{"id":774576,"date":"2026-06-30T14:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774576\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:57:25","slug":"goodbye-to-milwaukees-greatest-washington-co-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774576\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to Milwaukee\u2019s greatest | Washington Co. Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 20, 2021, I found myself at the entrance of Pete\u2019s Pub on Brady Street in Milwaukee. The bar was so packed that the bouncer wouldn\u2019t let us in, but he was kind enough to let us stand in the doorway.<\/p>\n

Why? So we could see the TV screen. In fact, everyone in Milwaukee was glued to a TV screen. That\u2019s because the city of Milwaukee was about to witness something it hadn\u2019t seen in 50 years.<\/p>\n

As I stood in the doorway, the mood at Pete\u2019s turned from nerves to unbridled joy. I could barely hear my own thoughts. The noise was deafening. The hugs, the cheers, the tears, and the joy were something I had never experienced before, all because the Milwaukee Bucks, after half a century, had finally won an NBA championship.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n \"La
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Brady Street, as those who have been there know, isn\u2019t the cleanest or classiest area of town. But boy, is it fun. And that night in Milwaukee was something I had never seen. People were screaming with joy, hugging strangers, and high-fiving anyone within arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n

And while it was certainly a team effort to bring a title to Milwaukee, every Bucks fan can attest, there was one reason we won our first championship in 50 years \u2014 Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

In the Bucks\u2019 105-98 finalsclinching Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns, Antetokounmpo scored 50 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and had five blocks. It was a historic performance, and one that no Milwaukee sports fan born after 1971 had ever had the pleasure of witnessing.<\/p>\n

But what made it even more special is that it wasn\u2019t a big-name player that we traded for or splashed the cash on; it was a Greek-Nigerian we drafted at 18 years old in 2013.<\/p>\n

When the Bucks selected Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick of the 2013 NBA draft, he was a slim, gangly kid, fresh off two seasons with Filathlitikos in his home country of Greece. Not many knew what to make of the young forward, but we figured his presence couldn\u2019t hurt, considering how bad the Bucks were.<\/p>\n

Little did we know what was to come.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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As the seasons went on, Antetokounmpo got bigger and bigger, and got better and better, culminating in back-to-back MVPs in 2019 and 2020. And all of a sudden, the Bucks, who hadn\u2019t had a big-time player arguably since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had a bona fide superstar.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just pure happenstance that Antetokounmpo turned into the player we all know him as today. It\u2019s because of his work ethic, his drive, and his commitment, not just to the Bucks, but to embracing Milwaukee in a way no athlete of his stature ever had before.<\/p>\n

Few players have had the impact on Milwaukee that Antetokounmpo has, both on and off the court. For 82 nights a year, he would play his heart out for the white and green. For the other 283, he was holding diaper drives with his wife, Mariah, for those in need, distributing $1 million to nonprofits around the city, helping people access services like housing, food and education, or supporting youth basketball camps and back-to-school initiatives.<\/p>\n

For every great thing Giannis did on the court, he did just as much, if not more, off of it.<\/p>\n

Giannis will go down as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, and those around the world will remember what he gave to the game. But for those in Milwaukee, he will be remembered for so much more.<\/p>\n

Things have gone downhill for the Bucks since Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee to the title in 2021, but through no fault of his own. Giannis has played at an MVP level every season since, but one by one, the title-winning squad was disassembled. Even with the blockbuster addition of Damian Lillard in 2023, nothing seemed to click the same as it did five years ago. As time wore on, it seemed inevitable that Giannis would eventually move on.<\/p>\n

And on June 22, 2026, almost exactly five years to the date when he took Milwaukee to the top of the mountain, his time in the Cream City came to an end … traded to the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

It was a sad day in Milwaukee, as the player affectionately known as \u201cThe Greek Freak,\u201d like many Wisconsinites do in the colder months, left for Florida.<\/p>\n

When the news hit at 11 p.m. on June 22, I was asleep. But I when I woke up the following morning and saw the bevy of notifications covering my phone screen, I wasn\u2019t surprised. Nor was I mad. Nor disappointed. All I could think of was that magical night in Milwaukee, thankful for what Antetokounmpo had brought to the city that I call home. All the best, Giannis. Milwaukee will eternally be in your debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 20, 2021, I found myself at the entrance of Pete\u2019s Pub on Brady Street in Milwaukee.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,8103,102,121,3871,6,66],"class_list":["post-774576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-bucks","tag-basketball","tag-bucks","tag-free-article","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-milwaukeebucks","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116839648085556554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}