Milwaukee salutes its heroes

Thousands of fans lined downtown Milwaukee streets on Thursday to catch a glimpse of their beloved Bucks in a parade to celebrate the city’s first NBA championship in half a century.

Victory parade

Six police officers on horseback clopped past cheering fans at the head of a procession that included a hook-and-ladder fire truck, occasionally blaring its horn, and open-air buses and flatbed trucks carrying Bucks stars, including Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, as well as the trophy they captured on Tuesday night with a Game 6 victory over Phoenix Suns.

Fans could be heard chanting “Bucks in Six”, an odd but beloved rallying cry with roots in a former Bucks player’s fruitless prediction in 2013 that the team would take down the playoffs’ top seed at the time.

Antetokounmpo held his son, one-year-old Liam, atop a bus as fans along the route chanted “MVP!” Later, he shot a basketball into the crowd.

“Milwaukee, we did it baby! We did it!” Antetokounmpo said to a cheering crowd in the Deer District, the area outside the Bucks’ Fiserv Forum.

Unifying the city

Neil and Rachana Bhatia, both 34 and from suburban Waukesha, brought one-month-old son Zain to the Deer District, saying they wanted to give Zain an early taste of being a Bucks fan.

“It unifies the city and puts the city on a global stage. It’s great for the city and the state. It’s just bringing everybody together to celebrate something that hasn’t happened in 50 years,” Neil said.

“The city has had its struggles. What I know is that it’s been a city that’s coming together,” said longtime Bucks fan Dameon Ellzey.

“In my neighbourhood, you could hear everybody on their porches screaming,” Ellzey said. “Black, white, Asian. In a city like Milwaukee, that’s big.”

Milwaukee has long ranked among the most segregated cities in America. Team president Peter Feigin called it “the most segregated, racist place” he’d ever experienced, remarks he later softened.

As the Bucks drove toward a championship this year, some people were cheered by the diversity of the massive crowds that gathered in the Deer District to watch the Bucks on big TV screens.

The team’s ascendance has also invigorated a Midwestern city far from the league’s more cosmopolitan venues like Los Angeles, Boston or Miami — cities that have traditionally found it easier to attract the game’s top players.

Loyal soldier

One reason fans have embraced Antetokounmpo is his loyalty to the team that drafted him eight years ago when he was just 18.

“He recognises the city and its quality and he resonates with it,” Timothy Seymour, 20, said of Antetokounmpo. “He really reflects our work ethic. He works hard. And he reflects how we’re only going to get better.”