And that is fine.
Twelve things about that fineness:
- When the Bucks signed Marcus Landry, a lot of people said that he would be the first player to be born in Milwaukee to play for the Bucks in the regular season, if that happens. All of those people were right.
- Contract signings can be confusing. Like so: The Bucks signed Landry, but that does not mean that he is a lock to make the regular season roster. He will go to training camp and try to win one of the 15 roster spots, but his signing meant the Bucks had 17 players for those 15 spots.
- (Technically possible: You can be happy if he makes the team and not upset if he does not make the team.)
- Landry is one of 20 players in NBA history born in the city of Milwaukee. He played in 17 games for the Knicks and one game for the Celtics back in 2009-10. Naturally he lost to the Bucks in his only NBA game in Milwaukee, because that was the original (/only) Fear the Deer season and the Bucks were not joking around.
- One of the other 20 players is Carl Landry, who is the older brother of Marcus. Carl has played 475 quite-quality games in the NBA. Now he plays for the 76ers, which is pretty similar to the NBA in many ways.
- NEWS BULLETIN: During the process of writing this story, reports surfaced that the Bucks will also sign Charlie Westbrook, who also was born in Milwaukee. These are still just reports, though.
- Question: How weird is it that no one from Milwaukee has ever played for the Bucks? Is it even weird at all? Those things came to mind after hearing the Landry news. Granted, I am exactly the type of person to plot the birthplace of every single Bucks player in franchise history on a Google Map.
- Answer: The Bucks are pretty much the only NBA team to never have a hometown player.
- Who includes “pretty much” in a statement/headline? Well, the “pretty much” here is because the only other active NBA team that cannot claim a single player born in their home team city is the Brooklyn Nets. And the Brooklyn Nets have only been the Brooklyn Nets since 2012. Before that, they had bounced around between seven obscure cities in New Jersey. Looked those up, too, and no one had been born in Teaneck or Piscataway at the same time they played for the Nets. Point is, that hardly counts.
- Nine teams have had exactly one hometown player: Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors.
- Who is the best player ever to play for the hometown team? Wilt Chamberlain, who was born in Philadelphia and won MVPs for the 76ers, but as the story goes, lived in New York and refused to move to Philadelphia while playing for his hometown team. Plenty of other notable names, including Derrick Rose (Chicago), Cazzie Russell (Chicago), Dave DeBusschere (Detroit), Chris Webber (Detroit), Michael Cooper (Los Angeles), Gail Goodrich (Los Angeles), and Carmelo Anthony (New York).
- If this information is elsewhere, please do not tell me now, because this for me was a largely manual, time-consuming and enjoyable nighttime project on basketball-reference.com. Here is the full list.
Atlanta Hawks
Mark Strickland
Don Adams
Boston Celtics
Dana Barros
Bob Bigelow
Wayne Turner
Brooklyn Nets
None
Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets
Jeff McInnis
Chicago Bulls
Randy Brown
Roger Brown
Tony Brown
Kendall Gill
Hersey Hawkins
Phil Hicks
Randy Holcomb
Linton Johnson
Mickey Johnson
Scott Lloyd
Nazr Mohammed
Jawann Oldham
Jannero Pargo
Derrick Rose
Cazzie Russell
Andre Wakefield
Darrell Walker
Cleveland Cavaliers
Earl Boykins
J.R. Bremer
Harry Davis
Jawad Williams
Dallas Mavericks
Kevin Ollie
Quinton Ross
Stevin Smith
Kurt Thomas
Denver Nuggets
Chauncey Billups
Detroit Pistons
Victor Alexander
Dave DeBusschere
Bill Buntin
Earl Cureton
Tony Fuller
Lindsay Hairston
Alan Hardy
Robert Hawkins
Jermaine Jackson
Negele Knight
Eric Money
Mike Peplowski
Dan Roundfield
Ralph Simpson
George Trapp
Terry Thomas
Terry Tyler
Chris Webber
Golden State Warriors
Drew Barry
Jon Barry
DeMarcus Nelson
Brian Shaw
Houston Rockets
Alton Ford
Gerald Green
Dwight Jones
McCoy McLemore
Larry Micheaux
Indiana Pacers
George Hill
George McGinnis
Josh McRoberts
Andre Owens
Wayne Radford
Randy Wittman
Bobby Wilson
Los Angeles Clippers
Bobby Brown
Baron Davis
LeRon Ellis
Jordan Farmar
Tremaine Fowlkes
Jordan Hamilton
Jason Hart
Andre Miller
Dwayne Polee
Derek Strong
John Williams
Nick Young
Los Angeles Lakers
John Block
Elden Campbell
Michael Cooper
Jordan Farmar
Gail Goodrich
Jerome Henderson
Stan Love
Tracy Murray
Derek Strong
Trevor Wilson
Nick Young
Memphis Grizzlies
Antonio Burks
Rodney Carney
Lester Hudson
Elliot Perry
Jarnell Stokes
Lorenzen Wright
Miami Heat
Udonis Haslem
Tim James
James Jones
Anthony Mason
Milwaukee Bucks
None
Minnesota Timberwolves
John Thomas
New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans
Carldell Johnson
Randy Livingston
Robert Pack
New York Knicks
Don Ackerman
Carmelo Anthony
Ron Behagen
Carl Braun
Pete Brennan
Reggie Carter
Freddie Crawford
Mel Davis
Dave Deutsch
Len Elmore
Ray Felix
Larry Fogle
Leo Gottlieb
Sidney Green
Richie Guerin
Jerry Harkness
Sonny Hertzberg
Art Heyman
Geoff Huston
Greg Jackson
Mark Jackson
George Kaftan
Bernard King
Toby Knight
Ray Lumpp
Stephon Marbury
Brendan McCann
Alfred McGuire
Allie McGuire
Metta World Peace
Mike Riordan
Bob Santini
Carey Scurry
Rod Strickland
Sid Tannenbaum
Lance Thomas
Oklahoma City Thunder
Daniel Orton
Orlando Magic
Chucky Atkins
Philadelphia 76ers
Mike Bantom
Jerry Baskerville
Joe Bryant
Larry Cannon
Fred Carter
Wilt Chamberlain
Brandon Davies
Matt Guokas
Marc Jackson
Ollie Johnson
Wali Jones
Lewis Lloyd
Aaron McKie
Bill Melchionni
Doug Overton
John Salmons
Steven Smith
Jim Washington
Maalik Wayns
Phoenix Suns
Bernard Thompson
Portland Trail Blazers
Dan Dickau
Damon Stoudamire
Ime Udoka
Sacramento Kings
David Cooke
San Antonio Spurs
Eric Dawson
Toronto Raptors
Jamaal Magliore
Utah Jazz
Devin Brown
Jeff Judkins
Pace Mannion
Washington Wizards
Tim Legler
Roger Mason
Lawrence Moten
Don Reid
Michael Smith
Donnell Taylor