After a busy 12 months at the paper — including the busiest 6 months of work in my life — I was able to take off a few days in a stay-cation. It meant I could wade in the kiddie pool while my kids napped — or sweat it out while breathing down cheese curds at the fair. It even meant I could open some Chrome tabs to read about current events. And whew, news around the sporting world did not let me down.

I have interest in a variety of sports, and a variety of teams. There is always some news, but this past week had three major stories come out that were once-in-a-decade (or century, even) events.

First, on July 20, the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA title for the first time in 50 years. Just three days later the Cleveland Indians (my co-favorite baseball team), announced it was changing its nickname for the first time in 107 years to the Guardians. 

But wait — we’re not done! — because college sports realignments are happening in record time, because the amount of money pouring in to college athletes via Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) has shown some conferences (SEC) are winners, while others (Big 12) are really not. 

Throw in the Olympics, the approaching MLB trade deadline and the closing of the international soccer transfer window, and my interest is peaked. Oh yeah, NFL training camps begin this week, and I make my annual pilgrimage to Cincinnati to play retro video games this weekend.

There is so much going on, but one item took precedence over all the others: A professional sports title for my favorite city on Earth.

As a franchise, the Milwaukee Bucks have always been something of an enigma for me. When I was 6, I started liking players/teams from across the sports world — probably because I was able to read (I read the Monroe Times every day, believe it or not).

In football, I fell in love with Dan Marino, and subsequently the Miami Dolphins. I heard the name Marino on the news, thought it sounded cool and found his football card in my. I then dominated with Dan the Man in Tecmo Super Bowl, and I was hooked — for 25 years, that is, but that’s another story.

In baseball, the Brewers were the local team with hall of famers Paul Molitor and Robin Yount on the roster. My parents took us to spring training in Arizona back then, and I became a fan. But also at that time, the Cleveland Indians were featured in a pair of my favorite movies: Major League I and II. That meant I had two favorite baseball teams. 

Basketball? Well, I liked this big, bulky post player named Charles Barkley. I remember watching the Phoenix Suns losing to the Chicago Bulls in the finals and growing to dislike both the Bulls and Michael Jordan. I didn’t like the Suns, necessarily, just Chuck. I also paid attention to the Bucks, because like the Brewers, the Bucks were the local team. 

When Milwaukee made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001, I went all-in, only for Allen Iverson to rally his 76ers to the finals. The next season, the Bucks went 41-41 on the season and missed the playoffs. The franchise then broke up the core of that roster, which had Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen. Allen, a sharp-shooting guard, was the highest-paid player on the team and was traded to Seattle during the next season and put together an impressive career that spanned 18 years and 1,300 games. Cassell and Robinson left after 2003. To get that close and blow it all up always stuck with me as a young fan. 

Three years later Milwaukee became my home, as I enrolled at UW-Milwaukee. I grew to love the city more than any other in the world. The Lakefront, various beaches, the Milwaukee River, restaurants, and the memories I made always stuck with me. Every time I return to the 414, I smile. I smile and I feel a happiness in my heart. The city of Summerfest, Miller and Pabst. 

The workman-like nature of its residents stuck with me, as did always being the underdog to national media. I also saw a downtown that was trying to revitalize itself. The people of Milwaukee have always seemed proud of their city, and ready to celebrate it in front of the world.

But the Bucks and I have a love-hate relationship. When Barkley retired, I turned my fandom to two other players: Shawn Kemp of the Supersonics and Kevin Garnett in Minnesota. Both players went from high school straight to the pros, which I have always loved seeing: A young kid lining up against older veterans — it was always like a David vs. Goliath matchup.

After the 2001 ECF loss and later the blow up of the roster, the next great prep-to-pros player came along. Love him or hate him, LeBron James and I are the same age, and I was a fan and following his high school career in Akron when I was a high schooler here in Monroe. The fact that the Cavaliers drafted him meant I would cheer for the Cavs — also OK by me, because I already was a fan of the Indians. In 2005, the Bucks had the top pick in the NBA Draft, and the basketball world watched a Georgia Tech point guard show he was a generational talent. Instead of drafting that PG, the Bucks went with a tall Australian post player. Andrew Bogut turned out to be an OK center and made himself a pretty good career in Milwaukee and elsewhere, playing 14 seasons. But the game changed, and offense went inside to the paint less and less and began working to the outside and dribble drives. The point guard from Georgia Tech? Chris Paul, who is widely considered a no-doubt first-ballot hall of famer.

The last three seasons, the Bucks, behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton have dominated the regular season, but each year seemed to “come across a bad matchup” in the playoffs. Basically, they choked and were knocked out. This year seemed like it would be the same, and with Giannis, also a no-doubt hall of famer at this point, hurting his knee in the ECF, it appeared another missed opportunity was afoot.

Instead, Middleton and the team rallied to reach the finals against: Chris Paul and the Suns. It was as if the basketball gods said, “Here you go — the team you want to like is playing against the player you clamored for them to pick and the team of your first favorite player that you first watched lose in the finals.”

Giannis returned despite his tweaked knee, but the Suns rolled in Games 1 and 2. Paul and sensational shooter Devin Booker hit shots from everywhere. But the MKE faithful kept up the mantra of “Bucks in 6,” an ode to former player Brandon Jennings, who in 2013 said the 8th-seeded Bucks would beat LeBron’s top-seeded Miami Heat in six games. He was wrong, as the Heat swept the series and eventually won the NBA title. However, Bucks fans never forgot it, and almost in irony declared series after series, year after year, “Bucks in 6.”

Giannis signed a super-max extension this past the offseason, spurning national media and higher-regarded teams of a move to New York, LA or the Bay area. After falling behind 0-2 in the Finals, a still-somewhat injured Giannis turned in a performance of a lifetime, leading Milwaukee to four straight wins, including countless highlight-reel blocks and dunks, and an all-time performance in the clincher, scoring 50 points and putting on a defensive show.

Bucks in 6.

I could write for days on how amazing Giannis is — not just as a basketball player or his highlight-reel plays, but as being arguably the most amazing PERSON in sports today. There was no better person to deliver Milwaukee it’s first professional championship in 50 years. 

And here’s the thing: I openly admit to being a bandwagon Bucks fan (at best), but my love for the City of Milwaukee is anything but bandwagon. As Game 6 hit the final minute, and Giannis was closing it out at the free throw line, I stood in front of my living room television and cried. I watched friends and Milwaukeeans celebrate the championship inside the new Fiserv Forum, and outside in the Deer District, which sits on the grave of the former Brady Center, which never saw an NBA Finals, and across the street from the MECCA, where the Bucks had won it all 50 years earlier — and my college team, the UWM Panthers, play their home games, of which I attended dozens and dozens of games during college. 

I wanted to be there in the 414 all day, to be in attendance and celebrate with my brethren. However, while I am not superstitious, like Michael Scott I am a little stitious, and my record of trying to be in attendance at a championship is not good. 

In 2015 I drove to Madison as the Badgers were to face Duke in the basketball national championship. I arrived too late to State Street and sat in the cold, pouring rain as the Badgers lost and I was unable to celebrate. Less than 18 months later, the Cleveland Indians reached the World Series for the first time since 1997. I dropped a month’s worth of pay on tickets, drove all night to attend Game’s 6 and 7, only to see the Chicago Cubs — one of my least favorite franchises in all of sports — break the Curse of the Goat and celebrate at The Jake. 

With those two disappointments in my bio, I knew I was a liability, so for the sake of my friends and my city, I stayed home. I guess you could say it was a bit bittersweet in the end, not being able to celebrate on the streets of downtown Milwaukee — but that’s fine by me. The 414 is home to a championship team again.

Up next: How to best move college athletics forward with NIL in place — which should include ditching conferences. I said what I said.

— Adam Krebs is the editor for the Monroe Times and still wants to know who stole his Glenn Robinson jersey in high school (also Reggie Miller and Chris Webber). He can be reached at editor@themonroetimes.com.