Before joining the Miami Heat, PJ Tucker was an indispensable part of the Milwaukee Bucks' 2021 championship run. But there's a reason he didn't come back to Wisconsin right after.
In a recent interview with Marc Spears of Andscape (formerly The Undefeated), Tucker admitted that he felt disrespected by the Bucks organization.
Via Andscape:
Even as a vet being around, it’s like, ‘All right, you f—— replaced me. Cool.’ You figure it out and that’s just what I had to do. And for me, it wasn’t even about money. It was more about respect because they basically told me to go find an offer and they would match it. After hearing that for me, I’m not coming back even if I had to take less money. To me, that was disrespectful. So, as soon as they said that, I told my agent Andre [Buck], basically, ‘We are moving on, whatever we get out of that, that’s what we’re doing.’
To him, it hurt even more because he had felt like he found a home in Milwaukee. His blue-collar style of basketball had turned him into a beloved figure to Bucks fans everywhere. He wanted nothing more than to stay, even comparing his fealty to Andre Iguodala returning to the Golden State Warriors. Instead, he finds himself on the opposite end of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket with the Heat.
But at the end of the day, the NBA is a business. It can be cruel and cold at times, which PJ Tucker is well aware of.
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