The Milwaukee Bucks are worth watching these days, but good luck finding people who’ll do so.
Friday night’s tilt with New Jersey was the Bucks’ most compelling home game of the season. And no, you don’t usually put New Jersey and compelling in the same sentence, unless that sentence includes Bruce Springsteen.
But that’s what you had at the Bradley Center. Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons were back in town for the first time since being traded away for Richard Jefferson, a deal that’s made Milwaukee a playoff contender. And Jefferson was facing the only NBA club he’d ever played for until coming to the Bucks.
Milwaukee fans thanked Yi for his one season here by booing whenever he touched the ball. But they were kind enough to not cheer when he broke his right pinky in the third quarter, an injury that will sideline him for a month.
Despite Yi’s early exit, it was a great game, decided not once, but twice on late plays involving Simmons. First, he drained a game-tying 3-pointer in front of the Bucks bench with nine seconds left. Then he got juked by Luke Ridnour as the Bucks point guard drove for the last-second hoop that made Milwaukee a 104-102 winner. So much for Bobby’s happy ending.
But for all the game offered –a legit star in New Jersey’s Vince Carter, the trade subplots, and hamster wheel guy Chris Lashua doing stuff like this at halftime – there was one thing it couldn’t offer.
A packed arena.
The Bucks announced a paid attendance of 15,768. Actual attendance was probably two-thirds of that, with large swaths of upper-deck seats empty, even though you can get one for $10. This on a Friday night, with the Packers done for the season and no blizzard in sight.
Moreover, the Bucks are good. Not great, but certainly good enough to make the playoffs. And that’s not just a local opinion, but a national one.
Jefferson, Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd have become the three-headed threat envisioned in the preseason. Ridnour has become a steadying presence, Charlie Villanueva is better and rookie Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has been a revelation.
So why don’t people care enough to show up? Take your pick from an all-star cast of excuses. The economy’s bad and getting worse. The Bucks have been so bad for so long that they still have to regain the public’s interest. There isn’t a shiny new facility to promote. Not enough people have seen Joe dunk. Etcetera, etcetera.
Chances are the Bucks will have to actually make the playoffs before people start paying serious attention again. Once that happens (and it will), fans can go into next season with heightened expectations and build a better buzz.
Seen Joe?
Bucks rookie Joe Alexander may not be having the immediate impact of Mbah a Moute, but he was always viewed as a project who’ll take a couple years to develop. In the meantime, he’s got his slam dunk contest campaign, complete with the clever commercials.
Alexander’s favorite ad? The ping-pong one, he told me Friday night. “I like when Bango throws the paddle,” he said. Who wouldn’t?
Pack still can’t win
How bad has it gotten for the Green Bay Packers? Even with the season over, they’re still piling up losses.
Everyone expected Mike Nolan, the former 49ers coach and Mike McCarthy’s good friend, to come aboard as Green Bay’s new defensive coordinator. But apparently Nolan wanted to make some new friends, so he’ll sign on to be Denver’s defensive coordinator instead.
Moreover, another of Green Bay’s top choices – the highly regarded Gregg Williams, now with Jacksonville after a stint as Buffalo’s head coach from 2001-03 – doesn’t seem interested, either. Not when you consider his heavy flirting with New Orleans.
Maybe I’m making too much of this, but it’s a bad sign when good coaches are passing up a job with your team for the same job with other teams. Perhaps the Packers are in worse shape than we thought.
Hoffman’s here
It took recruiting efforts from everyone this side of Bernie Brewer, but Milwaukee finally landed Trevor Hoffman as its closer. Or maybe Hoffman chose the Brewers to avoid facing Tony Gwynn Jr. again.
Whatever the reason, he’s Milwaukee’s biggest acquisition of the offseason. That doesn’t exactly thrill ESPN fantasy baseball writer Eric Karabell. But maybe there’s a reason he’s covering fantasy baseball instead of the real kind.
Meanwhile, the math majors at rightfieldbleachers.com have a much more complimentary opinion of the signing. And their calculator’s probably bigger than Karabell’s.
And Finally…
Need another reason to hate the New York Yankees? We’re here to help.
The team that’s worth $1.3 billion and rising just asked New York’s taxpayers for more cash.
Seems the team needs a few more gold fixtures for its new billion-dollar stadium. And the timing is tough because, you know, the Yanks just spent $400 million on some luxuries named Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira. So rather than do something sensible, like hold off on $10.5 million for luxury suite upgrades, the team asked for $370 million in taxpayer-backed financing. Never mind that the city’s already on the hook for some $1.5 billion related to the stadium.
Good thing we’re not in a recession.
This should surprise nobody. Because it’s the same team that used $161 million to swipe Sabathia from Milwaukee, then offered a trade for Brewers outfielder Mike Cameron. But oh, by the way, the Brewers would have to eat some of Cameron’s $10 million salary for the deal to happen.
Thankfully, Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin told the Yankees where they could stick it. Right down one of those solid-gold toilets.
Tune in every Tuesday morning during the 6 o’clock hour when I join Doug Russell and Mike Wickett on SportsRadio 1250 AM for Tuesdays with Howie. You can also find the segments in their Audio Vault. And don’t forget to check out our new fitness column, Training with Tim.
