About the Milwaukee Bucks

Milwaukee Bucks, is a professional basketball team and one of eight teams in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the NBA. The Bucks play in the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and wear green and purple jerseys.

The Bucks began NBA play in the 1968-69 season, coming into the league with the Phoenix Suns. At the end of their first season, the two teams flipped a coin to determine who would have the number-one pick in the 1969 NBA draft. The Bucks won and chose Lew Alcindor, who had led the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to three National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships.

In Alcindors rookie year of 1969-70, the Bucks won 56 games and made it to the Eastern Division Finals before losing to the New York Knicks. In the off-season the Bucks obtained Oscar Robertson, an 11-year veteran and future Hall of Famer. In 1970-71 the team, which also included forward Bob Dandridge, notched a 66-16 win-loss record. The team rode through the playoffs and swept the Baltimore Bullets (now Washington Wizards) in the NBA Finals. For the season, Alcindor led the league in scoring with an average of 31.7 points per game and won the NBAs MVP award.

Abdul-Jabbar missed much of the following season because of injuries, and in 1975 the club dealt him to the Lakers. Without Abdul-Jabbar the Bucks stayed competitive. Under coach and former Celtics star Don Nelson, Milwaukee advanced to the 1978 conference semifinals before losing to the Denver Nuggets in seven games.

Beginning with the 1979-80 season, the Bucks won their division for seven straight seasons, but each year the team lost to the powerful Philadelphia 76ers or the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. The 1980-81 team, which featured center Bob Lanier, forward Marques Johnson, and guards Sidney Moncrief, Quinn Buckner, and Brian Winters, was especially strong. It compiled 60 wins en-route to win the Central Division, but it lost a seven-game series to the 76ers in the conference semifinals. The results in the next two seasons were similar: the best record in the Central Division and a devastating loss to the 76ers in the conference semifinals.

2003 was a season of change for the Bucks, who rebuilt their team with athleticism and an improved defensive mindset while remaining a factor in the Eastern Conference.

The Bucks said goodbye to two of the top scoring players in their history, and still finished 42-40 and in the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.

Long defined by the high-scoring duo of Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson, the Bucks began the transformation on August 2, sending Robinson to Atlanta in for Toni Kukoc and a #1 pick in the 2003 Draft.

The teams new nucleus of Mason (14.8 ppg), Payton (19.6), Kukoc (11.6), Redd (15.1) and holdovers Sam Cassell (19.7 ppg) and Tim Thomas (13.3 ppg) stumbled to a 7-12 mark in their first 19 games, but closed the season with eight out of nine wins to make the playoffs. The Bucks lost in game six to the New Jersey Nets.