I asked the question early Monday morning on that modern online oracle known as Twitter.
Which was the bigger weekend story: The Packers getting off the deck with a statement win against Dallas, or Brandon Jennings scoring 55 points for the Milwaukee Bucks?
Well it’s the Packers, right? Because it’s always the Packers, right? Or, as Aaron Nagler of CheeseheadTV.com responded, “You’re kidding…right?”
But I wasn’t. Which, I’ll grant you, is rather rare. But folks, it’s a legitimate question. Stay with me and I’ll explain.
When it comes to public interest, no team in the state can compete with the Packers. Heck, few teams in the country can do so, regardless of the sport. So on that point, the Packers will always be the king of Wisconsin’s sports jungle. No argument there.
But just because they’re the biggest team doesn’t mean they’re always the biggest story. Even when the Packers win a game that literally saves their season.
Because Jennings could be saving a franchise.
Look, more than enough people are always going to care about the Packers. Their place is cemented, win, lose or draw. Not so with the Bucks. When it comes to them, most people need a reason to care. And thanks to Jennings, you might finally have it.
Fifty five points transcends the notice of regular Bucks fans (yes, they still had a few) and gets into the consciousness of Milwaukee’s general public. It announces Jennings as more than just a basketball player. It trumpets him as a show, an event not to be missed.
In short, it gives the Bucks sizzle after years of stagnant decay.
Sizzle leads to more fans. More fans leads to more ticket sales. More tickets leads to a new arena. A new arena staves off the Las Vegas Buck$. And 55 points becomes 40 more years of Milwaukee basketball.
OK, so maybe I skipped a few steps. Like making sure Jennings is strong enough to withstand the NBA rigors for more than a month. Or the Bucks fitting enough quality parts around him to field a consistent winner. Or the five million public hearings on the arena’s public financing. Or finding the team’s next owner, one who’ll follow up on Sen. Herb Kohl’s commitment to keeping the team in Milwaukee.
So no, Jennings doesn’t solve all of the Bucks’ problems. But until Jennings arrived, Bucks fans had little more than directionless hope for the future
Now they have a blueprint. It’s real and substantive. And he wears No. 3.
I’m not saying Jennings is a Hall of Famer. Way too early for that. But he doesn’t have to be. He just has to be himself: exciting, enthusiastic and electric. That’s the kind of player Milwaukee will fall in love with, and it’s already happening.
Just ask SportsRadio 1250’s Steve “Sparky” Fifer, who might be the biggest Bucks fan in the city. He hosts a Bucks show after every game, and here’s how he opened the post-55 broadcast.
“Say it with me. Super Star,” Fifer gushed. “Say it again. Super Star. I have waited for … the last eight years or so, and hoped and prayed for this moment.”
So no pressure, Brandon.
But this was my favorite. “Thanks and praise to Brandon Jennings mother for having Brandon Jennings.”
So no pressure, Ms. Jennings.
Told you Sparky was a big fan.
But he’s not the only one. Jennings really has gone national.
He’s forced ESPN into a completely unfamiliar role: mentioning Wisconsin without saying the word ‘Favre.’ “Dynamite,” Colin Cowherd said of Jennings on “SportsNation” while giving him one of Monday’s Three Cheers. And Marc Stein, whose NBA power rankings had Milwaukee 29th (of 30) during training camp, has the Bucks up at No. 12. “Milwaukee,” he notes, “is suddenly synonymous with NBA excitement for the first time in forever.”
Charles Barkley called him a left-handed Chris Paul. Under Armour already has his shoes in the works. And Slam Online’s Holly MacKenzie sounds one step shy of proposing to him.
Even NFL guru Peter King is in on the act. Two of Monday’s “Things I Think I Think” items were devoted to the Packers. But a third lauded Jennings.
About the only one unimpressed with Jennings hitting 55 was a Toronto Raptors rookie named DeMar DeRozen. But it was in a good way.
“I wasn’t surprised. He’s capable of doing that easily,” said DeRozen, who knows a thing or two about Jennings, because they played together in sixth grade. “For him to score 55, that’s just Brandon.”
So apparently DeRozen expects 60.
But for now, 55 is plenty. The simple fact that people are noticing the Bucks while the Packers are still playing is a serious sign of progress. For most of a decade, the Bucks couldn’t dream of being in the same sentence as the Packers, unless that sentence was, “The Bucks are giving away tickets to a Packers game.”
But Jennings has changed the equation. Even Nagler, head Packer Backer that he is, conceded as much.
“I will admit,” Nagler later tweeted to me, “he’s got me perusing Bucks box scores early in the season – which I haven’t done since the days of Ray Allen.”
On second thought, maybe that’s the weekend’s biggest story.
Pack Revival?
If the Packers turn Sunday’s impressive 17-7 victory over the Cowboys into a turbo boost toward the playoffs, it will be remembered as the biggest win of the year. Maybe even the victory that saved the jobs of Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson (a notion that’s sure to disappoint some Packers fans).
But Green Bay still has a tough road ahead. Beating Dallas merely made up for the inexcusable loss to Tampa Bay. The Packers still probably need 10 wins to make the playoffs, meaning they need five of their final seven games. And as impressive as the defense looked Sunday, unless Charles Woodson can also play offensive line, this team still has issues.
So yes, the Packers prevailed in what players were calling a “must-win game.” But they’d better get used to that term, because from here on out, almost every game is a must-win.
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Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I tweet as howiemag. And tune in every Tuesday morning at 6:25 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.
