When the Milwaukee Bucks won the second Emirates NBA Cup on Tuesday night, they sent a message to the league: Don’t ignore us.
They doubled down on this warning with a simple action. Choosing not to pop the champagne, instead dousing each other with sparkling wine to celebrate the mid-season championship.
After the festivities ended in Las Vegas with a 97-81 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the scene was set for the festivities.
Milwaukee is poised for a well-earned night of debauchery in Sin City thanks to the heroics of its two stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo was named Cup MVP with a triple-double of 26 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Damian Lillard made 5 of 10 three-pointers. After 23 points, they had every reason to celebrate and silence the doubters of their partnership. .
However, the Bucks chose a more conservative approach and immediately turned their attention to the front. Milwaukee decided to save the celebrations until after the season to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, leaving the goggles intact and the bottles on the ice.
Rivers even consulted Dalvin Hamm, the assistant coach who coached the Los Angeles Lakers when they won their first in-season championship last year, about the experience.
Hamm, who is unbeaten in two NBA Cup appearances, issued a warning to Rivers in case they celebrate too brazenly for a trophy that isn’t the final price.
Ham and the Lakers took the traditional approach when it came to winning, letting the corks pop and the champagne fly throughout the night. After winning four NBA championships, LeBron James knows a thing or two about championship celebrations. He is one of the most enthusiastic people on the Lakers team and is even considered a member of the team. Spraying members of the media with lathering.
While some observers were intrigued, others seemed to think it was inappropriate for a team of any caliber, let alone one as prestigious as the Lakers, to celebrate the NBA Cup to this degree.
Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley was one of the loudest critics. The NBA legend-turned-TV personality spoke about the incident in an interview The Dan Patrick Show Last December, there was no beating around the bush.
“You don’t have champagne for in-season games,” Barkley said. “The Lakers better not put up an in-season tournament banner… If (the Lakers) put out an in-season tournament banner, I’d be laughing at them (expletive) on TV.”
Spoiler alert: The Lakers did hang up the in-season tournament banner.
Barkley wasn’t the only one to feel a certain way about the celebrations, NBA veteran and James’ former teammate in Miami, Udonis Haslem, felt the same way.
“I’m all for people getting money … but what we’re not going to do is pop the champagne and put up banners,” Haslem said. his podcast OG show last year.
It appears the Bucks have taken note of the backlash the Lakers have received, or at least listened to Ham after his personal experience, and have adopted a safer, albeit less Las Vegas-style way to celebrate .
Still, the Bucks achieved their goal in the City of Lights. The Milwaukee Bucks avenged last year’s NBA Cup semifinal loss to the Pacers and served as a reminder that they remain a threat in the Eastern Conference.
Since the start of the in-season tournament, the Bucks have gone 12-3 and rank in the top ten in efficiency on both ends of the floor. It put to rest the doubters who were ready to close the championship window after Milwaukee’s 2-8 start.
Now that the Bucks have some new hardware and zero champagne on their uniforms, they hope to keep this momentum going into the NBA playoffs. If they do win it all, no one will get in the way of these celebrations.
