View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on local sports
My girlfriend, Amy Bell, and I met with my coworker, Ross Pattermann,
at Nutz Deep II North in Spencer on Tuesday night to watch the Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA championship on television.
This occurred 50 years after my mother, Edgar native Pauline (Berg) Krautkramer, watched Lew Alcindor and the Miwaukee Bucks win their
first NBA title on television. She also watched Giannas Antetokounmpo
help the Bucks win the NBA championship on Tuesday night on her television at home. It just so happens Giannas scored 50 points 50 years after the Bucks won their only other NBA title.
My mother told me she traveled to Green Bay with her older brother, Lenny Berg of Edgar, and their late mother, Olive Berg, in 1971 to watch the Bucks play an exhibition basketball game at the Brown County Arena during the 1971-72 season.
Lew Alcindor had just helped the Bucks win their first NBA championship in the 1970-71 season, and he then changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
My mother was able to get Kareem to autograph her Bucks exhibition game program, along with other Bucks players. She also asked another great Bucks player, Oscar Robertson, to sign her game program. Oscar declined her offer because he told her he doesn’t sign autographs, at least he didn’t back then but maybe he does now?
It was great on Tuesday to see a picture on Facebook of town of Bern farmer Tony Schultz with his father, Ed Schultz, and his son, Athens middle schooler Riley Schultz- Becker, standing outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee before Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Tony Schultz is, of course, now famously known for ripping t-shirts off at the Bucks 104-89 home win in Game 6 against the Brooklyn Nets in this year’s NBA playoffs.
I had a chance to watch Tony and Riley play a pickup basketball game in the Athens High School gym on Monday, following the Athens Board of Education meeting. Tony is still a force in the paint, whereas Riley is becoming a good basketball player on the perimeter.
The Bucks may have won the NBA championship on Tuesday, but the Rib River Fire Brigade once won a Gus Macker sportsmanship trophy at the Wausau West/ Wausau Newman grounds.
My friend, Jeff Cichon of Marathon, messaged me on Sunday morning that he walked on the Gus Macker tournament grounds while visiting family in Iron Mountain, Mich. He told me it was the first time the Gus Macker has been in Iron Mountain since the early 1990s.
Jeff and I were teammates with Randy Wokatsch of Marathon and Randy’s good friend, Randy Beck of Weston, on the Rib River Fire Brigade Gus Macker team. Jack Kramer of Rib River Ballroom was our sponsor.
