The Milwaukee Bucks limp back home for a three-game homestand this week and, because of the godawful way they’ve been playing, stacking one loss after another, one has to wonder: Will they get booed again?
That was the uncomfortable scene three weeks ago.
Back on Jan. 13 at Fiserv Forum, the Bucks trailed Minnesota by 31 points at halftime. The Timberwolves were missing their two best players and the Bucks looked listless and overmatched.
The boos began as the Bucks headed to the locker room. They didn’t come from everyone in the crowd, but there were enough people to make their dissatisfaction heard and felt.
In the second half, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo tried to will the team back to life and, when he hit a shot, he booed the fans right back in one of the most surreal moments of his career.
“Everybody has the opinion to do what they want to do,” Antetokounmpo said that night. “I’m not gonna tell them what to do or how to act when we don’t play hard, or when we lose games, or maybe not where we’re supposed to be.
“And I don’t think anybody has the right to tell me how I should act on the basketball court after I have been here 13 years. And I’m basically the all-time leader in everything.”
Let’s get into this debate a little bit: Is it OK to boo, or not?
True, the Bucks are not competing
Ti Windisch talks about the Bucks on his Gyro Step podcast and also occasionally covers the Oshkosh Herd, Milwaukee’s G League team. He wasn’t at the “boo” game in person but, when he watched it on TV, he said he understood why the fans were booing.
In a conversation since then, Windisch explained why booing is an acceptable form of showing discontent.
“Is the effort and execution befitting that of a professional sports team, an NBA team in this case?” Windisch asked. “The Bucks didn’t seem like they were really getting up and down the court, and they were going against an undermanned Timberwolves team without their two best players.
“And it just wasn’t just losing, it wasn’t just like they were hitting every contested shot. The Bucks were getting beat back down the floor. And there’s a certain level of just engaged-ness, like competitiveness, you should expect from a team at home. It’s fair for the fans to voice the frustration of feeling they’re not getting at least a good effort.”
‘But we weren’t booing Giannis’ is not an excuse
Some fans on social media suggested that the boos were directed toward coach Doc Rivers, or general manager Jon Horst, and not Antetokounmpo. That doesn’t make sense, though, Windisch said.
“It’s honestly too convenient for the fans to say that. I don’t really think that holds up,” he said. “That’s just like trying to have your cake and eat it, too. Maybe they weren’t booing because they were disappointed with Giannis in particular, but they booed the Bucks − the team − and he is on the team. You can’t separate those two.
“Now, does that mean Milwaukee is sick of Giannis? Of course not. Milwaukee still loves Giannis. I don’t think there’s really anything to do with the trade stuff or anything else. I think this was the culmination of a few bad nights strung together this season.”
Fans can boo, but Giannis can’t?
It wasn’t the best look when Antetokounmpo booed back, though, Windisch posted on X.
“Giannis boo’d the crowd back after the and-one. Not as cool of a gesture when it’s your own crowd and you’re down 30.”
Windisch further explained his thought process there. He said he did understand Antetokounmpo’s frustration.
“I have no problem with it,” of Antetokounmpo’s booing back, Windisch said. “Everyone is just frustrated; that’s just where the team is at and I don’t have an issue with Giannis being frustrated …
“It’s just it’s not as galvanizing when it’s your home crowd versus … I thought it was really cool when he booed back in Indiana.”
Antetokounmpo booed the Pacers fans in November in the first game back at Indianapolis for his new teammate, Myles Turner.
“In that one, it was standing up for your team, but really, for Myles,” Windisch said, “who was really targeted by that fan base. Whereas, doing it against your home fans … I didn’t think it was unreasonable for him to do, but certainly, it doesn’t give you that same great feeling. I didn’t think it was like a galvanizing moment for the team in the same way.”
The argument against booing
Some fans at a more-recent home game said they were not in favor of booing.
They felt it was, in general, just disrespectful. It seemed even more so because it was minus-14 degrees in Milwaukee on Jan. 24, when Rivers wasn’t introduced before the Bucks game against Denver as he usually is, and fans didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.
A paid ticket isn’t a license to boo
The argument that fans pay the price of admission for a game so they can do what want didn’t hold up for one longtime fan.
“No,” Bucks fan Joseph Hall said. “There is still a code of conduct. Or at least a civil agreement between everybody. I can’t just come here and be rude and everything. I think that’s wrong.”
Hall was surprised that Giannis booed back a few weeks ago, but he also said, for fans and everyone, “sometimes people just have a bad moment.” Hall also said there’s a difference between a good kind of booing gesture and a bad kind. The good kind is for the opponents. The bad kind is for your home team on your home court.
“I still love the Bucks, I still love Giannis,” Hall said. “I’d love to see him stay here and everything. I’d love to see them get back to the playoffs.”
Some student-athletes against booing
Middle-school students Kylee, a volleyball player, and high school students Matthew, a golfer, and Adalynn, who is in track, were at the Bucks game, too. As athletes themselves, they never have been booed in their own sports − and they don’t think they’d like it if they did.
“That would not be very good,” Matthew said.
They’ve booed the opposing team at high school football games, they said.
“But not our own team,” Matthew said.
All three are lifetime Bucks fans who saw the news of the “boo game” on Instagram.
“I didn’t like it,” Matthew said. “I didn’t think that was positive for the players. At all. Fans shouldn’t be booing a star player [like] Giannis – especially after he brought us a championship.”
Booing isn’t ‘Midwest nice’
Steve and Jenifer Herkowski were at the boo game, and it surprised them.
“It was just a heartbreaking reaction,” Jenifer said.
“That’s the stuff you see in Philadelphia,” Steve said. “That’s not proper behavior. It goes back to how you treat athletes and respect the sport.”
Steve felt the best way for angry fans to show their dissatisfaction with the Bucks is to stop buying tickets and stop attending games. To him, the real fans show up for games − so why would they boo?
“It felt personal to me,” Jenifer said. “I can’t believe they’re booing. That’s just not what we do.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is it OK to boo your team, like Milwaukee Bucks fans did? | Lori Nickel
Reporting by Lori Nickel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
