An update and announcing 'Saving the Milwaukee Bucks'

It’s been a few months since my last proper post here on Milwaukee Hoops History. But that’s not for a lack of trying. Far from it, really. 

I’ve been working behind the scenes on the research for my follow up to Building the Milwaukee Bucks: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and the Rapid Rise of an NBA Franchise, 1968-1975. It’s been a long process of getting down dates, quotes and citations for all of the research that I have accumulated over the years.

All of the research that is going into what I’m tentatively calling Saving the Milwaukee Bucks: The Enduring Survival of a Working Class City and its NBA Franchise was done as I waited for my first book to come out. It’s picking up where the first left off and focusing on the next generation of Bucks stars and legends like Don Nelson, Wayne Embry, Jim Fitzgerald, Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman, Bob Lanier, Sidney Moncrief and Herb Kohl. Even some lesser widely-known figures such as Kent Benson, Dave Meyers and so on.

It’s been an incredible challenge trying to get my arms around the entire thing, naturally. It’s not enough to honor a generation of Bucks teams that, despite nearly a decade of success where they won seven consecutive division titles, enjoyed multiple 50-win seasons and had a number of Hall of Famers, always fell short when it came to capturing a title. The story of those Bucks teams starts and ends there whenever those stories are told and largely focus on the triumphs of their bitter rivals like Boston and Philadelphia. I’m looking to change that.

The bigger story I’ve been eager to tell is how the Bucks managed to survive, in large part due to the success they did achieve. The obstacles that stood in the Bucks’ way almost from the beginning. The tension of chasing a championship yet running the franchise as a business and the ways in which the Bucks’ aspirations never quite went to plan. The ever-present story of a Bucks superstar like Johnson having a complicated relationship with playing in the city of Milwaukee. How close the Bucks were to actually leaving Milwaukee when Fitzgerald put the team up for sale and the significance to Kohl stepping up and saving the day. There is a lot more I can share, but I certainly don’t want to give all of the good stuff away just yet. 

I’ve written about basketball for a very long time now and I’ve read countless articles and books that have only fed my curiosity to write about the Bucks and their overlooked place in the NBA. Not to be overly simplistic, but the history of the game is often remembered for the championship-winning teams and the individuals that have managed to transcend the sport itself, both on and off the court. There are exceptions to those cases, surely, but those Bucks teams under Nelson did a lot for the sport, for the NBA and for Milwaukee in ways that I’m hoping to shine a bigger light on. 

If I have done that, then I will have done my job correctly. And the biggest part of this is that I’d like to be able to share some of these things sooner than I did when I was working behind the scenes on my first book. Writing a book, or attempting to, is a pretty lonely, isolating experience. Trying to get all of the thoughts, ideas and themes rattling around inside your head and down on the page is the name of the game, but it doesn’t make it any easier when pressed for time with work and raising a young one. More time for writing would certainly help, but bills have to get paid.

Little by little, I’ve been making progress in trying to put all of these things together and that’s before I go around and see if there is a publisher that would be interested in this as a book. There’s a higher degree of difficulty this time around. I believe this is a story that isn’t just about the Bucks, but about Milwaukee itself. Why the Bucks staying in Milwaukee meant something much greater to a city that was grappling with change and a loss of identity at that very moment.

I’ve been lucky enough to have people appreciate my work and my first book. It’s been incredibly flattering to hear those nice things over the last year and you don’t take it for granted, even for as much as I can’t fully take that in and be satisfied. Chasing this next book to tell a story that I think tells more about what it means to be a Bucks fan and to live in Milwaukee might end up being a definitive statement on what I've chosen to do for over a decade now.

That’s what I’m hard at work doing ever so gradually. If you want to come along for the ride, then thank you. I want this time around to be more of an interactive experience and I hope you enjoy where this book looks to be going.