Saturday, May 14, 2011

Happy Belated 40th Birthday

On April 30, 1971, the Milwaukee Bucks won their first and only NBA championship. From NBAhoopsonline: Milwaukee took the 1970-71 NBA championship by playing phenomenal basketball. It all started when the Bucks made an off season move to trade Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk to the Cincinnati Royals in return for guard Oscar "The Big O" Robertson.
Although he was aging and entering his 11th NBA season, he still averaged 19.4 points, earning spots on the All-Star Team and the All-NBA Second Team. Lew Alcindor, now better recognized as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, threw down 31.7 points per game and was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player.
They started the playoffs by beating the San Francisco Warriors in a series they won four-games-to-one. Then they beat the Los Angeles Lakers before sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the 1971 NBA Finals.
As for the roster of the Bucks that wonderful season, they were stacked with great players. Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson, Jon McGlocklin, Bob Dandridge, and Greg Smith rounded up their starting five. In reserve, they had Bob Boozer, Lucius Allen, and Dick Cunningham. Milwaukee had a 66-16 record in the newly associated Midwest Division. The Bucks lost only two times in 12 playoff games that year. http://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/MilwaukeeBucks/Articles/1.html

I barely remember that season but I went to a couple of games with my dad and enjoyed the experience of cheering the Bucks on. I would listen to Eddie Doucette (Bango was his signature comment) on the radio.
Unfortunately, Milwaukee has not had a team to win a major league championship since then.
So, Happy Birthday to the Milwaukee Bucks championship season.

Speaking of the Milwaukee Bucks, their mascot Bango, made the best ultimate dunk ever as seen below.

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