So how did 5 guys from Kansas City become fans of the Milwaukee Bucks?   Being manly men we were fans of most sports but did not have a local NBA team.  We were all huge NCAA basketball fans and the NBA seemed like a natural progression of our fandom.  The Royals and the Chiefs were under-performing and we needed a spark in our sports lives.   So how does one pick a completely new team to be a fan of?

First and foremost we decided we did not want to jump on any bandwagons.  We were dedicated Royals fans used to long periods of losing and wanted to join at the bottom so as to more enjoy the success that would surely come later. (Surely, right?)   So right off the bat we eliminated any team that had made the playoffs in 2007/08 and focused exclusively on the lottery teams.

Then we started cutting teams.

The Timberwolves were cut because of our natural rivalry with the city because of the Twins.

The Bulls were cut because they couldn’t escape their association with Jordan.

The Supersonics were cut because they were in the middle of a move to OK City and that made us very wary of their ownership.

The Heat were cut because they had won a championship too recently.

The Knicks were cut because they’re in NY.

The Clippers were cut because they are cursed.

The Bobcats and Grizzlies were cut for not having enough history.

The Kings were cut because we didn’t want to root for a team that had left KC.

After all the whittling down we settled on 2 finalist:  The Portland Trailblazers and the Milwaukee Bucks

Both had fairly strong cases.  Portland had just drafted Greg Oden who looked to be a very charismatic young star.  They were young, and despite missing the playoffs were .500 on the year.  They had been around for a while and had some good history with some Hall-of-Famers like Bill Walton.   They also played in the much tougher Western Conference. 

Milwaukee also had some great history and great players like Lew Alcindor and Oscar Robinson.  They also had the advantage of being much closer, geographically.  They had a gold medalist on the team and looked to improve instantly in the draft with a high pick.

In our group there were the two camps and each was very passionate about their pick.  We knew we needed to make a decision soon before each group became too attached to their choices.  When we made a decision we needed everybody on board and no-one having any regrets.

And then one night it happened.   We were all sitting around a bar one night, and someone came up with the Bucks High Five.  (see next article) And when we couldn’t stop doing it, our decision was made.  That night we became Bucks fans.

We started by picking up some gear, hats shirts, bumper stickers whatever we could get our hands on.   Someone got a Charlie Villanueva jersey, painful now, but remember we were new at the time.

Last March we made our first pilgrimage to Milwaukee to watch the Bucks.  We enjoyed both a loss to New Orleans and a stunning win against the World Champion Celtics.

Now, halfway through our second year, and we are loving every minute of it.  We have some great young talent in the Young Buck and Bogut.  And lots of crap to complain about with Redd’s injury and certain draft picks not panning out. (Yi Jinlan., Joe Alexander.)    We are also very much looking forward to our second trip up to the Fortress on Fourth this March.

Questions?  Comments?  KC guys have anything to add?