For the fifth straight year, the entire Milwaukee Bucks team surprised fans at Metro Market in Downtown Milwaukee.
Beginning at 5:15 tonight, the team entered the popular Roundy's-owned grocer and manned stations around the crowded store.
Keyon Dooling and Corey Maggette made and sold caramel apples, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and John Salmos worked the meat counter (Salmons did a fine job, by the way, with my ground turkey order), Drew Gooden and Brandon Jennings worked the deli, Larry Sanders and Jon Brockman bagged, Brian Skinner sold lottery tickets and worked the customer service desk and Chris Douglas-Roberts, Earl Boykins and Ersan Ilyasova greeted shoppers at the entertance. Bango and Energee roamed the entire store.
Sure, today's "Paint The Town" event was part of an NBA league-wide initiative but it's rare these days that an entire professional sports team makes a public appearance together, answers questions and interacts with fans. So hats off to the Bucks organization for this event and, honestly, for all of their community efforts.
I love this event not only because it means the season is right around the corner, but for its uniqueness. It's fun to watch people's reactions, the players' interactions and the buzz grow as shoppers text and send photos.
One kid asked Brandon Jennings for his phone number so he could "hit him up" after his shift. Jennings just laughed, posed for photo and continued to box the kid's pizza. All the players answered questions, gladly posed for photos and, if their jobs allowed it, signed autographs. Just another night, I guess, on the job for an NBA player.
The Bucks close out the preseason schedule at home Friday in the 34th annual MACC Fund game at the Bradley Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. against Minnesota.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
