Bucks in 6: Where did it come from?
The NBA Finals this year were amazing, for the play on the court, what a championship would mean to both teams, and the fact that it became a colliding force of two inevitable memes: the “Suns in 4” guy, who put the the absolute smackdown on a Nuggets fan and waved four fingers in his face, and “Bucks in 6,” a rallying cry for Bucks fans to go back on from years past.
When the Bucks went down 2-0 to the Suns, it became the perfect opportunity for a meme to be fulfilled. But many fans were repeating the mantra without fully knowing the backstory behind it — and that’s why we’re here. Let’s revisit how Milwaukee built a playoff team, what prompted the phrase to originate, and what it means now eight years later.
How the Bucks built a playoff team
The Milwaukee Bucks have had a storied history, but let’s start here: January 8th, 2013. Scott Skiles was fired after a 17-16 start to the season. Reports cited his inability to get along with star guards Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings as a main factor in the decision.
Jennings became one of the signature faces of the franchise early in his career. The core of Jennings, John Salmons, Andrew Bogut and Ersan Ilyasova had made the playoffs in 2010 as the sixth seed. After a disappointing 2011 season, the Bucks traded Bogut and Steven Jackson to Golden State for a package centered around star guard Monta Ellis at the 2012 deadline.
The Bucks now had a star backcourt duo. Ilyasova, Larry Sanders, Mike Dunleavy & JJ Redick posted major minutes for their team. The firing of Skiles in 2013 gave interim head coach Jim Boylan fifty games to keep the Bucks afloat, and he was just able to: the team finished with a 38-44 record, good enough for the eight seed. This meant the team was up against LeBron James and the defending champion Miami Heat.
Brandon Jennings’ meme-worthy interview
Jennings sat down with NBA TV ahead of the series to do an interview about his team and the challenges ahead. After two years without making the playoffs, Jennings credited his team being healthy and the arrival of Monta Ellis as factors of why the Bucks were playoff-bound. He goes on to explain the balance him and Monta provide, and how much respect he has for LeBron and the Heat.
NBA players love to give cliches and safe answers, and Jennings is not excused from doing so. The interview ends as follows:
“We just gon’ go out there and play basketball, and win.”
“And win?”
“Yeah.”
“In how many games?”
“6. We gon’ win in 6.”
The Bucks did not win in 6.
They lost in 4.
The long journey to success
The sweep brought changes to the Bucks organization, and “Bucks in 6” became a meme for a franchise that was starting to feel more hopeless than hopeful. Head coach Jim Boylan was let go. Monta Ellis opted out of his contract. Brandon Jennings was traded for Brandon Knight, Slava Kravtsov, and… a young forward named Khris Middleton. The Bucks, with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft, selected a Greek teenager by way of Nigeria named Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Over the course of the next eight seasons, Giannis and Middleton would grow to become All-Star talents as everything around them shifted. Milwaukee hired and fired Larry Drew, Jason Kidd, and Joe Prunty. Finally, the Bucks landed on Mike Budenholzer. Jabari Parker, Greg Monroe, Thon Maker, Malcolm Brogdon, Tony Snell, Matthew Dellavedova, Eric Bledsoe, all came and went. Suddenly, at the start of the 2020-21 season, the Bucks found themselves with a group of Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, Pat Connaughton, Bobby Portis, Donte DiVincenzo, and eventually PJ Tucker to support their homegrown stars.
The Bucks would go on a gauntlet of a playoff run. They swept the defending conference champion Miami Heat. By a matter of inches, they squeaked by the injury riddled, star-studded Brooklyn Nets. They knocked off the red-hot Atlanta Hawks without their two-time MVP, after he went down with a nasty knee injury. The Phoenix Suns were waiting on Milwaukee, and they came prepared to send the Bucks home. But when that series count hit 2-0 in favor of The Valley, the prophecy Brandon Jennings laid out 8 years prior was in sight. The Bucks captured it.
The significance of ‘Bucks in 6’
Everything about the Bucks in 6 story just feels right. A young star who ran into the wrong opponent at the wrong time, the Bucks making both the greatest draft pick of all-time and acquiring the perfect sidekick as a throw-in for a trade, and those two sticking together for eight years to bring a title to the city they’ve always known.
The Bucks made Brandon Jennings a part of their championship parade. ‘Bucks in 6’ is on every fan’s shirt and coming out of every fan’s mouth.
It’s a story of luck and a prophecy fulfilled. Who knew a few choice words in a meaningless interview would first embody the wishful despair of a small-market team, and evolve into a three-word mantra for a championship with their backs against the wall, nearly a decade later?