Yelich and Giannis, Brewers and Bucks: A day inside Milwaukee’s dual MVP era
Christian Yelich explains what impact the Brewers have on the city of Milwaukee in a sit-down with Alex Rodriguez. (2:02)
MILWAUKEE — THERE IS a lot going on the sports world right now. The baseball season just kicked into high gear with its first full slate of games in 2019. The NCAA basketball tournaments are in the midst of their most dramatic stretch. The NBA is nearing the end of its regular season, with several teams jockeying for playoff position and players vying for postseason awards.
With so much activity, those of you reading this from beyond the chilly-but-lovely environs of the Upper Midwest might have missed this: Thursday was one of the most memorable sports days in the history of one our most venerable sports towns. Brew Town. Cream City. Milwaukee, a city so gritty that Teddy Roosevelt once spoke for 90 minutes on one of its streets after he had been shot by a would-be assassin.
These are red-letter days for Milwaukee sports and, for once, that collective euphoria has nothing to do with the Green Bay Packers. Baseball’s Brewers are fresh off their first division title since 2011, a season that left them just one win shy of the World Series. Meanwhile, the NBA’s Bucks are closing in on clinching the league’s best record and are bona fide title threats for the first time since the early 1980s.
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“We’ve had 98 percent of our season-ticket holders re-up,” effusive Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said. “That’s extraordinary. I also think, by the way, the success the Bucks are having [helps] in the community. To have us and the Bucks in the city [both] doing well just gets everybody excited.”
But this is even more seminal than that, because both the Brewers and Bucks are led by young superstars who have become the faces of their respective franchises, and who are quite likely the most popular current denizens of this old beer town.
I’m writing, of course, about Christian Yelich, the Brewers’ MVP right fielder, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks’ do-everything phenom, who is embroiled in a neck-and-neck race with Houston’s James Harden for NBA MVP honors.
“I think they should both win it,” LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of Antetokounmpo’s quest. Rivers has Milwaukee ties as well, having played his college ball at Marquette, but he didn’t want to favor one star or the other. “Why not just make everyone happy?”
If the NBA voting goes the Greek Freak’s way, Milwaukee would enjoy at least a half-year run with reigning MVPs in both baseball and basketball. And though it is one of the smallest markets in all of professional sports, believe it or not, Milwaukee seems to be more than big enough for both of them.
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THE PACKERS STILL feature the most well-known athlete in Wisconsin in quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a two-time MVP in his own right. And while Wisconsinites will always bleed green and gold, Green Bay is coming off its first back-to-back losing seasons since 1990-91, just before Brett Favre took over at quarterback. Typically when you walk the streets of downtown Milwaukee, regardless of the calendar, if you see people wearing sports garb, there’s a good chance they are repping the Packers.
But the current vibe in the city was captured perfectly by one fan I saw perusing the names and faces of the Wisconsin Sports Walk of Fame, a collection of plaques affixed to concrete pillars on the sidewalk along Vel R. Phillips Avenue, a couple of blocks from the Fiserv Forum. He was wearing a Packers jersey, the first evidence of the NFL team I’d seen all day. The number on it was “34,” which set me to wondering who wears or has worn that number for the Pack. But then the man turned around so I could see the name on the back of the jersey.
It said, “Greek Freak.”
Yelich and Antetokounmpo don’t know each other, though I suspect some enterprising marketing pro will figure out a way to pair them sometime soon. But they do know of, and admire, each other. During a visit to the Brewers’ impressively renovated spring complex in Maryvale, Arizona, earlier this month, I was waiting around Yelich’s locker to chat with the MVP. Finally he appeared, wearing Brewers shorts, a Brewers sweatshirt and an incongruous pair of long, green Milwaukee Bucks socks emblazoned with Antetokounmpo’s No. 34.
“They gave me some of these Giannis socks,” Yelich said, laughing and not saying who “they” were. “Obviously, I’m pulling for him to win the MVP of the NBA. They’ve had a great season, so hopefully they can finish that off.”
Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo talked about how Yelich’s breakout success last season was hard to miss. I first asked him if he even knew who Yelich was, being that he grew up in Greece and wouldn’t have had much early exposure to baseball. Turns out, he does know quite a bit about Yelich, though they don’t yet know each other in real life, as the kids say.
“Yeah, yeah. He’s the MVP,” he said. “He came to the Phoenix game. We didn’t talk and don’t have a relationship, but I saw him there. Tried to look up who he was and I figured out he was the MVP. Then I started realizing he had like billboards all over Milwaukee. Tried to follow up a little bit learning about the Brewers.”
If Antetokounmpo lands his MVP award, it wouldn’t be the first time a city has had reigning MVPs in both sports. Because the NBA announces its award during the middle of the baseball season, the definitions can get a little convoluted. So let’s focus on occurrences that would match this one. In other words, here are the instances in which the NBA gave its MVP award to a player from a city that also had a reigning baseball MVP at the time:
With Houston celebrating both Jose Altuve and Harden last season — during the months between when Harden was honored by the NBA in June and Altuve relinquished his award to Boston’s Mookie Betts in November — obviously it hasn’t been long at all since this has happened. Still, it’s a rare thing and, strangely enough, when it has happened before, it has happened in back-to-back years. That’s only a coincidence, but if you are the type to seek omens, that certainly has to help Antetokounmpo’s fortunes. Both players admitted that, yeah, it would be pretty cool if that happened.
“That’d be great,” Yelich said. “It’s an amazing sports town with amazing sports fans. I’m sure they’d be fired up. [Antetokounmpo] definitely deserves it.”
THE BREWERS AND Bucks have rarely been good at the same time. In fact, 2018 was the first calendar year in which both teams made the playoffs since it happened in back-to-back seasons in 1981-82. Other than 1981, 1982 and 2018, it has never happened. There was a seven-year stretch from 1992 to 1998 when neither team made the postseason.
This history is well known around town in Milwaukee. I heard one bartender tell some Cardinals fans, “We are milking this while we can.”
Milk, though a staple of Wisconsin’s image, was nevertheless not much on display early Thursday morning in the parking lots around Miller Park. Much more common was a particular carbonated yellow beverage, one that has a long history in Milwaukee. Located a few miles west of downtown, Miller Park is in kind of an odd, isolated location. It’s also perfect for the Wisconsinite’s favorite activity: tailgating. This is invariably the explanation I get every time I bring up the park’s location. People want to tailgate. Bud Selig used to say this, too, when he argued against putting Miller Park downtown.
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Inside the park — and, yes, it was inside, as the roof was closed — the Opening Day ceremonies were familiar, as they should be, as the 149th season of big league baseball got underway. The Brewers’ employees, dressed up for the occasion, gathered for a group photo near home plate. The visiting St. Louis Cardinals and the Brewers were both introduced, with Yelich’s name easily drawing the loudest roar, before Attanasio’s sons sang the national anthem. Milwaukee’s four franchise MVPs — Yelich, Ryan Braun, Rollie Fingers and Robin Yount — teamed up for the first-pitch ritual, then posed together on the field.
“How many organizations have four MVPs that are still able stand up?” Yount quipped. “And throw out a first pitch? And catch them? I think that’s pretty cool.”
The Cardinals broke out to an early 3-0 lead, before Mike Moustakas got the Brewers on the board with a homer to center. One inning later, with two men on base, Yelich flashed his MVP form by launching a homer to dead center, giving the Brewers a lead they never relinquished. But they almost did.
There were two out, none on, in the ninth. Vicious Brewers super-reliever Josh Hader had mowed down five consecutive Cardinals, almost exclusively with fastballs that were waved at feebly. So it was a shock when not only did pinch hitter Jose Martinez make contact, but sent a ball rocketing toward the fence in right-center. In the press box, someone cursed out loud — it’s that reflexive reaction a scribe gets when he knows the game story he’s ready to send is about to become obsolete.
“I said a bad word,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell joked, when asked about his reaction when Martinez connected.
But Lorenzo Cain was tracking the ball from his position in center, closing in on it with his long strides. He reached the fence at the same time as the ball, leaped, and took the potential tying home run away from Martinez and the Cardinals. Yelich watched from nearby and thrust both arms into the air. Cain fired the ball skyward. Somehow, it ended up in the glove of Moustakas.
“It’s a great way to start the year,” Yelich said. “That game had a little bit of everything in it. I don’t know if there has a been an ending like that on Opening Day. I can’t remember there being one. It was fun to watch. Gave our team a little bit of a jolt right there.”
Afterward, the Brewers all talked about how the storybook finish meant that the magic that propelled them so far in 2018 is alive and well. And perhaps it is, but there is a reason they always say the baseball season is long. Because it is. Thursday was No. 1 of 162. It’s one the players, and the fans, will remember, but it’s also kind of like 2018 never really ended.
“I was wrong, this looked like last year,” said Counsell, who all spring has been emphasizing that this is a new year and last year has no bearing on this one. On the other hand, Yelich says to a certain extent that this is simply who the Brewers are, especially since the club returned a vast majority of its 2018 roster.
“I think we know our identity as a team, how we win games,” Yelich said. “That seems to be our formula. It’s great to see us get down early, fight back, and find a way to win.”
WHEN THE POSTGAME interviews were finished, I collected my things and raced out to the parking lot to catch a rideshare downtown. It was still a madhouse outside of Miller Park, an hour-plus after the game, and my driver kept saying, “I didn’t want to come out here.” We managed to break free from the throng and after that, I was soon back at my hotel, where I dropped off a few things, picked up my jacket and headed out across the Milwaukee River for the walk to see the Fiserv Forum for the first time. I passed by the old Bradley Center, which is in the early stages of being dismantled.
I used to cover the NBA and would traipse up to Milwaukee from Chicago semi-frequently during Antetokounmpo’s early seasons with the club. Once, during the Las Vegas Summer League, I spent a morning with him, tagging along with the TrueHoop crew to grab a little Q&A. As we walked through the high corridors of some casino-hotel — picture a small bunch of sports media schlubs tagging along with a lean, 7-foot, 20-year-old in basketball sweats — I got a glimpse of what it’s like for an NBA player just to walk around. People simply can’t look away.
We all had breakfast together at one of Vegas’ over-the-top buffets, and I remember several other guests asking me who Antetokounmpo was. I’d practiced pronouncing his name, which is a bit of a mouthful, so I was able to articulate it easily enough. No one had heard of him.
Chances are, they know him now.
“I want to try do everything on the court,” Antetokounmpo told me back then. “I like Kobe Bryant, because he plays offense, but he plays defense, too. You can see the passion inside. I want to be that type of player.”
He has become that type of player. I always figured that whatever Antetokounmpo’s potential was, he would reach it. He worked harder than anyone, was humble, but also so fiercely competitive that after his team was eliminated from the playoffs by Chicago one season, when Antetokounmpo walked past I was worried about him. He was breathing heavily and was clearly seething to the point where he could barely control it. That, I thought, is what a competitor looks like.
Antetokounmpo’s potential was, of course, immense, as you’d expect for someone with his combination of body type, athleticism and wide array of skills. And that combination is unmatched in today’s NBA. In a nutshell, no one can really guard Antetokounmpo and, on the other end, he can guard anyone.
“Every game to him is a competition,” Rivers said. “He competes. That’s what I really like about him.”
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Everything has changed for Antetokounmpo since the previous time I’d seen him play in person. He is stronger and more explosive. He’s more outgoing. His skill set has gone almost off the charts. Even his 3-point shot is improving, and if he masters that, it almost breaks the game. And the fans in Milwaukee have absolutely gone bonkers over him. The only time I’ve heard fan reactions like Antetokounmpo’s during introductions was in Chicago, first for Michael Jordan and, later, when hometown hero Derrick Rose was at his best for the Bulls.
The Bucks were playing the Clippers and it was a so-so game. Antetokounmpo had a big first half, scoring 23 points, and Milwaukee pulled out to a big lead. The Clippers cut into the lead at times, but Milwaukee more or less cruised. Midway through the fourth quarter, Antetokounmpo had pushed his point total over 30 when suddenly he did something that took the air out of the arena. After turning to run down the court to play defense, with no one around him, Antetokounmpo crumbled to the floor.
“I haven’t watched the tape yet,”Antetokounmpo said after the game, seeming as confused as anybody why he went down. “I’m about to head to the training room to try to figure it out.”
My mind flashed back to a game in Chicago on April 28, 2012. That was the contest in which Rose simply jumped out of his knee late in a playoff win over Philadelphia. The atmosphere at the United Center was funereal. Neither he, nor the Bulls, nor the city of Chicago in some ways, have quite been the same since. Happily, in Antetokounmpo’s case, it wasn’t like that. He has been battling a sprained ankle and this was just the latest occurrence of that. He didn’t go back to the locker room and even was going to check back into the game at one point, though a Milwaukee 3-pointer put the game out of reach and the Freak returned the bench.
“He was basically by himself going back [down the court],” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said, describing his reaction when Antetokounmpo went down. “So you kind of hope it’s not anything too serious. But, yeah, [it’s scary] any time one of our guys goes down, not just Giannis.”
The lesson here for Milwaukee fans is an echo of that bartender I overheard: Milk this time for all it’s worth. Because while Antetokounmpo is young and under contract for two more years, and Yelich is young and under contract for three more years (including a team option), all of this can be so fleeting. That’s why the city has never seen anything quite like this before.
IN THE LOCKER room after games, Antetokounmpo has a consistent routine that is none too popular among the media who covers him. He hangs out, gets treatment, showers, plays DJ with his phone. On Thursday, he blasted some Greek hip-hop through the locker room, singing along with lyrics only he could understand. His teammates dressed and gradually moved out into the night. But the Greek Freak was still there, taking his time, his impossibly long legs stuck in a big tub of ice. He gives the media his time, as well, but only after everything else is done, and everyone else is gone. It’s not a great routine for those in deadline-driven professions.
But the thing is, Antetokounmpo is still so damned nice, it’s hard to hold it against him. After all, he does answer the questions. He even spoke sincerely to a Russian reporter who had traveled from far away for just that opportunity, telling young Russian hoopsters to work hard and follow their dreams. He even indulged a baseball writer who’d dropped into the proceedings, followed him back near the training area and wanted to ask him only what he knew about Yelich.
Yelich, too, seems to have evolved as a media figure, perhaps best exemplified by his role in this raucous MLB promo. To me, Yelich is the funniest guy in the commercial because the sight of him leaning into a microphone and exclaiming, “I’m gonna hit 50 home runs!” is so completely unlike him. (Alex Bregman, on the other hand …)
Yelich now seems more at ease with all the attention he gets, which I suspect bothered him at first when he initially emerged as an MVP candidate. Still, he hasn’t walled himself off, just as Antetokounmpo has not, and perhaps it’s because they play in Milwaukee that they haven’t had to. Yelich might be the most clubhouse-accessible star player in the game right now. Antetokounmpo, as long as you’re willing to wait him out, is much the same.
If Harden ends up outpointing Antetokounmpo in the NBA balloting, perhaps this Greek Freak/Yelich MVP combo will never happen. Perhaps Milwaukee will not stake claim to Green Bay’s moniker of Titletown, USA. That wouldn’t change the fact that this too-often-overlooked city on the shores of Lake Michigan is currently home to a pair of the biggest stars in sports.
Perhaps, one day, they’ll even meet.
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“It’s really exciting right now,” Antetokounmpo said. “The Brewers are starting and have the MVP. Milwaukee is excited about our new arena and new coaching staff. And we’re winning. It’s fun and exciting to be in Milwaukee right now.”
If there was one telling commonality between the two games in Milwaukee, on a late-March day in the midst the city’s salad days as a sports town, it was this: After Yelich homered, and every time he strode to the plate, the familiar chants of “MVP! MVP!” broke out.
Later that night, when Antetokounmpo would step to the free throw line, those same magical letters would erupt from the Forum crowd: “MVP! MVP!”
Three little letters in sports that mean so much. In a few months, perhaps those letters will apply to both Yelich and Antetokounmpo, at the same time, in a city that is clearly in love with them both.