Welcome to “Thoughts to Section 211″ which will serve as my new weekly column to share my thoughts as a fan in the seats of an NBA team. In my particular case, I’m a Milwaukee Bucks season ticket holder and stake my claim to the economically aging Bradley Center. I don’t intend with this column to break down offenses, post game recaps, or do anything resembling what a beat reporter would do. Frankly beat reporting sounds like work, and I’m merely looking for an outlet to discuss my experience as an NBA fan.
With that in mind, here we go.
The Milwaukee Bucks first preseason home game is tonight. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t excited to be back watching live NBA basketball, but expectations must be tempered, it’s still preseason basketball. The Bucks play the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that throttled them in their first preseason game, but the re-matchup holds a little less intrigue as Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio won’t be playing.
Besides being the first game at the Bradley Center since April of last year (the free intrasquad scrimmage is neat, but still just a glorified practice), it’s the first game since the NBA lockout and follows another off-season of major roster moves for the Bucks.
Of note with the roster moves is one that appears certainly combustible, Stephen Jackson. Now I couldn’t care less about Jackson’s emerging second career as a hip-hop artist, but I am paying to hopefully see him produce on the court and that’s the problem. Last time I remember Stephen Jackson at the Bradley Center he was getting tossed out of a game in the first quarter while playing for the Charlotte Bobcats and I was getting quite a laugh. The Bucks were clearly overmatched because of injuries, and Jackson more or less cost his team the game less than 5 minutes into it. The time before that which I can clearly remember? Brandon Jennings lighting him and the Warriors up for 55 points, to which it didn’t seem Jackson was putting in that great of an effort on the defensive end. Nothing short of not impressive.
Now he’s a member of the deer and throwing up tweets about his pining for a contract extension “First day of camp. Made it threw. I know alot of people happy. Still want what i deserve. Asap. Patience is thin.” All of which is a bit odd, because he has another year on his deal left. The reason why? The ESPN NBA Today podcast recently clued me in that Jackson was actually extended a year early in Golden State, so perhaps that’s how he believes things should work.
All that aside, Jackson had an epidural this week for his back pains. I’m sure he’s feeling great now, but I can see a day a few weeks from now where the pain comes surging back and he’s missing lots of games AND asking for a contract extension. He has the potential to be more or less Corey Maggette Part Two!
In short, I have little faith that the Stephen Jackson experiment ends well. He has the ability to score points in bunches which should be make it entertaining at least for a few games. The organization meanwhile should rush to get acquainted with how to spell his name, I’ve caught two typos calling him Steven this week already and it’s only Wednesday.
Also of note were the Bucks additions of Shaun Livingston (who I was hoping they would add as a free agent last summer) and Beno Udrih, who hopefully will bring a high efficiency style of play that should keep the team in games.
Going on the record now, despite former Badger Jon Leuer’s first game going pretty well, I don’t expect anything productive to come from him this year. Just my gut feeling, he went in the second round for a reason. I’m pretty surprised he left his German team to come to camp this year. Not how I expected the roster situation to play out there, especially given that he’s essentially slotting himself to be the 15th man and a role where he regularly dons a suit, not a jersey.
Anyway, I’ve got a lot more thoughts to share as I try to get back in the habit of writing about basketball, but it’s time to head on over to the Fortress on Fourth and watch some basketball for a change.