From the Archives: Milwaukee's Pacers Grudge Runs Deeper…

By the Bucks Nightly Desk · Friday, October 9

Milwaukee's roster looks almost nothing like the one that beat the Pacers for a title in 2021, but the rivalry that defined last spring traces back decades. Myles Turner's arrival this summer gives an old grudge a new face.

Bucks Nightly artwork — Illustration by Hoops Nightly.

1971

Milwaukee won its first championship in just its third season, built on a coin-flip for Lew Alcindor, who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and a trade for Oscar Robertson. That team went 66-16 and swept the Baltimore Bullets. The Bucks returned to the Finals in 1974, losing to Boston in seven games on the strength of Abdul-Jabbar's double-overtime sky hook in Game 6.

1975

Abdul-Jabbar was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers for Elmore Smith, Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and David Meyers, closing the book on Milwaukee's first contending core. Bridgeman later became a Bucks owner and remains the only player with a number retired by the franchise, his 2 hanging at Fiserv Forum.

The 1990s

Seven straight losing seasons bottomed out with a draft-day trade of Dirk Nowitzki's rights to Dallas for Robert Traylor, one of the costliest swaps in franchise history. Milwaukee rebuilt around Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen, and under George Karl the trio of Allen, Sam Cassell and Robinson reached the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals before falling to Philadelphia in seven.

2024-25 season

The Indiana Pacers knocked Milwaukee out of the playoffs in five games, a series remembered for Damian Lillard's achilles injury. It was the second straight postseason the Pacers ended the Bucks' season, after a six-game exit in 2023-24, extending a rivalry that now cuts the other way on the roster.

This summer

Milwaukee pulled Myles Turner directly out of that rival's locker room, even as the roster around him changed completely. Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to Miami in late June, with forward Bobby Portis also moving on, in exchange for Tyler Herro and three other players. Taylor Jenkins, hired in April after six seasons in Memphis, now coaches a team built almost entirely since spring.

Next Milwaukee's next game is a preseason tilt at Charlotte on October 11, with the regular-season opener set for October 21 at Washington.

Have the Bucks beaten the Pacers in a big playoff series recently?

No — Indiana eliminated Milwaukee in the first round in both 2023-24 and 2024-25, the latter costing Damian Lillard his achilles.

Why did the Bucks trade Dirk Nowitzki?

Milwaukee sent his draft rights to Dallas for Robert Traylor on draft night during a losing stretch in the 1990s, a deal now remembered as one of the costliest in franchise history.