Bucks in six makes memories amazingly quick

Regardless of how many championships the Milwaukee Bucks win again or how long in between titles, the anxiety and exhilaration of the past  few weeks will become the good old days for many when it comes to pro basketball in Wisconsin.

Packing the Fiserv Forum for home and road playoff games, jamming 65,000 people into a relatively new entity called the Deer District, a buzzer-beating winner that wasn’t and the chants of “Bucks in six” and then when it came true will go down in history.

“Those are special moments in life that you don’t forget. You kind of remember where you were, who you were with,” Grafton High School boys’ basketball coach Damon James said.

Cedar Grove-Belgium boys’ coach Derek Wimmer was in the Fiserv Forum with his father for the title-clinching Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns. They bought tickets before the NBA Finals started when they were more affordable.

“That was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Wimmer said. “The atmosphere was crazy. The whole building was shaking at times, something I’ve never experienced before.”

Wimmer said they made their way out of the Fiserv Forum to their car OK, but it was 1 a.m. before they reached I-43 to head north. Witnessing the Bucks’ championship, however, made going to work the next day on three hours of sleep worth it.

“It brings so much excitement just to me. Those are the reasons why I love basketball,” Wimmer said.

Other basketball players and coaches from the area attended earlier playoff games.

Port Washington boys’ coach Brian Hebein went to one Eastern Conference Finals game against Atlanta and was in the Fiserv Forum for Game 6 against the Brooklyn Nets in the semifinals.

“That was fun. There was a lot of energy in there,” he said.

For Hebein, the old big three of Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell was his favorite. He remembers the heartbreak of nearly making the NBA Finals in 2001 when Robinson missed a baseline jumper he nearly always made, and the Allen Iverson-led Philadelphia 76ers won the conference finals.

“I keep telling all my friends that I never thought I would get to see the day where they actually get to hoist the trophy,” Hebein said.

Alex Huibregtse, a 2020 Grafton High grad and the North Shore Conference Player of the Year now playing for Wright State in Ohio, watched Game 7 against the Nets with his two older brothers in the Deer District.

“Crazy. From the beginning of the game, every basket everyone was getting super amped up, screaming and yelling,” he said.

Huibregtse was excited but he knows early leads and deficits don’t mean much.

“As someone who is a little more educated on the game, you know how it’s a game of runs. Things can change very quickly, especially in the NBA with the best players in the world,” he said.

His brothers didn’t catch some of that early emotional roller coaster. The Deer District wasn’t equipped with as many portable toilets early in the playoffs.

“My brothers missed about the whole second quarter going to the restroom,” Huibregtse said.

At the end of regulation when Kevin Durant made what looked to be a game-winning three-pointer, the air was sucked out of the area.

“When the replay came on, you couldn’t hear yourself talk it was so loud,” Huibregtse said.

Huibregtse has cheered for the Bucks his entire life. His favorite players used to be Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings — who coined the phrase “Bucks in six” and who Huibregtse was glad to see honored during the victory parade.

Now, his favorite player to watch is Khris Middleton, who plays guard just like Huibregtse.

“He’s got a really good mid-range shot, can get to his spots well. He can shoot the lights out,” he said.

Hannah Belanger, a 2019 Grafton High graduate and now a Division II All-American guard at Truman State in Missouri, went to Game 3 against the Nets and watched Game 1 of the NBA Finals on the Fiserv Forum’s jumbotron.

“The opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world compete was something that I will never forget, especially since it was in my home city,” she said.

“Even more so, it was incredible to see how everyone came together to support history. I have never been in an environment that was, not just extremely loud, but also so overwhelmingly excited and joyous. Just a completely awesome experience.”

Brock Heffner, a 2021 Grafton High graduate selected to the NSC first team as a senior, caught a playoff game against the Miami Heat in the Deer District before he went off to the University of Hawaii to prepare for his basketball season.

He and the rest of the Rainbow Warriors watched from afar.

“We had a team dinner for every game, and it was awesome seeing them win at home for Game 6,” Heffner said.

For James, it’s a split household, although his family didn’t catch any games from home. They have been traveling since July 19 with his daughter Savannah’s Amateur Athletic Union basketball team.

James is from Cleveland and thus is a Cavaliers fan. His eighth-grade son D.J. , who is growing up in Wisconsin, loves the Bucks.

“He was pretty fortunate and spoiled. He got to see the Bucks win a championship pretty early on in his life,” James said from Florida Tuesday night.

“It took me 36 years,” he said, referring to the Cavs’ title in 2016.

James and his D.J. also debate about who is better, Lebron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo. D.J. is a “big Lebron hater,” James said.

James doesn’t cheer for Antetokounmpo but gives him credit for how he won a title.

“I respect Giannis. He could have left. He signed that long-term contract, he stayed true. He didn’t go join a super team. You’ve got to respect him for that. I certainly do,” he said.

High school coaches noticed a few things the Bucks did that casual fans may have missed.

James said he isn’t sure if something happened to Suns’ star guard Chris Paul but he wasn’t himself the last few games.

“I think Jrue Holiday asserted himself defensively, picking him up full court man to man, not allowing Phoenix to get in some of those actions like they did in Games 1 and 2,” he said.

James, who said he often studies coaches’ strategies, said which players were on the floor made a difference in the Finals.

“Bobby Portis was tremendous for them. I saw early in the series he wasn’t even playing,” James said.

Wimmer and Hebein said the Bucks weren’t defending well in the first two games.

On the pick and roll, Wimmer said, “We would drop back too far and Chris Paul and (Suns’ center) Deondre Ayton destroyed us.”

Hebein said he didn’t like what the team had center Brook Lopez doing early in the series.

“They were just playing that drop where (Lopez)  doesn’t really come up and hedge or anything,” he said, “and they hope you take a 15-footer and miss.”

The Suns didn’t miss much in Games 1 and 2, but Bucks’ coaches figured it out.

“Everyone was down on (Mike) Budenholzer pretty hard. He ended up doing a nice job making adjustments,” Hebein said.

“By the end of the series,” Wimmer said, “Brook Lopez came up more and Chris Paul couldn’t get into the lane and throw up and alley-oop or take a short shot.”

Hebein said he also liked the addition of P.J. Tucker, “a total game-changer to their attitude, a great locker room guy,” he said, “who defended (opponents’) toughest guy.”

It didn’t hurt, Hebein said, that Antetokounmpo sizzled at the free-throw line in Game 6, making 17 of 19 shots.

“When he’s doing that and finishing at the rim and those types of things, there’s no way to stop him. He doesn’t even need to shoot a three,” he said.

A few breaks helped in the playoff run, like Durant touching the three-point line.

“If he doesn’t have size 18 shoes, the Bucks don’t even go to the next round,” Hebein said.