Dan Grunfeld, who was a student at Nicolet High School, could feel how the team's effort and selflessness had the whole city celebrating their success.

Oh, man, the Bradley Center just used to be hot.

[laughs] You know what I mean? There was so much excitement, right? Because fans, fans know when they're watching good basketball being played, and when they're watching guys play together, and play hard, and with energy, and, and that's what was happening.

It was a moment, and everyone felt it, right? So once that thing clicked, man, they, they had it going, and the city felt it, and the city loved it.

You know, you remember, I remember coming, going to high school, you know, in Milwaukee, and everyone singing the song, "Light it up, light it up," [laughs] you know, like, 'cause that was the Bucks anthem, you know? "Milwaukee, light it up, light it up." Like, people were just excited about the Bucks.

You know, you win the, win the division, one of the top seeds in the conference, like, it was working.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music]

In a recent appearance on the Bucs Plus podcast, Here District, Bucs legend Michael Redd looked back at how much that rookie season meant to his development.

Honestly, it was one of the greatest years of my career.

It was a situation where I was watching all my peers play, but I was sitting on the sideline.

They didn't have the education that I had.

And so my learning curve was accelerated because I had great players on the team.

In fact, one of the controversies early on that season in the media when the team was struggling was how often Michael Redd's team of reserves was beating the Bucs starters in practice.

To go from, OK, I'm not playing to like really embracing my role.

And as far as making these guys better in practice.

Just Kobe Bryant, how would you kinda describe playing with him, watching him play?

Probably the toughest challenge for me ever in basketball, uh, him and AI, 1A, 1B.

Um, Kobe was, uh, really strong, underrated strong.

You had to be really physical with him.

Um, the more you were physical with him, the more he fed off that, though.

Um, had the ultimate green light, so, you know, [laughs] really not too much you could do with him with his skill set along with having the green light, right? But more than anything, I think his mentality.

Uh, he had a mentality to destroy you, which I appreciated because I had the same mentality.

Mm-hmm

Who messed up? Who do we blame? What, what, where's the, where's the finger get pointed here?

Wow, I mean, blame is, is, is strong language, but I, I will say there's two stories, right? Two sides.

You have Milwaukee's perspective, and you have Giannis' perspective.

This could have ended amicably.

Uh, unfortunately, I don't think it will.

And from my perspective, I think you look at what Giannis has brought to Milwaukee.

He brought them a championship, obviously, with Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton.

Do you have a guess why? What do you hear? What do you think?

Who messed up? Who do we blame? Wh- wha- where's the, where's the finger get pointed here?

[smacks lips] Wow.

I mean, blame is, is, is strong language, but I, I will say there's two stories, right? Two sides.

You have Milwaukee's perspective, and you have Giannis's perspective.

This could have ended amicably.

Uh, unfortunately, I don't think it will.

And from my perspective, I think you look at what Giannis has brought to Milwaukee.

Do you have a guess why? What do you hear? What do you think?

Have you ever thought, or how much have you thought about where you fit in the, the ecosystem today? And I guess, like, what else, what impresses you the most about the way the sport has changed and the players have adapted to this new era?

Yeah, it's been fun to watch the evolution.

Uh, I was talking with a great player t- two years ago who shot a lot of threes.

Um, and, and I was sharing with him I only shot maybe four to five threes a game for my career, um, and, and how it would be for me in this era where if you can shoot the three, you're such an, a valuable asset.

Um, the game has evolved.

You've gotta give Steph Curry a tremendous amount of credit for this.

You've gotta give Damian Lillard, on and on and on, the great shooters of the era, Klay Thompson, uh, that have made the three-point shot more of a weapon, more than ever before.

What, what i- what goes into that and how do you go about it of not, of tiptoeing it a bit, but also knowing you have to grab onto that?