Milwaukee Bucks are NBA Champs

That's OK, you can make a big deal if you want!

Congrats to the Bucks. Although I'm a CA guy born and bred and a Lakers fan for over half a century (please don't throw things at me), I like the Deer, and they earned every single thing they got this year. Typically and understandably, people tend to focus on Giannis' astounding (even if slightly flawed) brilliance, but the rest of that team showed up and worked. Middleton and Holiday proved invaluable (even with a couple bad shooting nights from Holiday), and Connaughton, Lopez, Portis, and the rest all had their key moments. Appearances can be deceiving, but the Bucks do seem like a team that has a great esprit de corps. Well done.

 

We watched every playoff game on all series. Many things to be impressed by with the Bucks. Past the Greek Freak, lots of role players nailing their positions when it counted most. We have been life long Pacers fans, think we have the wrong Holiday's, LOL

 

Despite the fact that NBA ball is the only American team sport I pay any attention to, I was still relatively unfamiliar with the Bucks going into this playoff season. But they definitely delivered everything I've come to enjoy and hope for in a ballgame: Excitement, drama, skills, and (most impressively) teamwork. I am very happy they won the contest against Phoenix, and hope we see a few more trophies in their near future.

 

The Bucks are most certainly a TEAM! Because of Giannis' epic Finals performance, it's easy to forget that the Bucks won the Eastern Conference Finals without Giannis playing the last 2 games.

I love that the Bucks built their team the old-fashioned way. I know some will say, "If it wasn't for injuries to other teams' superstars..." Well, injuries happen. And the league really needs a new super-duper-star; LeBron, while still great, has been The Guy long enough, and who knows if KD can stay healthy. James Harden, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic just aren't quite there, IMO.

I'm good with Giannis being the face of the league.

 

Indeed, injuries happen...but it sure seemed like they happened a lot more during this year's playoffs, to a lot more of the critical players, than usual. I found a stat a couple weeks ago that "more All-Stars have missed games in this year's NBA playoffs (eight) than any before on record, per Elias Sports Bureau research, beating the previous record of six."

The fact that the Bucks were able to earn their ring despite Giannis' injury is icing on the cake!

 

And don't forget Sidney Moncrief.

 

I'm definitely happy for Giannis. He's cracked the postseason code--he had just a monster series and really improved his free throw shooting after the first two games. I was kind of rooting for Phoenix but would have been happy either way. It's good to have new blood in the Finals.

Speaking of which, I think the NBA is just at the start of a really fun era. There are so many young stars who could go deep in the playoffs regularly for the next decade or more--Giannis, Booker, Trae Young, Doncic, Jokic and Murray, Ja Morant, Zion, etc. None of those guys are older than 26!

 

Good point about the young stars.

If the young guys don't do the "superstar shuffle"; i.e., moving from team to team in search of a title, this could be a very exciting era in the NBA. Give new rivalries time to form, and let more teams in the smaller markets become elite.

 

Along with Lew Alcindor and Oscar Robertson, Johnny Mac was the guy putting the ball through the hoop. I watched those Bucks games as a youngster with my Dad also.

Couldn’t be more proud with the current Bucks team.

 

Not a bucks fan per se. Lived in Boston, Indy, near Chicago, now near Portland. I'm generally loyal to the homies and then the ex-homies. I am happy a small market team won though. Can't get enough of that.

 

Continuing the Bucks victory dance: Apparently Jrue Holiday hopped on a plane to Japan less than 24 hours prior to the USA Men's Basketball team's first Olympic match and still managed to be the high-scorer for the team!