Milwaukee Bucks: NBA 2K18 All-Time Team revealed

NBA 2K18 revealed an All-Time Team for each NBA franchise. Who was selected for the Milwaukee Bucks’ team, and who was left out?

The calendar is changing from summer to fall in the northern hemisphere, and that means the NBA season is fast approaching. For the Milwaukee Bucks, that means the start of their 50th season as a franchise. Soon players will begin reporting for training camps across the country. Also soon, NBA 2K18 will hit the shelves in stores nationwide.

The NBA 2K franchise is the world’s most popular basketball video game, selling more than 68 million copies worldwide. The game has also received critical endorsements as well, with the latest installment’s webpage declaring it the highest rated annual sports title of this console generation.

Visual Concepts, the game’s designers, and Take-Two, the game’s publishers, have not only worked to keep the game relevant and engaging, they have made huge steps outside the normal bounds of annual sports games. In February it was announced that the NBA and Take-Two would be starting a ground-breaking relationship to bring E-gaming to the NBA 2K franchise, the first such relationship of its kind.

A new feature in the game will allow players to select their favorite teams and play with icons from team history. As part of the media ramp-up for the game’s release in a few short weeks, these “All-Time Teams” have been released for all 30 franchises.

As with all such lists of sports icons, the determination of who gets in and who doesn’t is a controversial one. A “top 10 players of all time” list has to rank someone 11th who will invariably have a strong case to be on the list. These All-Time squads are no exception.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ roster was one of those revealed, and contains a combination of players from both the distant past and more recent memory. Just one current player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, made the team, slotting in as the best player off the bench.

An effort was clearly made to include players from each era of Milwaukee basketball, from the dominant teams of the early ’70s that brought home the franchise’s only title, to the run-and-pass playoff teams of the late ’70s and ’80s, to the large personalities on the wing in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Looking over the roster, the players who absolutely needed to be represented are all present and accounted for. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the best player in franchise history and the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, starts at center with the highest-possible “99” game rating. Oscar Robertson also starts at point guard for the team.

Bob Dandridge was not only a starter on the title team, he oversaw the transition out of the Kareem era. Sidney Moncrief is second on the team in career win shares for the team, and starred for the Bucks during the 1980s. As overseers of the late-90s and early 2000s, Ray Allen and Michael Redd both belonged on the team as well.

But below the obvious picks, a few notable names from franchise history were left out. Earlier this year, HoopsHabit looked at the top draft picks in Milwaukee’s franchise history. Ranked fourth on that list was Marques Johnson, who was drafted as part of the replacement plan for Abdul-Jabbar.

In his seven seasons with the team he missed the playoffs just once, put up 21 points per game (fourth in franchise history), and made the All-Star team four times. In 1981 he finished sixth in MVP voting, and ranks third in team history in career win shares. He spoke on whether he turned down an opportunity to be in the game via Twitter.

If Johnson is the most glaring omission from the team, then Junior Bridgeman was perhaps the most surprising. The shooting guard played 10 seasons with Milwaukee, appearing in 711 games — still a franchise record. He was the quintessential sixth man, starting just 23 games total in those 10 seasons. Even so, he never averaged fewer than 20 minutes per game throughout the prime of his career.

The Bucks recognized his worth, hanging his jersey from the rafters of the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Despite rarely starting, Bridgeman tallied over 41 win shares for the team, in the top-10 all-time. If the goal was to honor the franchise’s greatest players, then the player who appeared in the most games for the team deserved a nod.

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Glenn Robinson, ranked second in total points scored in franchise history, and Sam Cassell are two other omissions that are sure to raise fan discussion. Both huge personalities, they played large roles on a number of good Milwaukee teams, including the last Bucks team to win a playoff series. Brian Winters joins Bridgeman as the only players with their numbers retired to miss the cut.

Looking at a couple of the names selected highlights the dueling motivations for the game. While the goal was to celebrate the icons of the past, it’s also a game primarily marketed to consumers under the age of 30. They don’t necessarily know the names of Junior Bridgeman or Marques Johnson. They know Kareem, Oscar and Ray Allen.

They are also most likely to know the names of more recent players, which is how Brandon Jennings finds his way onto the roster. A fan favorite due to his high-flying scoring displays, Jennings was nothing more than a middling young point guard during his time on the team. He ranks just 28th on the team in career win shares.

In the end, the fact that fans across the world are debating who should have been on the 15-man roster is a win for both the NBA and the 2K series. With the ability to play with these All-Time Teams joining popular game modes that allow gamers to create a player or to manage a franchise, NBA 2K18 promises to continue the series’ development and popularity.

As the Bucks prepare for their 50th seasons, they will try to establish a new Bucks dynasty that fills such a team with the players of this roster. For now, NBA 2K18 hits shelves on Sept. 19.