Milwaukee Bucks: No Respect
By Steve Krebs
You would think that eclipsing your total wins from last season in only half the games should garner some kind of coverage, but alas, the Milwaukee Bucks winning ways continue to get absolutely no respect.
Blah, Blah, Blah, the East, the West-we have heard all about that, frankly, it’s a notion that gets beat into the ground on a daily basis. Though, why does that take precedent over teams just having a good season?
We seem to be at a point where any mention of success in the Eastern Conference is almost instantly thwarted by a desire to declare superiority in the Western Conference.
On a side note, for all those preaching consolidation into one conference, what exactly are your plans in regards to scheduling/logistics, as well as the All-Star Game–but that is an argument for another time.
The focus should be on teams playing well, not their obvious geographical differences–it’s even more disparaging when the poor play of an organization with expectations receives more attention than the success in another.
The Milwaukee Bucks had the worst record in the league in 2013/2014, at this present time, they are five games behind the Chicago Bulls (yep, that means a better record than Cleveland) for the top spot in the Central Division- for all those oblivious, that is news- though the other night did not go so well…
So why is the success in Milwaukee being ignored?
Being in a small market is never going to bring much in the way of notoriety to begin with, couple that with playing in an area that is predominately football and baseball driven, and it’s sure to create barely any exposure, if at all.
Once Jabari Parker was injured for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, I am sure even the Milwaukee faithful started paying less attention, because it really is difficult to see any type of success manifesting after such a detrimental blow to a roster.
Above all, I think unless you actually follow the Bucks, they will not be the first name to roll off the tongue in a conversation about who is playing at a high level. Apparently being a good team has been thrown out the window, and an evaluation of your performance only comes in two colors, dominant or bad-unfortunately, the Bucks do not fall into either category, so many feel there is not much to discuss.
The coverage and exposure needs to increase, it’s time positive gets top-billing before under-performing paper champions.
Sadly, Milwaukee has only been chosen once for a fan-night viewing voted in by the fans- and that was because there was only one other game that night, oh, and Adam Silver just happened to be in the stands, which, in my opinion, does not really speak to much natural selection.