point on averaged like 23 points and like 13 rebounds, eight or nine assists, had four or five triple doubles over the last 20 25 games. And that’s when you saw that’s when you saw the enormous potential of who this guy was going to wind up being. And I didn’t see it before then, but when you saw the ball in his hands and Jason Kidd had practiced standing on chairs, I was there. I saw it. so he could see what Jiannis saw at 611, seven feet tall. Jason 63, 6’4. He wanted to see what Jiannis saw and would instruct him accordingly. That’s when you knew you had something special. So that that’s that’s a great point in terms of uh where you wind up and and the situation you w Ed O Bannon. Another example, this is the last I’ll bel one of the greatest players, Evan, that I’ve seen in college basketball. His heart, his intensity, his leadership. Chris will tell you to Toby Baileyy’s reading a newspaper after a good game. One morning, Ed comes in and slaps the paper out of his hand. Get stop reading. You know, we got a whole lot of season left to be played. You know, we got a championship to win. That kind of stuff. He goes to New Jersey with Benoy Benjamin, Jason Williams, Derek Coleman, you know, and I’m not knocking those guys, but you know, it’s it’s a different mindset of veteran. Yeah. You’re thrown into as a as as a young guy and and they’re testing you. Roy Hamilton, the same thing. great great production guy in TV. He went to the Pistons with Bob Laneir and and and Eric Money and all these tough hardened vets and you know and told Dick Vital Roy told me this first practice this this guy this Mfer can’t shoot a lick. Dick why we draft him? He ain’t no good, you know. And right, you can imagine a no good. Yeah, Dick. Why you draft this man? He can’t shoot a lick, man. I know he from UCLA and everything. UCLA pretty boy, but he can’t shoot. That’s Bob Laneir. Ed O’B the same thing. And in Jersey with these vets, you know, oh yeah, young fella, this ain’t this ain’t college. Don’t think, you know, you ain’t taking our shine. And and you just never get that confidence to springboard your career into a whole another level. So, well, Marcus, what you just said is so interesting on so many levels because like your projections for Giannis is now a first half where you’re like, “Oh, I think it’s 18 and one.” That’s like that’s that’s the first half. And the second thing, just thinking about it, like as you guys are talking about this, and I don’t know if I ever processed this concept that we’re talking about, the where you’re drafted, the team’s investment in you, the Toby Bailey reference to what we’re making here. I think so much of it, I’m not talking about the Bucks, I’m saying in general, basketball or life in general. If you pick someone early, it’s now really investing in yourself to keep your job because if you’re wrong, you lose your job. So, of course, I’m going to give, you know, Chris Johnson all the resources in the world because Evan Cohen want not to go third person, but I want to keep my job. I keep my job by you being great. If the second rounder is not good, I don’t lose my job. If the first rounder is not good, I may lose my job. We got an issue. Right. Right. And and we had a guy on the show, Chris, help me with his a Sutton. Jacob Jason Sutton. He’s got Jacob Sutton. Okay. So, he’s got a he’s got a site, a sub substack that he writes. Good good young basketball writer. But he he broke down Evan Chris. What what’s the the leading factor in terms of a player from his first year to his second year and about two or three leading factors, but the one that we always talked about when I played and it holds true today, the most important stat on that stat sheet is minutes played. And that was and that was the thing that he talked about that the guys who got the minutes on teams were who weren’t that good. Expectations weren’t that high. They got the minutes and they were allowed to uh shoot it with impunity and not get criticized and not taken out of games and not and not get stuck on that short leash where they’re afraid of making a mistake. Guys who shot a lot of shots, had a high quantity of shot attempts and played the minutes were the guys whose second year you could project as being even more successful than their first. So yeah, it makes sense opportunity. Yeah, you know, well, it’s also it’s also as you’re being evaluated like I mean, think about what we do for a living. I do a 4hour show every single day. If I’m if I’m thought to our show, Chris Kanty, Michelle Smallman, and I if we’re I’m sure we are evaluated minute by minute, but if in theory, if they if our bosses at ESPN were to say, “I didn’t like the first 12 minutes of the show. You’re out for the 13th minute.” that that’s gonna screw with your head. But if it’s day by day, week by week, or in your case, game by game, or show by show, as we’re doing now, I feel like that gives you a little bit more mental leeway to not not sit there and say, “Oh, is he is is he or she going to take me out of the game right now?” It’s a little Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and to your point, so so doing my research on you, Evan, I mean, you know, you’re a Badger, Wisconsin Badger, all the local fans. We love that. Uh but but at at at at UDub Udub radio, James Hoy, a professor that you had, not there’s another guy that you talked about who’s really kind of supervising the radio, but he kind of first got you interested in broadcasting at UCLA. My guy was Professor Art Arthur Friedman, and he was a really good friend of Mike Warren, who was an actor, Hill Street Blues, great UCLA basketball player. Uh but but but Professor Freriedman, Dr. Freriedman took me under his wing and actually wrote up an independent studies major for me in the theater arts department focusing on on journalism, broadcasting, and film. And so I was able to pick and choose the classes that I want. I had my own campus uh TV show three days a week, closed circuit TV under the guise of Frank Lauderette. I mean, that experience, you know, all I’m saying is that when you get key people in your life for those key moments, they can propel you to the next level like nobody else can, man. And you had that experience at Wisconsin under under Professor Hoy, I assume. Yes, no doubt, Marcus, and thank you for bringing that up. So, growing up in New York, I at 9 years old, all I ever wanted to do was sports talk radio. I listened to a show called Mike and the Mad Dog. I know you guys had Mad Dog on your show. Um, and talk and he he loves old school basketball. And I So, I I’ll kind of go full circle on this in mentioning Mad Dog. So, I grew up um wanting to be them and Howard Stern. Those are my two. Howard Stern in the morning, Mike and the Mad Dog in the afternoon. This is all I ever wanted to do in life was talk radio. So, I get to I played uh basketball, football, baseball in uh high school. I was a high school quarterback, a horrible one at that. And so, I go to the University of Wisconsin and I get there and I keep hearing about this guy, Professor Hoy. I’m like, I didn’t have him as my teacher, you know, because you’re you sign up for classes your freshman year. Like I mean Chris and Marcus, you guys probably could pick your teachers. I can’t, right? I couldn’t pick who I wanted to have with professors. So I keep hearing about Professor Hoy. I finally like get in touch with him and I schedule a meeting with him. So I was working at student newspaper and student radio and I scheduled a meeting with him. This must have been my sophomore year. And he says, you know, we have an internship that goes out every year to one senior in the journalism department at the University of Wisconsin. And what that student gets to do is they intern for Matt Lee and Mike Lucas, who are the broadcasters for basketball and football for the entire season. And and and this is this is unheard of to me at the time and I’m sure you guys because Chris and I were in college general vicinity same time. You got a stipened with that. They paid you. Yes. What? I got paid in college legally more than you did probably legally. Facts. So one senior journalism school. Okay. I didn’t get into the journalism school. I was in the communication art school. Professor Hoy saw something in me. I got that internship my junior year and my senior year. Wow. Got paid both years. Both years. And I And you I was You’re only supposed to get it one. And I was actually not I guess kind of not eligible for it, but to Professor Hoy’s credit almost like I guess a scout like when you find a player overseas like this guy, you know who you just mentioned Manu. Whoever found Manu something, right? 60th pick in the draft. Right. So, it then leads to me meeting Matt Lee, who’s the voice of the Badgers, who I just was in Madison a couple weeks ago. He got inducted into the the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame. Matt takes me under his wing. I intern him for him and I’m attached to him for two years while I’m in college. I get done with college. Matt helps me get a job in Madison. Three months into my job in Madison, I get a call from Craig Harmmesin, CEO of Good Karma Brands, and Steve Polycino, the president of Good Karma Brands, saying, “We’re starting a radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s an all sports radio station dedicated to Palm Beach County, and it’s the largest market in the country without an all sports radio station dedicated to the market.” So, think about this for a second, right? All the Bucks fans inside Milwaukee are listening to ESPN Milwaukee. All the Bucks fans all over the the country and the world are many many ways listening to their local sports station, right? You guys, I know LA, 710 in LA, huge station, whatever. This is a top 50 market in the United States of America that did not actually have a sports station, an hour from Miami, two hours from Orlando. It’s And you guys know from a business perspective, there’s a lot of money there for advertising partners that in Palm Beach County, Florida. Yes, sir. So, starting a station from scratch, I go there. I get the job and I work there and I go from nights to afternoons. I’m doing all kinds of University of Miami stuff. Cover the Heat when they won the championship three times. All this stuff, right? And then I get a phone call to go the full circle out of nowhere from Mad Dog Radio on SiriusXM. They said, “We’d love for you to come try out to get this national show.” And I’m like, “Well, I I didn’t apply for this.” Like, I don’t you know, when you get when you get in in our industry, if somebody calls you for a gig and you didn’t apply for it, that’s cool, but it’s dangerous. Why? Because, okay, great followup, Chris. Here’s why it’s dangerous. What if I go try out or I do a practice show, I don’t tell who I’m working for, they find out I don’t get the other job. I lose this job, too. Right. Yeah. So, that’s dumb. That’s You gota It’s This is a public business. You can hear It’s not like you’re gonna go meet with a law firm and you could do it at a coffee shop. Nobody knows who you are, right? It’s a little different in this. You go on a free agent Marcus Johnson today goes on a free agent visit with a GM. Everyone’s going to know, oh, he was on that free agent visit, right? I’m not saying I’m your level. Don’t Don’t get that twisted. So I I called Craig and Steve and I said, “Listen, Sirius has interest. What I don’t want to leave this, but I’m interested in doing that.” They’re like, “Go for it. Go try to do it. We’ll deal with what happens after the fact.” So they fly me up to New York. And this all, by the way, one thing you asked the question about Professor Hoy. I know this is a long answer, but one thing leads to another. Professor Hoy put me with Lee. Lee puts me with in Madison. Madison gets me to Florida. So they fly me up June 2011. I’m living in Palm Beach County. They fly me to New York, which is where I’m from. June 2011. Okay, think about this for a second. The number one sports topic in June of 2011, Heat Mavs NBA Finals. I’m talking about that every day. Anyway, you guys are doing here district. This is not like, hey, you got some huge offer. You’re now doing a Raptors podcast. Well, you’re gonna have to do major prep of like, what the heck are we talking? We don’t follow them on a day, right? I’m now asked to try out on the big stage with all the stuff I’d be talking about in West Palm Beach anyway. Wow. So, at that point, it’s almost like somebody saying to Chris, try out for a basketball team, but you have to play point forward. I better make this team, right? I So, I go I try out. I make the team. I I I get the job. But here’s the catch. I said, I don’t want to leave the other one. I did both for 10 years. Wow. 12 years. I did two shows a day for 12 years until ESPN called three years ago and I got the gig and it all stems back to Professor Hoy to give you the longest answer in the history of answers. That’s cool. No man, that’s that’s great stuff, man. And again, it’s just it’s always just just fun to see life and the turns that it takes and how it works out and and and so now let’s talk about we Giannis. Get back to Giannis in terms of where his life is right now. Uh he just come out Evan and made a statement about winning the bronze in Euro basket. What do you say Chris? That was the biggest accomplishment of his life up to this point. This is a two-time MVP. This is MVP of the NBA finals of 50 piece in the close out six games. 17 for 19 from the free throw line from a guy who normally struggle. I mean c can you relate to that Evan? You think he’s a prisoner of the moment? You think he’s I know he talks about the 12 million Greece fans and how important it is to them, but man, it’s just hard for me to to to to understand that kind of rationale. So Marcus, let’s try to take the name out for a second, right? So let’s play this out for a second. Is it common for the best player on a 50 plus win team to be in the MVP conversation? The answer to that is yes. Yes. Right. Is it common for an MVP to compete for and win a championship? Yes. Yes. Is it common for the best player on Greece to meddal in Eurob Basket? No. That’s his 2009. And I think that’s the answer. I if I had to guess, Giannis sees himself as the best in the sport and thus his accolades that he has earned and his accomplishments that he has earned if you apply to other versions of the best in the sport would align with that. Right. The best on Greece would not align with a medal the way that the best on an NBA. Now, he’s the best on both. Yeah. But he’s not competing similarly in both in both genres, so to speak. Does that make sense in what I’m saying here? No. Yeah. Without without question. And and to to your point, I mean, Harris Stabos, one of the the biggest writers in in Greek basketball has known Jana since he’s 14 or 15. He talked about the only two teams that are happy after Euro basket. It was it’s a great statement. Are the team that finishes first and the team that finishes third, you know, you know, your third place team that gets a medal, sneaks in the finals. Yeah. Yeah. And the second place team, they’ve lost the final, so they’re not happy. The, you know, so it it was a great point and I understand it, but man, he’s I don’t know. Go ahead, Chris. But AMJ, I I get where you’re coming from, but also you got to look at it through the through Giannis’s lens and how he views Greece, the country, right? What the the jersey actually means to him, why it means what it means to him, you know, um the marvelous journey, Giannis required viewing for anyone that wants to understand about this dude. And once you watch it and once you get an understanding that like you you know what time it is with Giannis in Greece, he’s thankful. He’s appreciative. And remember he came up in that Greek basketball system where everything sort of your your you know your pot whatever rainbow in the sky whatever you whatever pot at the end pie in the sky pie in the sky pie in the sky is is a metal at Euro basket it’s not an NBA championship it’s not anything we’re talking a college championship it’s Euro basket right since you’re for since he was 14 whenever he was playing as a youth growing up so this I understand why he’s saying that I don’t think it it does anything to diminish his accomplishments as a buck or the NBA, but that international stuff, you know, it’s a deeper connection. I mean, a medal for your country, it valid, it validates like, you know, your national identity where you your roots to that point and maybe I don’t know, I’ll get ripped for saying this. I don’t think you can say that if you’re American. I I may I don’t think like an American basketball player could be like, “Oh, you know, winning a gold is better than anything I’ve done in the NBA.” Like that’s I don’t believe that. I don’t believe American basketball players grow up dreaming of gold medals. That’s something of it’s amazing when you put yourself in a position of accomplishment. American basketball players, my opinion, grow up trying to win the Larry O’Brien trophy. And I don’t and I from a talk show persp like if I were gonna do this topic that we’re doing right now on our show on sportsman like on ESPN radio like yeah I may do it as does Giannis think it’s actually more important to win a Euro Cup than to win a championship but I I don’t actually believe that’s what he’s saying but I can understand how some like Marcus asked a very fair question. I understand how someone could take it that way, but if you did it as a trade, there’s no way Giannis has given up the title against the Suns in the 50 piece that you mentioned in the title game and it’s close out for that. Like that’s it’s a different type of it’s almost like a different field altogether. If if Here District is the number one podcast of all time, you feel a level of accomplishment. It’s a different field than playing basketball. Playing Euro basket I look at as a different field than playing in the NBA as odd as that sounds. Yeah. And and to that point we were told I didn’t know this and Christian correct me on the name if I mess it up but Nick Nick Nick Gallas Nick Gallas or Gallos Nick Gallas is the greatest player in the minds of Greek basketball fans and non-fans alike. But he is number one because he averaged 37 points a game. 1987 Euro basket led him to a gold medal. They’re their their one and only. I don’t think he’s from Grace though. I think he’s from New Jersey. No, I’m I’m being I’m being serious. Seriously? Okay. So, that I got to look that up. Dylan Dylan and Mon, your producers should look that up. I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure the greatest Greek basketball player of all time is actually from Don’t tell me that, Evan. No. No. Piscataway Hoboken. Where’s he from? You’re thinking about born in Union City, New Jersey. Oh, no. Oh, tell me that. No, they’re acting like this guy is homebred, homemade, came from the city freaking city. He fits the he he’s got the he fits the part for them. You know what I’m saying? Like a bad way in a bad way. I’m just saying it’s it’s interesting. They they they will they will make Come on. You know, it’s it’s a larger honest. Let’s be honest. Yeah. Well, right. Yeah, that’s my point, man. And plus, yeah, plus we get into the whole plumber area era of 1987 in the Euro. So, so they had Draz and Petravic, they had Vlad Debots, they had Tony, all these guys were young players back in those days before the war and the you know the the different countries kind of it was Yugoslavia and not Serbia, you know what I mean? So, so it was but I don’t know. I I just have a I have an issue with that because of my and this is this is where where it comes from with me just because of my respect and having watched Giannis these last 13 years go from where he went to where he is now and the work that he’s put in I just got you know to to to me I just can’t see how you cannot say that he not only one of the greatest players in the greatest player in Greek history but you know top three four in the world right now two or three whatever you want to do. Go ahead Chris. No, I don’t. There’s no question about him being the greatest player in Greek history. I think it’s like this thing that the old school traditional fans have with Giannis. Giannis, who Giannis is is why they don’t view him as the greatest. There’s a lot of Giannis that I admire and I think the number one, like he’s the greatest player in Greece basketball, let’s be honest. The thing that I love the most about him is how little he cares about I need to be around this person in the summer. I need to be around that person in the summer. Like he’s so old school in that mentality of like the way that you guys were and the way Marcus probably that it was for you. Like oh I don’t care if somebody went to UCLA if he’s on another team in the pros. I I’ll go to his birthday party when our careers are done. But until then, until then, I hate him. I also think we can’t discount the uh why Giannis might have said something like this about this metal. He’s playing with all of his brothers. He’s also led a team of players, though. In the NBA, you got other guys, everybody on the team is good, you know, live big time hoopers. You you basically the man on this team and you kind of lifted them to unseen heights. I think that is why this resonates in a way for a guy like Giannis, your brothers, and then you’re bringing up these guys you were together with since youth team. Remember the dude he slapped in the back of the head? I don’t know if you guys saw that clip a couple weeks ago, but but but Harris came on the show and explained they’re they’re boys from back in the day. They’re boys from the youth team. So, I think that that that kind of goes into what what Giannis was kind of trying to convey. Was it He didn’t necessarily use the right choice of words to say, you know, the greatest, but it meant a lot to the guy. You got to see why. You’re on to something. Like, if you think about the greatest football player of all time, Tom Brady, in my opinion, Tom Brady, um, the greatest team that people say he No, let me say it differently. The greatest players that he ever played with was the season that they went undefeated, but they didn’t win a title, right? And so, loss, etc. the 20078. So, the reason I bring that up is to Chris’s point, Brady won titles with lesser talent that felt probably more gratifying than even when he was on all-star team type teams. Winning a title. Giannis winning a title with Drew and with Chris and Brook Lopez, etc., was insanely gratifying. Yeah. But that roster built by John Horse the company was a phenomenal roster. The Greece roster he’s playing on wouldn’t win a game in the NBA probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so to that point and and this is another kind of segue to a little bit of a different topic but but not so much but but I think it underscores and I’m speaking from personal experience and hurt and all that because I ran into Larry Bird and Kevin McCuel and Robert Paris and Dennis Johnson. I ran into Julius Irving and Bobby Jones and Maurice Cheeks and you know and so we never broke through and got to the NBA file. I ran into 1979 1980 my third year in the league. It was the Sonics coming off a championship with Johnny Johnson from from Mesmer High School in in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Gus and DJ and Lonnie Shelton and Jack Sigma. Things have got to fall into place to win a championship. You just cannot discount the kind of fortuitous I won’t call it luck but good fortune you got to have as a team in terms of chemistry, in terms of health, in terms of matchup. Maybe if they play the Sixers instead of the Hawks with Embiid and and and a Beni and a Simmons who’s averaging 14 points a game and Shake Milton who’s up for six man of the year, you know, maybe they play that team in terms of matchups and Giannis goes down. It’s a different outcome. But I think this underscores just how difficult even if you have the best player in the world and Giannis and Euro basket, it’s just tough to beat a team that has more weapons than you have. Yeah. You see, Marcus, your knowledge is through the roof, but it also triggers thoughts that I have that I want to ask follow-ups. Like the 79 Sonics I’m now fascinated by because you brought that up and they won a championship, right? And that is that is the default. Tell me if this is actually right. That’s the default that people go to when they think a team could win a title without mega stars. Did that team really not have mega stars in your mind? When you say a mega star, um, well, Sigma was a great player, former Buck. Dennis Johnson obviously won titles. I mean, Gus, Gus Williams was a 20 point per game scorer. He was, you know, Yeah. Was he an all-star at that time? He was close to it, if not an all-star. But think about every title since think about the Celtics and Lakers teams had mega stars in Burger M. The Sixers had Moses. the I think I think I think you got to pretty much go all the the Pistons of the late 80s mega star had multiple Hall of Famers Chanty Phillips you know Richard Hamilton Taan Ben Wallace you know that team didn’t have the mega star but no but um so but again it just underscores the point that that that that a lot of elements have to fall into place perfectly the perfect storm of events have to occur almost for you it’s tough to win a championship Jason kid you saw always say it’s tough to win on the in the NBA night in and out. It’s just tough to win a game, let alone win two or three series and break through and even get to the finals. And like I say, I’m living proof. Carl Malone and John Stockton, you know, ran into Michael Jordan. There’s always that that roadblock. Clyde Drexler with the Blazers running into Michael Jordan. The Knicks and the Pacers with Reggie and and you I mean those are good. The Miami Heat uh Pat Riley days with Alzo Morning and that whole crew down. I mean, that was a really good basketball team, but you know, they just ran into an opponent or for whatever reason. I don’t know if the suspensions hurt them that one series or what it was, but you know. So, anyway. Yeah. Go ahead. No, we had we had a similar It’s so funny you bring this up. We had a similar conversation on our show on Sportsman like today um ESPN radio and ESPN 2, ESPNU all across the country that we talked about we did it as relates to football. like if the Kansas City Chiefs, well, I still think are good this year, but if they’re if they’re down, let’s just say how Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson have to take advantage of that opportunity, and the example I brought up was like, all right, so if we’re saying the Chiefs are down and out, which I don’t agree with, but conceptually, I’m like, so really what we’re talking about is the 94 95 Rockets, is like you got to find that moment. No, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan’s not here. You got to take advantage of it, right? And that’s what you’re saying with some of these older teams, like you have to take advantage of those moments. Yeah. Yeah. And to that point, so now you’ve got Jason Tatum is down. You’ve got uh you know some some other guys in Eastern Cones Tyresese Hallebertton is down. You know, Miles Turner’s in Milwaukee. Are you Evan? I won’t ask you if you’re down on this Bucks roster, but where do you rate where do you rate this where do you rate this Bucks roster in terms of where everybody else is kind of kind of pigeon holeing this team? Okay, this this I’m glad you led me into this. I don’t understand any overwhelming glass half empty approach to the roster composition of the Bucks this year. Let me explain why the dame thing is amazingly unfortunate. It was an unbelievably worthy risk that did not work out because of health at the end and maybe you want to say some oncourt chemistry stuff. Also, and Dame has not shied away from this, some real life stuff. His family wasn’t with him, right? That can wear on people. Sure. Um, so that didn’t work out. So, what they decided to do was say, you know, we’re not going to have him here this year anyway. We have to go all in every year of Giannis’s prime, which we’re still in. How do we accomplish that while we have Giannis in his prime right now? Now, were there other options potentially? Yeah. Could you have paid off another team with a future pick or a young asset to take on Dame’s injured contract and then you take worse contracts along with it in return? Sure, that was an option, I’m sure. But the the fact that they were creative enough to wave and stretch. Yeah. Dame. And oh by the way, they will never be burnt by him. He didn’t go to the Heat. He didn’t go to the Celtics. He didn’t go to any of the Eastern Conference. He went home, which is is new. I know he’s not from there, but you get what I’m saying. He went home and they took that and they said, “We love Brooke. We need a younger version of Brooke. Where can we find that?” Miles Turner is an awesome basketball player. Miles Turner is a phenomenal shooter. Guess what? By Miles Turner being an awesome basketball player, a rim protector, and a great shooter, what he forces Giannis to do is one of two things. Either play point forward. Copyright Chris Johnson. Or or play near the rim, which is where you want him. Okay. Now you bring in a guy in Cole Anthony. Cole Anthony, second generation NBA player, obviously with Greg who played for the Bucks, has a lot to prove. I look at that as a good thing. That’s a good thing. I major. I agree. Kyle Kosma, I loved Kyle Koosma with the Lakers. I’ve got a lot to prove in a Bucks uniform, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. I don’t understand why we are not looking at this team glass half full. I like a lot of times on on sportsman like on our show we say okay so if if this is what’s happening what’s the is the inverse also true or let’s look at it from the opposite side. So if it comes trendy to say I don’t I think the Bucks whatever the overunder is they’ll hit the under. Okay let me just for argument sake let what does the over look like? And the over to me is I don’t know the exact number, but it’s in play because you still have Giannis. You brought in a guy that Let’s Let’s not get it twisted. Find me the NBA team that wouldn’t sign up for Miles Turner. Like, tell me the NBA team that would not sign up for Miles Turner. The most coveted free most coveted free agent out there. People forget that they took the most coveted free agent on the market this past season. Go ahead. Now, Bobby Portoris, who is phenomenal in his role. He’s now not going to be asked to be in a role that is any different than the role that he’s thrived in, which there was a moment I thought he was going to be asked to be if if Brooke left and there was no Miles Turner. So, he stays in the same role. You get Gary Trent Jr. for about $10 an hour. I mean, I mean, I just, by the way, can I give you a sneaky name? Amir Coffee is not a bad player. Oh, we talk about it all the time. We talk about it right here all the time. and the Swiss Army knife that you guys know I love now because I said it. Andre Jackson Jr. I’m just challenging people. Think about the Bucks the opposite way that you seem to be thinking about it because you could play out an easy scenario where it actually works really well if you take the glass half full approach. I just played it out for you and I don’t see why they can’t be a 50 plus win team this year. Yeah. Well, man, right there with you. We’re right there with you, man. And I wish we uh could keep you here all day. You got some some great insights, great stories, and uh Yes, sir. Got to have you back here on Here District, Evan Cohen. Man, we appreciate you stopping by, man. Thanks so much. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. All right. All right. Welcome back everybody to Here District. I’m the captain of this vessel on this fantastic voyage, First Mate Chris Johnson. And we continue with our second installment of Bucks Podfest with some outstanding local podcast that cover the Milwaukee Bucks. And uh we got a couple of Brew Hoop guys with us today. Chris, we got Jackson Gross, we got Van FZ. Man, thank you guys for joining here. District, it’s an honor, guys. Thank you for having us. I was thinking like you’ve had Hall of Famers on this pod recently like Kevin Garnett, you’ve had a Hollywood A-listers, you had Ice Cube, and and now you’re you’re you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel now bringing me on here. So, times are tough, I guess. Well, but but but but the thing is is is probably our loyal listeners would rather hear the insights that you two will bring to the table because of your passion, especially you Jackson girls for the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, now so so Bruhoo and I was we were talking off air about this whole algorithm rhythm thing. Every time I’m looking to to to go on Google and look up Giannis’s middle name, I got to read 20 articles on on air Coffey’s weakness or whatever it happens to be. But but but where does this where does the topics and subject matter come from? I mean so many podcasts, so many people talking sports, talking Bucks, talking basketball. How much of a challenge and and we’ll start off with you uh Van Fias. How much of a challenge is it to come up with fresh material on a on a daily or weekly basis or whatever it happens to be? Just explain that process. you know, this summer not too challenging because man, like end of June and and July, early July was the craziest time since I’ve been working at the site like in terms of just stuff to cover and that’s thanks to the Bucks, you know, doing their uh big moves uh with with Damen Lillard and and Miles Turner. But yeah, I mean it it becomes a bit of an issue once we get into like August, you know, September, this sort of um dog days of summer, just thinking about, well, gee, what can we talk about? We’ve got some very talented writers on staff though who are very creative and can think about stuff like beyond you know what’s happening during the season maybe historical stuff or um in arena type of things that we’ve experienced like one of our guys loves to write about mascots and just like the economics of like how they’re paid and things like that. Um we’ve talked about promotions that the Bucks run like with especially with food which is kind of interesting. Um, so we we just have a lot of creative minds on staff and that makes it a lot easier to sort of, you know, to go beyond what is happening on the court. But then as far as stuff that happens on the court, we also have a lot of great basketball minds guys who have played the game before or have just been watching it a really long time and just have experience with um with it maybe from like a coaching perspective or a player’s perspective. And there are ways we can break it all down. And then there’s of course like player movement which is kind of my thing. But but man, you you piqu my interest. Who’s the highest paid mascot? What what are these what are these mascots making, man? Give us give us some some salary structure on these mascots. I I forget. I know they’re not in the CCA. I’ve not seen them in the C. I I think Morgan I think it’s Benny the Bull, right? I think uh cuz he was campaigning for uh oh god for the Bucks mascot to get a raise. Bango. Yeah, Bango needs a raise. I’m pretty sure it’s Benny is the highest paid. Okay. So, the big So, once again, the big market teams are able to dominate the mascot game. I think the gorilla in Phoenix is pretty high paid too as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I worked for the Sonics back in the 90s and Sasquatch, their mascot, was a good friend of mine and man, he was always having surgeries and clean out some cartilage here and because of all the trampoline stuff and all all the things he did. Yes, sascot. Good dude. But Jackson, you tell me about it, man. coming up with what with with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with compelling subject matter that you feel like the fans want to really get into and dig into. So yeah, and I mean just before I want to first of all say thank you for having me on too. I’m excited that now I get to have the little trivia about myself that I’ve been on the same podcast that’s hosted Ice Cube. Thank you very much. Um today was a good today was a good day. Today was a good day. Um, in terms of like coming up with articles, um, at least during the like the dog days period, for me, it’s always trying to find a way to like if it’s not necessarily like exactly Bucks related, trying to pull it into that. Like I went through like all my like sports cards this this off season, um, which ended up being over like 3,000 between basketball, football, and baseball. And then I went through I’m like, “Okay, here’s all these cards that are that are Milwaukee Bucks related.” like there’s a Miami Heat Ray Allen one and there was a Vin Baker one I had from the 90s that just found its way. So doing out those outside the box things, but in terms like inseason stuff, I’m a big stats guy and advanced stats guy. I like looking into those kind of things and like okay this is what um this is what this advanced stat is saying and why Gary Trent Jr. should be starting instead of somebody else or and and and things of that nature. So, that’s kind of what I like to to go into. I also like to go on rants every once in a while. I called out the NBA officiating after that game in Charlotte, uh, with the challenge rules and then ESPN’s coverage of Giannis the last five years basically. So, I like to throw my opinion out there a lot, too. And tell me guys, I’m a technological novice in a lot of ways, but this whole AI thing and that’s one of the things out here at Hollywood, Los Angeles where I’m based in terms of screenwriting and other things that that there’s a lot of concern with, but is that a tool that you use in terms of is that something that we can talk about? Is it something that you try and keep kind of under wraps? I don’t know. You tell me where AI where AI kind of fits into into running a site like you run. It it doesn’t really impact our writing beyond how you would use a spell checker. I would say like as you’re writing a paper for school or anything. I mean, we were just talking about this yesterday. I like, you know, we we follow certain like conventions with our writing. Like there’s AP style and everything, but some of that I you know, I’m I’m a bit of a pet ant and I kind of disagree with some of that. I think I think we should do it this way. So, we we all kind of discussed this, but um the only time I ever find myself just getting any sort of like assistance in my writing is just like with a spell checker basically, like just saying like, “Oh, I I should have said which there instead of that.” Things like that. Because I do think that in our uh industry like especially with journalism and in in in sports journalism is what I’m talking about. there is a lot of content that’s being just mined right now as if it’s a resource. Um I mean and you can kind of tell sometimes when when it’s just like this was just generated by machine. I mean it’s interesting because we occasionally receive submissions to the site like about people who are interested in writing uh for the site and yeah like it’s clear that this was not the work of that actual person like based on even even the email they send is like I don’t think that this was uh this does not seem like original content from the person and you can honestly the best tell sometimes is just like this the the subject matter it’s like I can tell when a human being is writing about basketball about the Bucks like because they watch the Bucks and I can tell when a computer writes about it because the computer doesn’t have eyes and can’t watch the Bucks. You’re just regurgitating stuff that they found on the internet that people have written. Yeah. And and listen, just word to the wise, stay away from Grock because she’d be messing up all the time. She be she I be getting all kind of misinformation. Wait, wait a minute, Grock. Wait a minute. What are you talking about? This this happened instead of that. Oh yes, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry. My mistake. It’s like, wow. Wow. Let me ask you guys this, Van. When you’re teaching and your students, are you seeing a rise in AI submitted papers or do you guys say have safeguards against that? I’ve seen stuff on the internet where colleges have now a program that actually runs it through and you read Yes. You know what’s talk to us about that part of Yes, there are AI checkers in um higher education that are being used. Uh actually Morgan, our guy on staff who writes about the mascots among other things, he’s also in higher ed and he’s he’s a lot more experienced with those than I am and just talking with him about them. They’re very much a work in progress as well. Um, but he’s someone who I talk to a lot about this in terms of, you know, basketball writing and also my um, uh, Harrison Fagan who is out there in LA with you guys. He’s the director of basketball content and SB Nation. Uh, we’re talking about this kind of stuff a lot with with writing. we see um and uh that’s sent to us or it just comes across our um our purview like what what actually you know constitutes like like a a human being’s writing sometimes um because it can get very granular but yeah I think those types of safeguards are still really a work in progress. I’m not sure they’re quite caught up with the advancements in AI but thankfully I think the machines still aren’t winning. We still have people, we still have human beings looking at stuff and being like, “This is written by a person. I can tell. This is written by a machine. I can tell.” Yeah. But but Jackson, that would take some of the passion out of it, right? If you got passion for the team, passion for the sport. I mean, you don’t you don’t want to take shortcuts like that, man. Yeah. I I would not. I I couldn’t imagine you would want to do something like that. No. And I The whole point of whether you’re a fan of a team or not is that what you’re doing is what you’re passionate about. And if if you’re really passionate about something, you’re not going to take a shortcut because both of you guys were very passionate at basketball. You guys aren’t going to take shortcuts in terms of your training and what you guys had to do. You you put in the work and whether it was difficult or hard and just talking about the differences between something that’s written or uh by a person in AI. I remember seeing a submission where like it was talking about how would Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton impact like the 2025 Bucks or whatever. I’m like, “Okay, Drew Holidayiday hasn’t been on the team in two or three years now and Chris Middleton was traded at the trade deadline.” So, it’s like it can be somewhat of a tool like if you want like a quick like stat line from last year, you put I use Microsoft uh co-pilot from time to time. It’s like if you just want a quick stat line from like Giannis last season, but I still find myself checking the link anyway because like these things are still so unreliable. Uh, and then in terms of education, I know at the high school level they have like it’s called turnitin.com because it can also check for like plagiarism, but it’s been you they’re trying to use it to test for AI as well. And sometimes it’s like the students will say like I completely wrote this, but it still says like 40 or 50% of this paper was written by AI. So there’s still I agree with Van. there’s still a long way to go in terms of like actually parsing out like this is a factual essay that someone wrote that someone grabbed information from versus I put this into chat GPT write a paper for me. So yeah and I mean I even see kids like for math problems put in chat GPT like they’ll take a picture of the problem and chat GPT will solve it for them. Some nuts and bolts about about basketball in terms of um this team coming up. How excited are you guys Jackson with you? I mean about and let me just say from my perspective the youth the the youth movement Chris and I have been talking about this. You got to come into the modern era. You got to get some young legs. You got to be able to compete with the OKC’s and the and the Pacers and all these teams that have these young athletic athletic players. Now a lot of unknowns but man I mean how where’s the excitement level for you Jackson right now in with this incoming season compared to past seasons? I am tr honestly tremendously excited. Obviously, it’s a very different roster construction um compared to previous years where you in previous times you have the two to three star players and then some good role players around it. But I really like the idea of just trying to let let the young guys cook at this point because I mean out removing the injury factor from those last two playoff series against the Pacers. The biggest issue is they just couldn’t keep up with them in terms of their pace because love them, thank you for the championship, but Brook Lopez wasn’t get wasn’t always the most fleeted guy and trying to guard a guy like Miles Turner was not ideal. Um, and so see obviously adding in Miles Turner now, but having guys like Kevin Porter Jr. who are a little bit more athletic and a little quicker who can push the pace. Ryan Rollins, too. I’m really I’m really excited about Ryan Rollins, especially after the jump he took um from last year. And I can’t wait to see what the actual starting lineup is moving forward, whether they’re going to opt for for an AJ Green or who’s going to win that point guard battle between Rollins and KPJ. So, it’s not like it doesn’t have the star power necessarily, but in terms of fitting when with this modern NBA and all the new salary restrictions with the aprons, I really like what this team can do. Yes, Giannis will shoulder a lot of the offensive load as he usually does, but I think it’s kind of it can be a like score by committee where if you have one guy who’s kind of having a bad night, you have two or three other solid guys who can kind of pick up the slack. And so I’m just excited to I feel like this team really has a nice amount of depth because I really don’t think they were able to have that when you’re paying Damen Lillard 50 million, paying Chris Middleton 30 million, paying Giannis 50, Brooke 20. So there’s a lot more flexibility and versatility with this team, which I’m I’m really excited about. And for me, when I look at the roster, I’m looking at guys that might not necessarily be stars, but guys that have the potential to be a star in their role. Like, you know, you talk about AJ and Gary and Kevin Porter Jr., like those are guys that could potentially have major seasons playing well above their pay grade. That’s going to help contribute to wins. Van, I had a question for you about this whole why the national media is down on the Bucks. A lot of people have the Bucks anywhere between, you know, fourth to a six seed. Some folks have them in the playin. Why do you think folks hating on the Bucks so tough after this off season? I I don’t want to like this. This hat is not made of tin foil. And for people who aren’t watching, I’m wearing just a baseball cap, but uh a brewer’s cap, by the way. But I think the there is like I’ve never thought of it necessarily as a big market or a east coast bias necessarily like in NBA coverage, but it’s something I noticed in basketball versus uh baseball, the other sport I I follow the closest. and um even football. It it’s there’s there’s this gravitation among the national media towards like what I call glamour markets which are often the big markets, your New York, your Los Angeles, but then also places that are flashy like like Miami. Um a a a market that has a lot of wealth and has become very basketball centric in the recent like the last decade in Golden State. I mean, these are places that are kind of darlings of of the the national media. And then you also have other large markets that maybe don’t like those places are kind of like the free agent destinations or like the where players want to go. Um, and then there’s like your your your Dallas, um, maybe Boston, maybe Chicago sometimes, uh, large markets that are also desirable, um, in other ways. And maybe have a a history like of certainly in the places I’ve talked about a history of winning basketball. And then you have everyone else, which is like almost like 19 teams in the league, like, and it doesn’t necessarily matter how good you are. Like I I think that even the Spurs who are I mean of the last 25 years like what better franchise is there in maybe all of professional sports than the San Antonio Spurs in terms of how they were able to create a culture and and a winning tradition there. And there was still I thought like even back in like you all remember like 2002 2003 everyone’s like the Spurs are boring. They’re bad for basketball. like this is it’s like but but they win and like yeah Tim Duncan isn’t like the flashest player. He’s not dropping 50 balls on guys all the time like Kobe is, but he’s winning games and I it doesn’t matter how it looks. and they they just still weren’t getting that respect even into I thought even into the the 2010s like you know obviously Kauai is a big talking point right now but I thought there was a little bit of that involved when Kauaii was exiting um San Antonio about 10 years ago. So, I think that now has is is what’s affecting the the discourse around around the Bucks is like they they’ve been successful, but they haven’t been as successful as the Warriors. And that’s the standard that you need to get to in order to join this like venerated class of teams that I was talking about earlier and like the Nuggets haven’t gotten there. And like championships don’t even necessarily matter. like I don’t think you know the Cavs or like the Raptors were ever there and um Oklahoma City like it’s just you’re not if you’re not one of those teams like I don’t know what you can do to become one of those teams and what I think the only way this is going to change is if people really start kind of seeing it that way being like okay you know this is a this is this is a preference that the media um nationally has like whether it be based on market size, whether it be based on history, whether it be based on fan interest. Um, and that’s why that’s what I think drives the narrative and what drives the negativity towards teams like the Bucks. And I think you’ll see it towards teams like, let’s say, the the Nuggets if they don’t win a title this year. I mean, are they finally going to start talking about like, well, when does Jokic have to ask out of there? I mean, I think a lot of Bucks fans have been wondering like, why haven’t they been why haven’t people been talking about that the last couple years? That’s my spiel. Yeah. No, that’s a good spill. Good spill. We’re gonna wind it up with this. We got a little thing. We do rapid fire questions. Gonna ask you a couple of questions. You got to dig into that that vast knowledge of Wisconsin sports that you have. First one for you, Jackson. Is this the biggest summer in Wisconsin sports history between Micah Parsons and Miles Turner and the Brewers? Uh, is this the biggest summer? And Ben, you get a chance to think about this, but Jackson, you’re on you’re on the hot seat. When I do think about it, like especially the Brewers are really good. Uh the Bucks made their typical offseason noise and then now the Packers are looking like a Super Bowl contender after pulling off the one of the biggest fleeces of all time. I mean, you know, a lot of people around here were comparing it to when the Bears got Cleo Mack about seven years ago. like they still gave up like multiple draft picks. All the Packers had to give up were two first round picks and Kenny Clark. Like yeah, and if they they can keep this up and I don’t see a reason why they can’t. Like this is this would be a really good summer for Wisconsin sports. It’s it’s a good summer, but I I wouldn’t say it’s the the biggest. I think it’s one of like in my lifetime, one of the best, but um I mean, just because of the nature of 2021 where the finals was pushed well back into the summer into July, they actually it was great. They won the finals on my birthday and like there’s never been a an NBA championship played on my birthday, which July 26th. July 26th 21st. July 21st. Okay. It was a great way to great way to ring in my my 33rd year on the planet. Um but yeah, uh and and I was I was there in the in the Well, I was in the the here district. I’m in the here district. No, I was in the deer district. The deer district. Yeah. But um no, so like and the Brewers were very good that summer, too. They they just weren’t quite on like, you know, going to win 99 games, uh maybe level. But I think my favorite my my answer is 2011 because the Packers had just come off a Super Bowl win. Um, the Brewers were this was the the Brewers in my lifetime, their first like big-time year. They won 96 games that year. That was year. They had Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Zack Grinky had just joined the team. There’s a lot of excitement around that team. And then the Badger football team had just gotten Russell Wilson, like if we’re talking the long summer like into, you know, September, like there’s a lot of excitement about that Badger football team. 2011 was a really good summer. Didn’t they play in the Rose Bowl that year or Yeah, that was they lost to Oregon. I was like because oh man Brett you couldn’t you didn’t call that time out at the end. I was there I was there I was at the road that’s why I saw Russell Wilson for the first time. Oh man that’s my answer 2011. Okay man that’s good man and that’s that somebody else gave the same answer that 21 pushed into the summer NBA finals. Tough tough to beat that. And then final question from from me Giannis Ando does he average 30 points a game this year Jackson? Yes or no? And why? Yeah, when we did we’re doing our season preview series podcast for for Deer Diaries, I think I had Giannis averaging like 34 35 points per game. I think he’s gonna have a thermonuclear season. Why? Okay, Chris and I Chris and I both have him under 30. I got him about about 27. I think Chris, you had him 27 28 a game this year. But but why do you think why do you think he goes up exponentially in scoring this year as opposed to down? Yeah, I think while I like like I said, I like a lot of the surrounding pieces and I think they can be they’re going to be good players, I just think there are going to be some nights where like the shot is off almost like a lot of the guys and Giannis is going to have to go for another 40 or 50 or maybe even another 60 bomb a lot more frequently than we’ve seen in the past. So, I just think there’s going to be a lot more of those types of games where he’s just gonna have to carry more of the load without a necessarily true uh allNBA or allstar level player number two against him especially on the perimeter. Yeah, that’s a good point. Van uh over and under for Giannis 30 points. What do you think? I’m taking the over but not not by too much. I just think that he at this stage of his career he’s a 30 point per game guy. Like he’s been that now for two seasons I think. Um more more but just lock it in. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think Yeah, I think I think that’s just like a bare bones thing for him now, especially like with how many more shot attempts will probably be funneled towards him this year. Um, what I think he’s going to do is average a careerhigh in assists. Um, I I think he’s going to be pushing up around eight assists this year. I think what we saw at the end of last season is I I don’t think he’s going to average a triple double for the entire season like he did over that eight game stretch, but I think he’ll be up around eight assists this year and he’ll still be over 10 rebounds a game and 30. All right. Well, listen guys, we appreciate you stopping by. We’ve got Jackson Gross Van FZ Deer Diaries on Brew Hoop and then I think Zach said you are now the beat reporter so which means you’ll be kind of hanging around five forum a lot more this season covering the Bucks. So, look forward to seeing you, meeting you. Let’s let’s let’s holl at each other and and acknowledge each other. But, man, thank you so much and appreciate the good work that you do keeping people like me informed with the great stuff that with the great with the great content you put out. We appreciate you, Marcus. We appreciate you having us on and like, you know, you two guys, I I respect you so much. you know, your basketball opinions and and you as people and uh thank you for, you know, all you’ve taught us over the years on the broadcast and like the the laughs we’ve had along the way, too, man. Appreciate you, man. All right, guys. Take care. Thanks, guys.

This week on Hear District, Marques & Kris Johnson welcome Evan Cohen (ESPN Radio’s UnSportsmanLike) to break down the Milwaukee Bucks’ under-the-radar outlook for the 2025–26 season. They discuss which offseason moves set the Bucks up for another 50-win run, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s EuroBasket bronze medal with Greece, and why he called it his greatest achievement. Evan also reflects on Kris’ historic UCLA days, the importance of draft position, underrated NBA teams that never won a title, and his journey through sports radio. Later, Van Fayaz & Jackson Gross of Brew Hoop join #BucksPodFest to talk Bucks’ offseason moves, standout players to watch, Wisconsin’s big summer in sports, and how AI is reshaping sports media.

0:00 — Intro
2:41 — Kris’ Flowers & UCLA
9:38 — Giannis’ Rise & Draft Impact
18:23 — Career Journey
26:11 — Giannis & Greece win Bronze
39:50 — Bucks’ Offseason & Outlook
44:49 — #BucksPodFest w/ Brew Hoop
50:26 — AI Discussion
56:31 — Bucks Outlook
1:03:49 — Rapid Fire Questions

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