Own The Future: A Bucks Story

**asvpxhughuet** · 12-05-2017, 05:39 AM

Re: Own The Future: A Bucks Story

Introduction: 25/1/2052

If you asked me 40 years ago if I ever thought we would be here, after all that has happened, I simply would have told you no. But I guess that is what the last name represented. 50 years ago, my father had barely any money and we had all immigrated from Greece.

“If you want to make it anywhere, this is where it will all happen.” I remember those words and even his tone since the day he said it and well I guess he was right. But my god did it take some time to get here.

If you don’t like basketball you better stop reading now, because I was born into this family that just lives and breathes basketball. This right here, consider it a little birthday present for the most talented brother of mine, Michalis. Not just a star on the court but one of the smartest people I know, and for the last fifteen years all he wants for his birthday is books, but this one has a twist. One I knew he would like because it included him, and he ALWAYS had to be included.

Now about me: my name is Fragiskos Future, but you can call me Frankie, part of the famous Future family. For a family that came from nothing Future was a pretty silly last name, but now it has made it’s point. Nearly in my sixties, me and my five brothers were meant to represent the next generation of Future’s.

There was Raymond Jr., Nikolaos, Hakeem, Michalis, Andreas and myself. Raymond had a twin but sadly she passed away months before I was born and her name was Sofia. So let me give you a run down on my brothers.

Raymond Jr. (or we liked to call him Ray J), was the first born of my basketball influenced parents Raymond Future Sr. and Sofia Kligkopoulou-Future, but we will get to them in a minute. Although the oldest, he was the outcast. Ray J moved back to Greece to play for Filathlitikos before returning home to play college ball for UCLA, and he went undrafted, which was probably for the best.

Second born was Niko, who followed Ray J around since he was born. Feeling betrayed that he moved to Greece, Niko has never spoken to him since. He stayed in the US to play high school and college ball and by the time he had finished his freshman season for UK he was 6’10. I felt terrible for him and he then moved to Greece to play.

I was third born, and mum and dad were telling everyone I would be an NBA star one day. That never happened. I played college ball at Kansas with Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, who I am still close friends with to this day. I was promised to be taken by the Bucks at pick two in the draft that year but with my luck I injured myself in what would be the teams’ last game for the season, and it was that bad that doctors said I would never be able to play again and that I was lucky to walk. Eventually, I went back to coach at my old high school until dad called me up for my gig some 35 years ago.

Then there was Hakeem, who mum and dad insisted we call Panagiotis, but *uck that Hakeem is way better. Keem went to Dominican High before moving onto Missouri U, trying to team up with Michael Porter Jr. because he knew he would get talked about more with the #1 prospect right next to him. He was a scary 7-footer, but the most down to earth person I knew, and where he ended up, well you will have to wait and see.

The last two of my brothers was Michalis and Andreas. When I got the call up by dad they were both only young in their teens, but Michalis was the best basketballer I had ever seen, and Andreas was a distant second. There is a while before we get to their stories, but it is worth the wait.

My mum and dad were both Greek basketball legends, mum played in the Olympics for Greece and dad was their assistant coach, I guess that’s how they met. I’m not entirely sure how we had no money so don’t ask me.

Things got worse for us as we all were hard luck stories and Hakeem was next. Mum and dad couldn’t afford his college fee so they thought it was all over for us and were even considering moving back to Greece. Then, out of the blue, grandpa died. Being the only child he had, dad got all his fortune, and I’m telling you it was a damn lot! Dad and grandpa hadn’t spoke since my sister passed and although I don’t think it was good, it was the change in luck we needed.

At the time we lived in Milwaukee, the Bucks were my favourite team, and mum knew Veronica Antetokounmpo well. The Bucks were in strife, the owners of the team cancelled their new stadium bid and dad was sick of seeing his hometown team barely win, so he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. 1.1 billion dollars for mum and him to be the head of the ownership group, and you know damn well they took it. He knew it was a good investment as this team was the future.

My dad was then the owner of an NBA team, the Milwaukee Bucks and his first act of business was to fire nearly the whole front office. Only the CFO, Trainer, Scout Department and Jason Kidd didn’t get the sack. Here’s the exciting part that no one saw coming, he offered three of his children roles in the front office.

I got the Assistant Coach spot, Niko became Assistant GM and after dad reportedly tried to go forward as GM the ownership group and Jason Kidd made it known they didn’t want it to happen, so instead he hired his first son, Ray J.

Niko and I were fuming, and I swear that Niko would have knocked out dad if I wasn’t there. The fact the child who ditched us got the main position showed everyone who the favourite was.

Getting the Assistant Coach spot was like a dream come true as I was officially part of the NBA. With mum being friends with Giannis’ mum he was the first person I spoke to in the club and with the two of us being the same size we got along very well.

All three of us Future’s got one-year contracts with the Bucks. “If you all don’t perform you will be fired, don’t think you get any special advantages because you are my sons”, dad told us. I was getting paid over $800K for the season as Ray J was getting just over a mil and Niko was on a $491K contract.

Of the three of us, Niko was the one who was most disappointed, and the one who got the worst luck. “I’m getting the least money and a sh*tty role”, complained Niko. “I’ll prove him wrong and he will regret even bringing that *itch back from Greece.”

Before my season even started, we made a blockbuster trade, to add on to the already huge offseason that had just passed us.

Eric Bledsoe Bucks Trade.jpg

We got rid of Greg Monroe, who honestly I didn’t like and we didn’t need with Thon, and our two draft picks for the upcoming draft, but both were very protected. In return we got the star point guard we needed in Eric Bledsoe who dad was very high on.

This trade got us a point guard to start and some starting minutes for Thon as well as extra minutes for John Henson and a few of the deep bench guys.

“He reminds me of myself from my younger days”, dad told me. “We would be stupid not to start him next to Giannis.”

Dad’s only regret was trading away our next first-rounder in a draft that had his best son to date, but with the pick only going #11-16 I don’t think he really minded.

The team was looking up, and higher than ever before and critics were claiming this was our year to take advantage and maybe an ECF appearance would be there for the taking. We were the Future family, but also the future of the Bucks.

Milwaukee’s fans have had a hard enough time in the recent years, and we were not going to waste the opportunity to take over the NBA. We had youth, talent and most importantly we were determined to take the Bucks to their first finals since 1974.

It was up to the Future’s to make the future for the team and pave the way.

But it was going to be a lot challenging than we first thought.

**trekfan** · 12-05-2017, 10:51 AM

Re: Own The Future: A Bucks Story

A fun play on name and title, consider me a follower. I like the complicated family dynamics here -- very cool to see the relationships and rivalries teased out in the initial post. A whole family running the franchise, part of its DNA ... very much like the Buss family and the Lakers; that didn't end so well for a few of them, but perhaps the Future's will have better luck.

**asvpxhughuet** · 12-05-2017, 09:08 PM

Re: Own The Future: A Bucks Story

Originally posted by trekfan

A fun play on name and title, consider me a follower. I like the complicated family dynamics here -- very cool to see the relationships and rivalries teased out in the initial post. A whole family running the franchise, part of its DNA ... very much like the Buss family and the Lakers; that didn't end so well for a few of them, but perhaps the Future's will have better luck.

Thanks for the lovely comment trek. I didn't want to make it too complicated but I also wanted all of the family involved stuff to start off in the first post. The Future's have had enough bad luck, let's just hope they don't end up like the Buss'!!

First game will be up soon!

**asvpxhughuet** · 12-06-2017, 12:03 AM

Re: Own The Future: A Bucks Story

Own The Future Banner.png

Chapter 1: 18/10/17

The whole NBA dynamic was so much different from Moss Point. Not only were these players much bigger, they were so much more focused. I remember training camp vividly, standing by Kidd’s side running plays and watching the offense and defense.

The hardest part of the camp, trying to figure out our starting five. We knew Giannis, EB (Eric Bledsoe) and Khris would all start but it was a dog fight for the other two sports between Snell, Pres (Malcolm Brogdon), Thon, J-Hook (John Henson) and our new rook D.J Wilson.

Eventually it was clear that no one could play the C better than Thon and Brogdon would get another starting line-up chance next to EB. But training camp wasn’t just for everyone to get to know their new teammates, it was about how we were going to play for the next season.

Some huge problems happened in the US that offseason, and there was the NBA’s biggest problem: injuries. We had lost our starting PF Jabari Parker to an injury in the offseason, and Mirza Teletovic was coming back soon, but that was nothing to the rest of the NBA.

You had stars like Kawhi still out, poor Gordon Hayward missed out for the majority of his first season with Boston and IT, fresh off his trade from the C’s to the Cavs was still out for at least three months.

All the big names had long injuries, and then there was the starters who missed the start of the season. Rose, Beverley, Gallo, Teodosic, Conley, Gobert, D-Loading and Aminu were only a few to name.

The team united for the first game against the Celtics, who without Hayward lost their first game of the season against LeBron and the Cavs. Dad, JK (Jason Kidd) and I made sure the team was like a family, just like we were. But they weren’t only united for that. Giannis, sadly lost his father at 54 at the end of September, and he had a fire in his heart to make everyone proud and team were like a family sticking by Giannis’ side through it all. The poor kid was carrying this team and he just lost his dad, all at 22.

We weren’t in our home arena, but that didn’t mean we were going to hand away the W. But one of the best memories to date, sitting on that bench next to JK.

Something I eventually got used to, but the nerves were kicking in before the game. Part of me just wanted to jump on the court and join in but the rest of me was so thankful I was here.

After the anthem I remember everyone giving Giannis a hug, god it must have been hard for him. The Boston crowd even started chanting, showing there was all love in NBA and we would all come together after a tragedy.

I can clearly remember reading all the *hit talk that off-season about not only me and my brothers, but the whole team too. “Lucky sons given dream jobs” and “The future is down for the Bucks and Future family”. I guess we let it get to us, but we weren’t here for no reason, and we would show them why.

And so the game began.

But not the way we wanted. Within five seconds Kyrie rained a deep three and the next possession Thon lost the ball. Talk about a bad start. Bledsoe couldn’t defend Kyrie, Thon was getting schooled by Al Horford and our only mismatch was poor rookie Jayson Tatum playing on Giannis.

Giannis was quiet early but out of nowhere he slammed down a huge dunk over Al Horford, and did he get going from there onwards.

But all of a sudden we just took off, Thon was on fire on both ends, Giannis was doing what he does best and Brogdon splashed a huge three from DEEP to just get us to take off. The game was very fast paced, but so back and forth. Everything we did, they had an answer, and everyone time we had a marginal lead they would pull some good plays outta their *ss to dig back into it.

The end of the first saw us with a nine point lead, thanks to the hard work by our second unit to pull away in the last few minutes. We were playing in the paint where Boston was all about their jumpers and Thon was killing it with 10 points already and two blocks.

The second started off and our second unit, headed by J-Hook, were just giving it to them, taking over the game. DJ scored twice in quick succession so the Celtics called a timeout just to get some momentum back, but it didn’t work. Even their starters couldn’t slow us down and when we subbed out starters back in it was game over, and another huge Giannis dunk cemented that. The dunk was that bad the C’s needed another time out, but I knew we couldn’t get too excited.

In telling them not to get over their heads, I think from that time out we didn’t miss a shot. Everyone was dropping from Giannis to Thon to Khris to even Brogdon and we were making the Celtics look like boys. My favourite part of the second, the view on this three from EB in Kyrie’s face.

But you know Kyrie bit back.

At the half we were up by 20, a big surprise to everyone, but we were showing we weren’t *ucking around.

Everyone thought the C’s would fix up their defense and match us in the second half, we were cautious of what was to come, but the only thing we were hit with was just Kyrie Irving. He carried the team the whole third quarter, and if it wasn’t for him we would have been up by 40 at the end of the 3rd.

I head Kevin Harlan say “it’s over” after this shot, and well it was something I was certainly going to get used to. The EB-Freak combo we called it, and this one had The Garden in silence.

The fourth, was the exact same as the other three quarters. We dominated and the fourth was all for Giannis and he absolutely gave them hell. We made sure every team in the L knew we weren’t scared of them.

The best part of our win, the news the next day.

The headline?

“The Future is now for the Bucks.”

**milldaddy35** · 12-06-2017, 09:33 AM

Re: Own The Future: A Bucks Story

Good luck with this...I will be following along. Nice start to it.

Own The Future: A Bucks Story

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