Bucks stopped here, but certify their lot among league’s elite

Members of the Milwaukee Bucks not named Giannis Antetokounmpo hit a sparkling 80 percent from the free throw line in the Eastern Conference finals series with Toronto.

Antetokounmpo, who led the team to a league-best 60-win season, made just 35 of the 60 foul shots he took as the Bucks — who only once during the regular season lost two games in a row — ended their season by dropping four straight to the Raptors.

Missed free throws weren’t the sole cause of the dramatic momentum shift throughout the best-of-seven series won by the Raptors 4-2 — although Antetokounmpo would be the first to tell you that there was room for improvement over his 2-for-7, 6-for-10, 4-for-9 and 5-for-10 efforts from the line over the last four games.

That is, if he felt like sticking around and talking about it. Asked at the postgame press conference what sort of learning experience he and the Bucks could distill from the lost series, Antetokounmpo got up and walked out.

You couldn’t blame him because there was really nothing to say at that point, beyond the usual forced fluff about coming back and working harder, blah blah.

Antetokounmpo was often flustered by the Raptors’ collapsing defense and committed twice as many turnovers throughout the series than any of his teammates.

But while he may have hearkened the echoes of Wilt and Shaq in their freebie-bricking heyday, Antetokounmpo was still the driving force behind the team. He led the Bucks in points, rebounds, minutes played, blocked shots and assists against the Raptors.

It’s not easy to foresee a huge momentum swing like the one in the Bucks-Raptors series. For the first two games of the series, won by the Bucks, and much of the third game, there was legitimate musing over whether Toronto had the means to avoid a sweep. But the Bucks, a team that had won six straight playoff games and looked unbeatable, suddenly lost their way at crunch time.

In the end, the Raptors simply hit more big shots. Antetokounmpo may have been the MVP in the regular season, which was one of the Bucks’ most successful in their 51-year history, but Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard was the winning difference in the series.

The only positive to draw from the conference finals loss is that Antetokounmpo — whose contract with the Bucks runs through the 2020-21 season — sounded motivated to stay in town to clean up the unfinished business.

Having collected his thoughts later on and taking note of the wide community support in the wake of the defeat, Antetokounmpo spoke the words that were music to Bucks fans’ ears.

He won’t guarantee 61 wins for next year but said, “We’re going to put ourselves in a place to be a championship contending team for many more years to come. There’s not a lot of teams that can say that, but we’re going to put ourselves in that situation for many years to come.”

Sounds like a plan. For now, it will have to do.

Starr personifies Packers

Rest in peace, Bart Starr, one of the greatest players in the illustrious history of the Green Bay Packers. The Hall of Fame quarterback passed away at the age of 85, having led the Packers to five NFL championships, including two Super Bowls.

At pick No. 200 overall (17th round) in 1956, Starr would become the Packers’ original late-in-the-draft QB gold mine. His career passing numbers are relatively unremarkable but were forged in days when the running game prevailed. Starr, who like most quarterbacks of the era called the plays from the huddle, was a quietly effective leader who once threw 294 consecutive passes without an interception, a record that stood for 26 seasons.

His one-yard touchdown sneak in the closing seconds of the frigid 1967 NFL title game is considered one of the most famous plays in history of the league.

Tough and resilient yet unstintingly humble, Bart Starr was an exemplary athlete who personified the essence of being a Green Bay Packer.

Veteran sportswriter Gary Seymour’s column appears weekly in the Leader. He can be contacted at sports@newmedia-wi.com.