Earlier this week, news rocked the NBA world that the Milwaukee Bucks had traded star Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. Antetokounmpo played 12 seasons in Milwaukee, winning two MVPs and one NBA title. He helped to turn the Bucks from a bottom feeder into must-see TV, but nothing lasts forever, and in the end even an innocent golf simulator played a role in the Bucks’ dismantling.
In a fantastic look at the decline of the Bucks by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Owczarski this week, Owczarski wrote about how the arrival of veteran NBA coach Doc Rivers in January 2024 upended the team’s chemistry. This included misspelled banners in the locker room, favoritism for star players and the piece de resistance: A $90,000 golf simulator Rivers had installed for himself in what was formerly a communal space for the Bucks players and staff.
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Obviously, a golf simulator on its own does not tear apart a stable dynasty, but Rivers reportedly reassigned or fired many staff members after his arrival, brought in lightning-rod Patrick Beverly, who already had standing feud with star Damian Lillard, and told the team’s veterans that everything they had been doing up to that point had been wrong. A personal golf simulator was just the tipping point.
Here at Golf Digest, we’re obviously pro-simulator. If there’s any way to squeeze in more golf, especially at the office, it’s fine with us. But this is story is proof, however small, that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
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