It’s incredibly difficult to predict how things will be remembered in real time. Something that feels significant now can be insignificant later, but that didn’t feel like the case on Friday night as the Milwaukee Bucks played their first regular-season game at Fiserv Forum.
Not only was it their first regular-season game in a new arena, it was the first for Mike Budenholzer as coach of the Bucks. And then there is star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, sitting on the precipice of a possible MVP season, who didn’t disappoint in Game 1.
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There is no way of knowing, but it feels safe to assume when fans try to categorize and think about the this era of Bucks basketball: “Bud’s Bucks,” the “Giannis and Bud Show” or “The Fiserv Forum Era” will come to mind.
“I think it does (feel like a new era of Bucks basketball),” Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry said. “I think it feels like you’re getting a chance to start over. We learned a lot. We figured out a bunch of things and now we’re all excited about getting started again.”
Renewal seems like a strange feeling to have after owning a basketball team for four and a half years, but it’s here this season in Milwaukee. It comes though, not just from a new building, but from the pairing of a state-of-the-art new arena and a highly-respected new coach.
“We made a big decision bringing Bud on board,” Lasry said on Friday night. “I think we saw a lot of it in the Charlotte game, at least in the first half. It was right as it was supposed to be. As the team gets more and more comfortable, we’ll get there.”
On Friday night, the Bucks appeared to be quite comfortable in their new digs as they beat up the Indiana Pacers, 118-101, and seemed to encapsulate the organizational reset Lasry described.
The Bucks set a franchise record by taking 47 3-pointers, a number that easily eclipsed the previous record of 36. Antetokounmpo put up 26 points and 15 rebounds, despite going 0 of 7 from beyond the three-point line, but that didn’t make him re-think any of the changes that were made.
“It’s going up,” Antetokounmpo said defiantly about shooting threes. “I’m not stopping. I worked hard this summer. I’m not stopping.”
The All-NBA forward’s attitude speaks to the overhaul the organization feels like it has made. The seven 3-point attempts he took Friday night are the same number of threes he made in his second season. Now, he proudly shoots them. The shots might not be falling quite yet, but things have changed and the organization as a whole is proud of that change.
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“New arena. New practice facility. New coach. I’ve said it in the past, but this is the right time to be a Buck,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m blessed that I had the opportunity to be in this team, playing in this wonderful arena, in front of these wonderful fans and hopefully we can achieve our goals and have a great season, so everything can click together.”
In charge of making everything click together? The new coach.
Budenholzer was not around when the talk of a new arena began or even as it was built, but his introductory news conference in Milwaukee was the first official event held at Fiserv Forum, an indelible link between coach and arena. The hard hats and safety goggles served as an apt metaphor for the work he was about to embark on.
“I think I’ve been very conscious of how fortunate I personally am to be joining the Bucks as we open a brand new arena,” Budenholzer said. “The practice facility is basically brand new. The ownership is three, four, five years in and really establishing what’s important to them and winning and investing in it. So, I do feel the timing for me is very good.
“Establishing an identity, how we want to play every night is very important to me, to us. I think hopefully the way we play night in and night out can stand the test of time, and we can be great this year and in the playoffs and going forward.”