The Milwaukee Bucks were one of the NBA’s biggest surprises last season. After finishing with the league’s worst record in 2013-14 (15-67), the Bucks improved to 41-41 a season ago and made the playoffs as the East’s No. 6 seed. They also shocked the NBA world over the summer when they landed one of the league’s top free agents, former Pistons forward/center Greg Monroe.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst wrote an excellent piece this week detailing Milwaukee’s shockingly successful recruitment of Monroe. The entire thing is worth reading, of course, but we couldn’t help but notice this particularly intriguing tidbit:
"“That meeting is something I will never forget,” Monroe said. “They made a great presentation to me.”The Bucks showed off drawings of the arena. They talked about their coming practice facility. They showed off their new uniforms. They had a video made with comedian Marlon Wayans for the moment.“He was cracking jokes about why I should come to Milwaukee and talking about the new arena,” Monroe said about the video. “He had some stuff on Jason Kidd and the owners, there were a lot of laughs.”"
Teams soliciting the help of celebrities in their free agency pitches isn’t anything new (the Rockets used Houston native Jim Parsons to try and woo Dwight Howard, for example), but it’s pretty random that Marlon Wayans was a selling point for Monroe. Wayans has no discernible ties to Milwaukee (he’s a New York native), but, hey, it worked!
Surely the prospect of being paid big money to join one of the league’s more exciting young teams was among the primary selling points for Monroe. Max deal, new arena, up-and-coming team, new, driven ownership, sweet uniforms, state-of-the-art practice facility, excellent coaching staff…and Marlon Wayans!
That said, if Monroe can eventually help the Bucks to a title during his time in Milwaukee, hopefully Marlon Wayans will get a ring, too.