Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The current franchise owner is U.S. Senator Herb Kohl.

History

The Milwaukee Bucks were formed in January 1968 when the NBA awarded a franchise to Milwaukee Professional Sports and Services, Inc. (Milwaukee Pro), a group headed by Wesley Pavalon and Marvin Fishman. In October, the Bucks played their first NBA regular season game against the Chicago Bulls before a Milwaukee Arena crowd of 8,467. Their first victory came in their 6th game as the Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons 134–118; they would win only 26 more games in their first year.

The Buck's record that year earned them a coin flip against the Phoenix Suns to see who would get the right to draft Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the 1968-69 NBA season with the first pick in the upcoming draft. The Bucks won the coin flip and upon drafting Lew Alcindor instantly became contenders for the NBA Championship. In only their second season the Bucks made the playoffs and Alcindor was named rookie of the year.

Ownership and arena changes in the 1980s

In 1985, Milwaukee businessman (and now U.S. Senator) Herb Kohl bought the Bucks after fears that out-of-town investors could buy the team and move it out of Milwaukee. (In 2003, after considering selling the team, Kohl announced that he had decided against selling the Bucks to Michael Jordan and would "continue to own them, improve them and commit them to remaining in Wisconsin.")

In the 1988-89 season, after 20 years at the 11,052-seat MECCA (Milwaukee Arena, now U.S. Cellular Arena), the Bucks moved into the new 18,700-seat Bradley Center, located directly across the street from the MECCA in downtown Milwaukee. The Bradley Center was one of the first arenas in the country to be built with luxury suites. The Bradley Center was privately financed from a $90 million donation from Milwaukee businesswoman Jane Bradley Pettit in memory of her father.