Friday, June 9, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.
Bruce Mertz got a kick out of hearing that two NBA teams, Dallas and Miami, will be making their first appearances in a championship series against each other.
The last time that happened, the Milwaukee Bucks swept four games from the Baltimore Bullets to cap the 1970-71 season.
Mertz, 73, was one of a half-dozen businessmen who started the expansion Bucks in 1968. Three seasons later they were world champions, the quickest any major sports team has won a title.
"We had a parade down Wisconsin Avenue," he said. "It was a great thing for the city."
Born and raised in Chicago, Mertz splits his time between Las Vegas, where he lives at Turnberry Place, and the Windy City. He has owned the same two Bulls season tickets since the franchise started in 1966.
He also remembers watching George Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Pollard and Slater Martin, the foundation of the Minneapolis Lakers' championship teams in the early 1950s.
Mertz sat down with the Sun inside the Stirling Club at Turnberry to discuss the old Bucks, a fortunate coin flip and the NBA.
What did it cost to start the Bucks?
About $2 million.
Who was the ringleader of the ownership group?
Wesley Pavalon. He's from Chicago, and he was involved in a few businesses in Milwaukee.
Why Milwaukee?
It's a good sports city. They had the Hawks, but they moved to St. Louis (after the 1954-55 season). Only the arena was small. (The Mecca) only had 10,746 seats.
Tell me about the coin flip. Milwaukee finished 27-55 in 1968-69 and Phoenix ended 16-66. Phoenix called "heads" in the flip for the first draft pick, and it landed "tails"?
It was a fun coin flip. We won the rights to the first pick, which we used for Lew Alcindor. Unbelievable.
Where's that coin today?
At some dinner about 15 years ago, it was presented to Wes.
Is it true that the Harlem Globetrotters offered Alcindor $1 million to play for them after his UCLA career?
Yes, but his relationship with Wes grew, and he decided to come to Milwaukee and play.
Do you remember when you first saw Alcindor play as a Buck?
After we acquired him, we couldn't practice in Milwaukee. All the gyms were taken. So we had to go to Rockford, Ill., to practice. He got the ball, dribbled down the court and made a slam dunk. A friend asked me, "What do you think?" I said, "We're not paying him enough."
The Bucks finished 56-26 in 1969-70, Alcindor's first season. Not a bad turnaround.
And then we got Oscar Robertson in the twilight of his career, which helped us win the title (in 1970-71). It was like a dream to win it all in that short of time.
On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won it all, Alcindor adopted the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Eventually, he asked to be traded because Milwaukee didn't fit his cultural needs.
My reaction was, "I understand." He was a very intelligent guy, a silent kind of guy. Very classy. So were his parents when they visited. He was very nice to me the few times we talked. He just became disenchanted with Milwaukee.
I still feel he was the greatest center of all time, and that includes Shaq (Shaquille O'Neal) and (Bill) Russell.
Upon trading him after the '74-75 season, your group became disenchanted with owning an NBA team, right?
We wanted to get a bigger place to play in, and Milwaukee wouldn't do it for us. And Kareem had left.
In '77, the group sold the team to Jim Fitzgerald.
I do remember he offered us stock and cash for the team. He was in cable television. If we had chosen the stock, we would have been really wealthy.
Your thoughts on today's pro game?
The players are more dynamic athletes. That Dirk Nowitzki, he can play guard the way he dribbles the ball. I think they're the best athletes in the world.
Who will win it, Dallas or Miami?
I think Miami will beat (the Mavericks) in six games.
And what about Las Vegas as an NBA market?
I think the city will get a basketball team here, within two years. I think that'll happen. How can Charlotte get a team and not Las Vegas? I think the people would support it and it would be a great thing.
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