The Milwaukee Bucks announced that their D(G)-League team finally has a name: the Wisconsin Herd. The official announcement from the team came less than an hour after Darren Rovell mentioned the new name on Twitter. The team had been promoting that fans could sign up to be the first to hear the new name of late, so an announcement seemed imminent, and here it is.
Wisconsin Herd Selected as Team Name for @BucksDLeague » https://t.co/CC6Zhg4aWs pic.twitter.com/xIbI7LDTns
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) June 8, 2017
Perhaps the most interesting part of the name isn’t the Herd part, but the choice to go with a state name rather than a city. Promoting the Fox Valley Basketball group already seems to have given this franchise more of a multi-location feel for the northeastern part of the state, but they’re clearly trying to appeal to a wider audience than the greater Oshkosh-metro area. That’s been a throughline with most of the Bucks’ moves since these new owners arrived, and it behooves them to engender the team to the entire state. It gives people an avenue across the state to associate with this team, and hopefully that leads to more fans equally adopting the big league team in Milwaukee.
Personally, herd strikes me as a little bland, but I didn’t expect them to go too far outside the deer-related field. Between the Cream City Clash, Wisconsin Herd and Milwaukee Bucks, they certainly have all their bases covered now. The Bucks also noted the official logo will be unveiled at an event in Oshkosh on June 22nd.
What do you think about the new D-League team name? These are the important things to parse over in the offseason, so let us know in the comments below!