The champion is finally crowned. After 50 long years, the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA championship after trumping the upstart Phoenix Suns in Game 6, with the victors exemplifying how a small market team, like the Indiana Pacers among many others, can win a title.
Led by a legendary 50-point outing from Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee was able to seal the deal despite facing an early 0-2 deficit to Chris Paul and Devin Booker-led Phoenix. Along with series-long heroics from Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and the Bucks’ ensemble of veteran role players, the team managed to become the first small market franchise to win the chip since 2016.
The Indiana Pacers can learn a lot from the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship blueprint
The middling Indiana Pacers, who remain as the lone team from their division without a title to boot, can get some takeaways from Milwaukee’s from-scratch winning blueprint which culminated in the franchise’s second NBA title, especially with an opportunity to re-establish a new culture on sight in the Circle City.
Extracting from Milwaukee’s maneuvers through the year which eventually proved its worth with a championship, here are three lessons that the Pacers as a franchise can learn from the 2021 NBA Champions.