Uproxx- Milwaukee Bucks president Peter Feigin is an ambitious sort, like many venture capitalists. He wants to make the Bucks into “the most successful and respected sports entertainment company in the world,” and you can’t have that sort of goal for an NBA team in Wisconsin without some real gumption. And no matter what you think of that mission statement, the man has stones — the stones to stand before the Madison Rotary Club and say this about the Bucks’ hometown of Milwaukee:
“Very bluntly, Milwaukee is the most segregated, racist place I’ve ever experienced in my life. It just is a place that is antiquated. It is in desperate need of repair and has [been] for a long, long time.” You know what they say, the truth hurts. And when that truth is that you run a professional basketball team in a region of the United States that still feels slighted by the abolition of slavery what's undoubtedly going to be hurt is your playoff chances. I'm not saying it's wrong of Peter Feigin to be open and honest about a very real problem facing the city he calls home. I'm just saying that it's not exactly the best free agency pitch I have ever heard. Pretty hard to build a franchise from the ground up when the foundation separates the black and white sides of town. I imagine that Jason Kidd woke up, saw this quote, chugged some whiskey, took a few spins around the block, popped a handful of prescription pills, crawled right back into bed, and pulled the pillow over his head. Better hope there's some Michael Jordan/Martin Luther King hybrid that slips to them in next year's draft, because I can't imagine too many of Colin Kaepernick's cronies are signing on to peacefully protest in front of a crowd that thinks the only kneeling they should be doing is in the back of the bus. As if Wisconsin wasn't already a hard enough sell to prospective players without a segregation problem. Now it's "Come play for the Bucks, as long as you don't cross over that imaginary border over there you and your family should be plenty safe!" Might want to tweak that marketing campaign before next July.
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