The year was 1968 when The Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks came into being. These expansion teams would hold a coin toss the next year over who got Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Jabbar was offered $1million to play for the Globetrotters but he chose the NBA. The Bucks won the coin toss and they went on to win the Championship in the 1970-71 season sweeping Baltimore in four games.
Sunday the 2021-22 Finals between these two teams goes to Milwaukee where the Bucks hope to even the series with the Suns leading 2-0. The Suns didn’t have a Jabbar but in the early 1990’s they had Sir Charles Barkley. They went to the Finals in 1993 under coach Paul Westfall against the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. It was a close series the Suns lead by two in game six with only seconds left Jordan drove the lane but to everyone’s surprise he passed back to John Paxson who hit the 3-pointer to win.
I know this coming first hand from Sun’s player Danny Ainge who was covering Paxson. He told me in my interview, “With only seconds left we figured Jordan would drive the lane so I assisted, and the rest is history.” That was the last time Phoenix was in the Finals 28 years ago whereas Milwaukee hasn’t been to the big game since Jabbar in the 73-74 season. Either way fans have been waiting for their team to get back into the finals for a long time.
Since I’m originally from Milwaukee this game a lifelong dream for me here in Phoenix, it’s a win-win scenario. My personal thought on the series is this. The Bucks need to continue with the aggressive defense and concentrate on scoring because the Suns are the NBA’s #1 scoring team. The Suns will have a tougher time in Milwaukee but they just have to make their shots count.
I can’t wait until the next game.
P.S. More on the post book publishing soon.
persuasion2015 