The Milwaukee Bucks are in their 44th season as a National Basketball Association franchise.
Since the Bucks' flagship season of 1968-69, they have contended with no less than 67 opposing players who are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, not to mention countless others who earned multiple NBA All-Star Game selections.
In the coming weeks, the Truman Reed Index will present its ranking of the top five opposing players the Bucks have faced from each of the other 29 NBA teams - or their predecessors (ie the Los Angeles Clippers list will also include members of the San Diego Clippers and Buffalo Braves). The selections are based upon the players' performance against the Bucks and their career accomplishments.
A number of the players featured in the TRI rankings played for multiple NBA teams during the course of their careers, but will be listed only once - representing the teams with which they made their most substantial or longest-running impacts against the Bucks.
Michael Jordan
Jordan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but moved with his family to Wilmington, N.C., as a toddler and became a North Carolina icon. He did not make the varsity basketball team, at Laney High School when he was a 5-foot-11-inch sophomore, but played junior varsity ball and had several 40-point games. He grew five inches the next summer, made the varsity as a junior and averaged a triple-double of 29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 10.1 assists as a senior to earn McDonald’s All-American honors.
Jordan emerged as Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year after averaging 13.4 points per game as a freshman and made the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown University and its star center, Patrick Ewing. In three seasons at UNC, Jordan averaged 17.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He was a consensus First-Team All-American following both his sophomore and junior seasons and won the Naismith Award in 1984 before entering that year’s National Basketball Association Draft and being selected third by the Chicago Bulls behind Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) and Sam Bowie (Portland Trail Blazers).
During his first season in the NBA, the 6-foot-6-inch guard averaged 28.2 points per game, earned his first of 14 All-Star Game selection and was named Rookie of the Year. In 1986-87, he became the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in an NBA season, averaging a league high 37.1 points, and became the first player in NBA history to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season.
Jordan led the Bulls to NBA titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998 and was named NBA MVP in 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998) . He was the NBA scoring champion from 1987–1993 and from 1996–1998), was NBA Slam Dunk champion in 1987 and 1988 and made the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times.
Jordan was an Olympic gold medalist in 1984 and 1992, and played the final two seasons of his NBA career with the Washington Wizards. His 32,292 points rank him third all-time in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. His regular-season career averages were 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, and he holds the top career regular season and playoff scoring averages of 30.1 and 33.4 points per game.
From 1985-2003, Jordan averaged 32.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 60 career games against the Milwaukee Bucks. He joined the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Derrick Rose
Rose was born and raised on the south side of Chicago and learned the game of basketball from three older brothers. He attended Simeon Career Academy and led the school’s freshmen and sophomores to the to city championships with a 24–1 record.
Rose totaled 22 points, seven rebounds and five steals in his varsity debut as a sophomore, and over the next three seasons, he led the Wolverines to a 120-12 record and Illinois Class AA state championships in 2006 and 2007. In Rose’s senior season, he averaged 25.2 points, 9.1 assists, 8.8 rebounds and 3.4 steals as Simeon finished 33-2 and was ranked first in the nation by Sports Illustrated.Rose was an all-stater for the second consecutive second, was named Illinois Mr. Basketball and was chosen for the McDonald’s All-American and Jordan Brand All-Star Games. Simeon retired jersey No. 25 to honor Rose and the late Ben Wilson.
Rose played one season of college basketball at the University of Memphis. He averaged 14.9 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game during the regular season, earned Third-Team All-American Third Team honors and led the Tigers all the way to the NCAA championship game, where they lost to the University of Kansas 75-68 and finished 38-2. In 2009, an NCAA investigation revealed that Rose's SAT scores had been invalidated, making him retroactively ineligible to play for Memphis. As a result, the NCAA vacated the Tigers’ entire 2007–08 season.
The 6-foot-3-inch guard declared for the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, scored 36 points in his NBA Playoff debut against Boston and was named NBA Rookie of the Year. He earned his first NBA All-Star Game selection in his second professional season and set a career-high with 17 assists, to go with 30 points, on March 26 against the Bucks He averaged 26.8 points and 7.2 as the Bulls lost a five-game playoff series to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Rose became only the third player in the past 30 years of the NBA to record 2,000 points and 600 assists in a single season in 2010-11 and led the Bulls to a league best record of 62–20. At the age of 22, he was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, surpassing Wes Unseld as the youngest player in league history to win the award.
The three time NBA All-Star sustained a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament during the 2012 NBA Playoffs and has been sidelined since. Through 16 career games against Milwaukee, Rose was averaging 21.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 8.9 assists.
Scottie Pippen
A native of Hamburg, Ark., Pippen attended Hamburg High School and began his collegiate career as a 6-foot-1-inch freshman at the University of Central Arkansas, an NAIA school. He had a growth spurt during his years in college, and he averaged 23.6 points per game and shot close to 60 percent from the field to earn consensus NAIA All-American honors in 1987.
Pippen was selected fifth overall in the 1987 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, and his draft rights were traded to the Chicago Bulls for Olden Polynice and future draft pick options. Pippen was a backup forward for the Bulls during his rookie campaign, but became a starter during the 1988 NBA Playoffs and helped Chicago reach the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The 6-foot-8-inch forward/guard averaged 16.5 points and 6.7 rebounds during the 1989-90 season and earned his first NBA All-Star Game selection. He helped the Bulls make the conference finals in 1989 and 1990, then joined Michael Jordan in leading Chicago to NBA championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993. In 1992, he was named to the original “Dream Team” that won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, Spain.
Jordan retired prior to the 1993-94 season, and Pippen to All-Star Game MVP honors and lead the Bulls in scoring, assists, and blocks, and the league in steals, averaging 22 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. He earned his first of three straight All-NBA First Team selections and he finished third in MVP voting. The Bulls finished the season with 55 wins, only two fewer than the year before.
With Jordan back in the fold, Chicago posted the best regular-season record in NBA history (72–10) in 1995–96 and won consecutive NBA titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Pippen was traded to Houston in 1998 and played one season for the Rockets and four for the Portland Trail Blazers. His teams reached the playoffs 16 times in his 17 NBA seasons, during which he was a seven-time All-Star and made the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight times. He posted career averages of 16.1 points, 5.2 assists and 2 steals per game.
Pippen averaged 16 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 58 career games against the Bucks. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Bob Love
Love, a native of Bastrop, La., became a prep star at Morehouse High School in Delhi, La., before moving on to play for nearby Southern A & M University, where he earned All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors from 1963-65 and also earned NAIA All-American honors in 1963.
The 6-foot-8-inch forward was selected by the Cincinnati Royals in the fourth round of the 1965 NBA Draft, but failed to make the team and began his professional basketball career with the Trenton (N.J.) Colonials of the Eastern Basketball League, where he averaged 25 points per game and was named Rookie of the Year.
Nicknamed “Butterbean,” Love made the Royals roster the following season and played as a reserve for two years with Cincinnati before being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1968 NBA Expansion Draft. He averaged 7.6 points per game with the Bucks before being traded to the Chicago Bulls along with Bob Weiss for Flynn Robinson.
Love went on to enjoy a stellar career with the Bulls from 1968 through 1976, earning three NBA All-Star selections and being named to the all-NBA Defensive Second Team three times. He averaged 25.2 points per game in 1970-71 and 25.8 in 1971-72. Love finished his NBA career with the Bulls after spending parts of the 1976-77 season with New York and Seattle.
Love was a thorn in the Bucks’ side during his Bulls years, leading the team in scoring against Milwaukee 19 times. His top outing of 49 points came Feb. 4, 1973, and he also had games of 47 and 41 points.
Love ranks third on the Bulls’ all-time scoring list with 12,623 points, and his NBA totals were 13,895 points (17.6 ppg), 4,653 rebounds (5.9 rpg) and 1,123 assists (1.4 apg). His No. 10 jersey was the second jersey to be retired by the Bulls. He works for the Bulls as their Director of Community Affairs.
Artis Gilmore
Gilmore was born in Chipley, Fla., and was raised there and in Dothan, Ala., before starring at Gardner-Webb College and at Jacksonville University. Gilmore led the Dolphins to the 1970 NCAA championship game, where they lost 80-69 to UCLA. During Gilmore’s two seasons at Jacksonville, he became one of only five college basketball players ever to average at least 20 points and 20 rebounds over his career. Gilmore led the NCAA in rebounding twice at Jacksonville, and his career average of 22.7 rebounds per game is the highest in NCAA Division I history.
The 7-foot-2-inch center began his professional career with the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association and was named the ABA’s Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in 1972. During his five seasons with the Colonels, he led the ABA four times in rebounding average and twice in both field goal percentage and blocks per game. He was named to the All-ABA First team five straight years and the All-Defense Team four times and led Kentucky to another ABA title in 1975.
The ABA ended its existence after the 1976 season. Four of its teams joined the NBA while the remaining teams, including the Colonels, folding. Gilmore went into a special dispersal draft, and he was chosen with the first overall pick by the Bulls.
During Gilmore’s five years with Chicago, he was a four-time NBA All-Star. He made the All-Star Game twice with San Antonio, then rejoined the Bulls for part of the 1988 season before finishing his NBA career with the Boston Celtics in 1988.
Gilmore played in a total of six NBA All-Star Games. He led the NBA in field-goal shooting in four consecutive seasons, including a career best 67 percent during the 1980-81 season. He was the Bulls’ leading scorer against the Bucks on eight occasions, highlighted by a 30-point performance on March 17, 1981. He remains the NBA's career leader in field-goal percentage (with a minimum 2,000 shots made) at 59.9 percent. He averaged 18.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks a game over his ABA and NBA career and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.