Milwaukee has traded away a defining player once before, sending Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers in 1975 for a package that eventually produced a Bucks owner. Fifty-one years later, the trade of Antetokounmpo has again remade the roster that Taylor Jenkins now coaches.
1971
Milwaukee won a coin flip for the draft rights to Lew Alcindor, who took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then traded for Oscar Robertson. The pairing went 66-16 and swept the Baltimore Bullets, delivering the franchise's first championship in its third season of existence.
1975
The Bucks traded Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers for Elmore Smith, Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and David Meyers. Bridgeman became a longtime Bucks player, his number 2 now retired by the franchise, and in 2024 he bought a 10 percent ownership stake — the rare name on the wall belonging to both a player and an owner.
2021
The Antetokounmpo era, built alongside Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday and later Damian Lillard, delivered Milwaukee's second championship. Antetokounmpo and Abdul-Jabbar remain the only two Bucks players to win Finals MVP, and between them they account for five MVP awards for the franchise.
This past June
On June 23, Milwaukee sent Antetokounmpo to Miami in a deal that also included Bobby Portis, returning Jaquez Jr., Herro, Jakucionis and Ware. It is the second time the franchise has traded away the player who defined its identity, five decades after Abdul-Jabbar left for the Lakers.
This month
Camp opened under Jenkins, hired April 30 after coaching Memphis; he spent 2018-19 on Milwaukee's bench under Mike Budenholzer, a role that put him inside the building long before he ran it. Turner and Kuzma remain from the roster before the trade, and the group now numbers twenty-one, with an average age of 25.1, as the new core prepares for its first preseason games in October.
Has Milwaukee traded away a franchise-defining player before?
Yes. The Bucks sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975, four years after he helped deliver the team's first championship.
Who owns the Milwaukee Bucks now?
Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan lead the ownership group; the Haslam family bought a 25 percent stake in 2023, and former Bucks player Junior Bridgeman purchased a 10 percent interest in 2024.
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