Milwaukee — Thousands of fans lined the streets of Milwaukee Thursday to catch a glimpse of their beloved Bucks in a parade to celebrate the city's first NBA championship in half a century.
Six police officers on horseback stopped past enthusiastic fans at the head of a procession, which included a hook-and-ladder fire truck, sometimes honking its horns, and open-air buses and bucks carrying stars. The flatbed trucks to go, including final MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jure. Holiday, and the trophy he won Tuesday night with a Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Fans can be heard chanting "Bucks in 6," a strange but sweet rallying cry with roots in a former Bucks player's fruitless prediction in 2013 that the team would take down the top seed of the playoffs at the time.
Antetokounmpo holds her son, 1-year-old Liam, on top of a bus as fans chanted "MVP!" Later, he shoots a basketball into the crowd.
"Milwaukee, we did it, baby! We did it!" Antetokounmpo told an enthusiastic crowd in the Deer District, the area outside the Bucks Fisher Forum. "This is our city, this is our city. Man, we did it! Incredible."
Neil and Rachna Bhatia, both 34 and from suburban Waukesha, brought 1-month-old son Zain to the Deer district, saying they wanted to give Zain an early taste of being a Bucks fan.
Neil Bhatia called winning the title "surreal".
"It unites the city and puts the city on the global stage," he said. "It's great for the city and the state. It's bringing everyone together to celebrate something that hasn't happened in 50 years."
Damon Elzi, a longtime Bucks fan and Milwaukee native, said: "In my neighborhood, you could hear everyone screaming on your porch. Black, white, Asian. In a city like Milwaukee, it's huge. "
Milwaukee has long been one of the most isolated cities in America. In 2016, team president Peter Feigin called it "the most different, racist place" he had ever experienced, a comment he later softened. As the Bucks head to a championship this year, some were amused by the diversity of the huge crowds that gathered in the Deer District to watch the Bucks on big TV screens.
The team's rise has moved a Midwestern city away from the more cosmopolitan locations of the NBA such as Los Angeles, Boston or Miami—cities that have traditionally found it easier to attract the game's top players. One reason fans embrace Antetokounmpo is his loyalty to the team that drafted him eight years ago at the age of 18.
Police estimated that 100,000 people jammed Deer District for Tuesday night's Game 6. Although the coronavirus pandemic has subsided compared to a year ago, the level of cases in both Wisconsin and Milwaukee counties is still high by state, with daily new cases. The county has nearly tripled in the past two weeks to 80 per day.
City health officials noted Thursday that announcements at the parade urged unvaccinated people to wear masks. Few were visible among fans on the parade route or outside the arena. The city's health department said its contact tracing team would closely monitor the incident.
Julie Willems Van Dijk, deputy secretary of the state's Department of Health Services, predicted that two large gatherings would lead to more COVID-19 cases.
"We are worried," she said. “We know that people wanted to cheer and celebrate, but we know that half the state is fully vaccinated and half the state is not, and I think the same is true for the people in the Deer district and region. And I haven't seen half the masked crowd."