I'm a Milwaukee Bucks fan. I'd rather be at the Bradley Center on a Saturday night than at Lambeau on a Sunday. I love basketball and passionately support our NBA team.
This season, of course, has been a challenging one. The team, full of early promise, has seemed listless at times and disjointed at others. Yet, I believe they want to win and in the games since the All Star Break they seem to have set aside some of their differences, egos and excuses and are playing, at home at least, extremely exciting basketball.
ESPN's "NBA Hollinger Playoff Odds" gives the Bucks a 3.7 percent chance of making the playoffs. Eight teams make it in each conference and the Bucks currently sit at 23-38, only one game out in the win column, four total, but with six teams in nearly the same position.
If this were the Brewers, the city would be doing back flips with this remote chance at the playoffs. Look what happened when all they did was finish .500. Yet, because it's the NBA, many would rather compile loses and hope for a chance at a better draft pick. I don't understand this or support it. A team always should want to win and especially in a mid-sized market like Milwaukee, a franchise must win to compete for players, visibility and revenue. Winning and playing hard matter.
You have two more months to check out this edition of the Milwaukee Bucks. They play hard at home and the atmosphere at the BC is exciting. I have my doubts about some of the personal motivation on this team, but I sense that they're coming together. You can see it in Bogut, Mason, Villanueva and others.
Maybe playoff hope is just wishful and ever-optimistic thinking from a faithful fan, maybe not. Either way, before you turn your thoughts entirely to baseball, support our NBA team and check out their remaining games (there are two this weekend) at the Bradley Center.
Go Bucks.
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.
