So many options to choose from but we will keep it simple https://t.co/GAjv7xIF6N pic.twitter.com/EtG3zMioYA
— Brew Hoop (@brewhoop) November 24, 2021
Thanksgiving is many things to many people, and for fans of the Milwaukee Bucks it’s another opportunity to recognize just how much we have to be grateful for. In a basketball sense, the Bucks are currently brushing themselves off from the early season obstacles they are working towards overcoming. They’re above 0.500, which is a strange accomplishment to acknowledge given how strong they’ve been in the regular season the past few years. But as we (should have) learned from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s impromptu TED Talk in last year’s NBA Finals, part of being in the moment is recognizing what you have presently, right here and right now.
The Milwaukee Bucks are reigning NBA champions, a sentence that will eventually lose both its luster and its accuracy. Banners fly forever, but titles can be seized in as little as a year. Nobody stays at the top of the mountain forever. The Bucks might not win the trophy this season. They might never win the trophy again! But they did last year, and they’re following up that triumph with (what currently seems like) their best effort to repeat the feat. We can be thankful for that.
We can also be thankful for the caliber of person that the organization has empowered, and not just on the court. The Bucks can boast a collection of the league’s best front offices, coaching staffs, support and training teams, and business departments, all of whom play a part in the team’s on-court success. The Bucks are boring in part because they don’t have drama, a rarity in today’s NBA. We can be thankful for that.
We can also be thankful for having basketball, period. It’s been nearly two years since the NBA – and the rest of the world, seemingly – shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions of families have been impacted by the virus. The NBA persevered and found a way to persist despite the challenges that a global health crisis presents, and while their motives were far from altruistic it’s still worth remembering that we might not have had basketball for a long time. A ton of work and sacrifice went into getting the world to where it is today; it certainly has enough issues that eclipse basketball in importance, but we can be thankful for what we do have. And a big “thanks in advance” for the work left to do to get us back to normal…whatever that is.
Zooming in, we can be thankful for each other here at Brew Hoop. Adam and I are continually humbled by how many people participate in this community, and we know full well that your participation is what keeps this forum moving forward. We’d like to express our hearty thanks to our staff, our partners at SB Nation and across the network, and especially to each and every one of our readers. Our gratitude cannot be measured, or if it can we lack the tools and the wherewithal to make the attempt.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Be kind to each other, be kind to yourself, and go Bucks.