The easy way out for sports columnists this time of year is to write the holiday column.

At Thanksgiving, you write about the things for which you are thankful. At Christmas, you write about the things you wish for. At New Year's, you write about your resolutions.

All of those are easy to write and a way to cover a lot of ground in just one column.

This year, at least for Thanksgiving, I decided to do it just a little differently. Normally, I could do a bunch of things and nobody could really pin me down on just one. Instead of a bunch of things I'm thankful for, I limited myself to just one which makes the task infinitely harder.

I gave this one a lot of thought. What, I mused, really made me feel grateful? Brett Favre playing again? Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, a budding dynamic duo? Steve Stricker and his outstanding year in golf? All worthy candidates. But when I got through sifting and winnowing, I came up with two words.

Brandon Jennings.

To get it out of the way right at the top, I have not yet seen him play in person. I've seen him on television, read about him and heard radio announcers talk about him.

The reason for my thanks is simple. For the first time in years and years and years, people are talking about the Bucks. When you look up the word buzz in the dictionary, there's a picture of Jennings with the Bucks' logo.

Already, national columnists, especially those based in New York or fascinated with all things New York, are writing about how stupid the Knicks continue to be by failing to draft Jennings. The recent dustup over whether the Knicks were going to sign Allen Iverson gave writers plenty of opportunity to rip the Knicks for failing to pick Jennings.

The hype for this kid is almost unbelievable. Jim Paschke and Jon McGlocklin, who over the years have learned to fully realize the folly of premature gloating, can hardly restrain themselves when they talk about Jennings.

I think it's fair to say that Jennings has taken the league by storm and that he's putting people in the seats at the Bradley Center.

And I heard something funny the other day from somebody on a sports talk show. The guy said that the excitement over Jennings was typical Milwaukee and that all of the talk should fall by the wayside once Jennings was exposed as nothing more than another rookie. He suggested that those of us who are buzzing about Jennings -- and he called out Paschke and McGlocklin by name -- were fools.

If I could have crawled through the radio and strangled the guy I would have.

One thing we all know, especially in this city, is that excitement is a transitory thing. It comes for a little while and then usually goes away for a long time. The thrill of sports is the waiting for it to come back again someday. We live for those kind of somedays.

Watching Jennings play reminds me of nothing so much as watching Nate Archibald play. Archibald was a small, left handed guard who could drive, shoot and play enough defense to keep his coaches happy. He was also a magnetic performer who could control a game with speed and incredible vision.

If Jennings ends up even close to Archibald, then our someday may be a lot closer than we think.