Sidney Moncrief was the front man for a Bucks team that won 50 games for seven consecutive seasons and appeared in the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons (1979-89). (Getty)

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January 18, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- A long time ago, someone gave Sidney Moncrief the nickname "Sid the Squid."

The moniker was fitting enough, not only for the rhyming element, but because when Moncrief played defense, it often seemed like he had eight arms rather than two.

Moncrief's biography lists another nickname, and it is a far more telling one: "Sir Sidney."

Anyone who followed the Milwaukee Bucks during the 1980s will remember Moncrief as a tenacious defender who won the National Basketball Assocaition's Defensive Player of the Year Award the first two years it was distributed. He made the NBA's All-Defensive First Team Four Years in a row.

He was not simply a defensive specialist, though. The former University of Arkansas All-American scored 11,594 points as a Buck, which rank him third in the team's 40-year history behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Glenn Robinson. He was a five-time NBA All-Star, and if he is not enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame someday soon, there ought to be a serious investigation.

Few players in National Basketball Association history have possessed Moncrief's repertoire. He was not only a defensive terror, but a 6-foot-4-inch, 181-pound natural athlete who could post up, slash, shoot from the perimeter, pass and rebound. He played through serious pain during many of the 695 games in which he wore a Bucks uniform. That number still stands 2nd in team history (to Junior Bridgeman's 711) almost 20 years since Moncrief's last game.

Beyond all of that, though, the nickname "Sir Sidney" fits Moncrief even better than his No. 4 jersey, which the Bucks retired on Jan. 6, 1990. They will rededicate Moncrief's retired jersey and honor him at halftime of their Saturday, Jan. 19 game against the Golden State Warriors, who now employ Moncrief as their shooting coach.

Yes, "Sir Sidney" fits Moncrief to a "T" because he has always carried himself with a classy, elegant nobility -- one that he has constantly robed in humility.

Golden State Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson, who named Moncrief to his staff last fall and coached him for eight of his 10 seasons in Milwaukee, can attest to this as well as anyone.

Nelson considers Moncrief not only one of the best players he has coached in his 29 years of roaming NBA sidelines, but one of the finest individuals he has ever met.

"He was such a great player," Nelson said. "What I remember about him is he was ready to play every night. He obviously had a bad knee, but he found a way to put that out of his mind and still be an All-Star player ... and one of the greatest Bucks ever to play.

"And he is top-notch every which way. He's never had any negatives to his character."

Nelson, interviewed for this story as he prepared his Warriors for their visit to Milwaukee, chuckled a bit when reminded how Moncrief became a Milwaukee Buck.

The Bucks held the fourth selection in the 1979 NBA Draft, and the Detroit Pistons had the fifth. The Pistons' majority owner, Bill Davidson, coveted homestate star Greg Kelser of Michigan State University, so much so that the Pistons were willing to pay Milwaukee to flip-flop draft positions.

"The Pistons wanted Kelser," Nelson recalled. "We were just a little bit in the red that year, and Jim Fitzgerald (the Bucks' owner) wanted to be in the black.

"We wanted Moncrief anyway, so I convinced the Pistons that we were going to take Kelser. They came back, of course, with an offer to flip-flop picks. So I let them 'talk me into' flip-flopping picks for $50,000."

Nelson has swung some crafty deals in his time, but even he has to admit, "That was a good one."

In the years that followed, Moncrief helped the Milwaukee Bucks win 523 games, seven division championships and make playoff appearances in 10 consecutive seasons. You could search the NBA Encyclopedia for hours and not find enough players who can match those accomplishments to comprise a team.

At the same time, the man on the opposite end of the trade, on the other side of Lake Michigan, credits the deal with launching him into the Hall of Fame.

Dick Vitale wound up getting fired as the Pistons' coach and general manager shortly thereafter, but made a career change and was inducted into the Hall last year for the great contributions he has made to the game as an announcer.

Moncrief remembers his arrival in Milwaukee well.

"I remember other NBA teams like the Lakers, Knicks and Bulls that I could have gone to," he said. "I knew very little about Milwaukee at the time.

"I will never forget the people here. The city itself was so different than what I was accustomed to, being a Southern guy. But I got such a warm reception when I came here that it became a perfect fit for me."

Moncrief had learned his earliest life lessons growing up in rural Little Rock, Ark. Raised by his mother, Bernice Perkins, after his parents divorced with he was 5 years old, he developed strong values working around his home, in the family garden and through his membership in the Boy Scouts.

"I discovered pretty early that I would like it here," Moncrief said. "It was just a really good fit for me and my personality. In Milwaukee and Wisconsin, people work hard, they believe in doing everything to the best of their ability, and they have a lot of pride. It fit my personality very well."

Moncrief knows his upbringing had a great deal to do with his development into the man he became. But he also considers himself fortunate that he had some ideal role models to break him in as an NBA player here.

"Those things are the core of who I am, but still, when you have the people around you demonstrate it, they give you a bar, a standard, that you try to live up to," he said. "It made it a lot easier.

"When you get into the NBA, things can flip and turn and personalities can change. You can start thinking that you're more than you really are. But I was real fortunate to play with players who were well-grounded and really solid people."

He remains grateful to those people today.

"Junior Bridgeman was always a role model," he said. "Junior and Harvey Catchings were the two guys that I really gravitated to the most, and we spent the most time together.

"Junior taught me how to be a pro, with the way he lived his life, his workout habits and how he interacted with people. His overall spirit had a great influence on me and my career."

Moncrief is quick to point out that he had many other great teammates during his decade in Milwaukee.

"Oh, we had some tremendous players -- Junior Bridgeman, Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, Dave Meyers, Quinn Buckner. You know I could just keep going, because the list is endless ... Terry Cummings, Paul Pressey, Ricky Pierce, Paul Mokeski, Jack Sikma ... and a guy named Krystkowiak (yes, Larry, the Bucks' current head coach).

"Sometimes I look at old photographs and think, 'My God, those were some really nice teams we had in Milwaukee. They were very balanced.' Now if you have one good big guy on your roster, you're doing pretty well. But inside guys back then, we'd have three or more really good 7-foot, 6-11 or 6-10 guys who were great inside players."

"And we had some really good people on those teams, too."

Nelson agrees.

"Sidney was on some of the best teams ever to play in Milwaukee," Nelson said. "They won the title with Kareem and Oscar, but that was sort of a short-term deal. We had good teams there for many, many years. Unfortunately, there were such powerhouses in the East, in Philadelphia and Boston, that we never got the chance to play in a title game. But we were as good as anybody.

"Those guys all played to win, and a lot of them had the intellectual part of the game, too. But Sidney is special. There's no question about it."

Moncrief and his colleagues accomplished great things during the 1980s, and the banners hanging from the Bradley Center rafters recognize that. But the bond they enjoyed with Milwaukee went well beyond the basketball court.

When Moncrief was asked about his favorite memories of Milwaukee, he indicated as much.

"For some reason, the things that come to mind are not always necessarily the games themselves," he said. "The old University School gymnasium where we used to practice ... breakfast at Heinemann's ... lunch at a number of different places ... the people ... the workout facilities ... the airports ... the walk from the MECCA to the McDonald's Restaurant across the street ..."

Moncrief always looked forward to that walk.

"Today, most NBA guys park underground by their arenas," he said. "But back when we played at the MECCA, we parked across the street by the McDonald's. We'd play the ballgame and then walk from the MECCA to the parking lot. We'd encounter a lot of fans, and those were such special times, because they helped you build a rapport and relationships with the fans."

Moncrief enjoyed being out and about in Milwaukee, whether he was visiting with fans downtown or making appearances at local basketball camps and other team functions.

"That just comes naturally for me as a person," he said. "I'm easygoing as a person, with not a lot of pretenses in what I stand for. That was fun and enjoyable for me, so it came very naturally for me.

"And the fans made it easy. They were not obnoxious or overbearing. It makes it easier when you have fans who embrace you and still respect your space and your privacy."

Moncrief and his teammates could always count on Bucks fans filling MECCA to the max. And they rarely disappointed them.

"The environment in the MECCA was special," Moncrief said. "I think it was the personalities, too. We had a high level of talent, and there were a lot of entertaining games. We won 50 games for a number of seasons (seven) in a row.

"I take a lot of pride that we were in the playoffs every year that I was there. We were very consistent. Had it not been for Boston and Philadelphia, which were very good teams, we might have brought the championship back to Milwaukee."

Moncrief is grateful, too, for Don Nelson, the man who was chiefly responsible for bringing him to Milwaukee, for giving him an assistant coaching opportunity and for hiring him again at Golden State.

"I had a very good basketball base, having played for Eddie Sutton at Arkansas," Moncrief said. "So I came to the Bucks fundamentally in very good shape. But 'Nellie' is the one who really turned me into a superstar basketball player, because he looked at my skill level and talent and placed me in a position in a system that had the flexibility to take advantage of matchups. I think had I gone anywhere else -- and this is not being modest -- I don't think I would have enjoyed the same level of success that I did in Milwaukee."

"He had a good offense in which he would post guards, and he let us play the transition game. He certainly coached hard, but he tried not to over-coach. He let players determine the results of the game."

Now Moncrief does the same thing.

"I've always been influenced by my coaches, from my junior high school coach, Johnny Greenwood; to my high school coach, Oliver Elder; to my college coach, Eddie Sutton; and then to Don Nelson and Del Harris in the NBA," Moncrief said. "I think I was always a student of the game who paid attention to what was going on out on the court. I had a good feel for the game itself and I had decent leadership qualities.

"So when a coaching opportunity became available and the time was right, I decided to give it a shot. And it's something I really enjoy. I enjoy teaching, I enjoy coaching and being around the game of basketball."

The student of the game has become a teacher of the game as well.

"Shooting is something I've studied," Moncrief said. "I've had a basketball training company, so shooting was something I've studied quite a bit and feel comfortable teaching.

"I'm not trying to reconstruct players' shots right now. You do that in the summertime. I'm just trying to build confidence more than anything else. I also find small things that don't interfere with their confidence level, but I certainly don't get in and try to change hand position and elbow position. I just try to focus on things that can help the players become better shooters."

Moncrief expects his jersey rededication to provide an even greater thrill than his original jersey retirement 18 years ago.

"The jersey retirement was very nice," he said. "But the best thing about this ceremony is you appreciate it more now than you did then.

"When I first had my jersey retired the first time, it was right after I retired. Everything happened so quickly, and there was so much going on. You didn't really understand the magnitude of what was happening. But now that you're not playing anymore, you go into all of these arenas and see the number of jerseys that are retired throughout the NBA over the last 40 years and you realize the significance of having your jersey retired. Hundreds of guys have worn that jersey, so it's more of a treat now than it was 20 years ago."

Though his statistics alone warrant every bit of acclaim a basketball player could possibly receive, Moncrief realizes that he is being honored this weekend for much more than that, and that prospect humbles him deeply.

"Milwaukee is a very close-knit community, and they really want everything to transcend stats and the game itself there," he said. "What you've done in the community and to make the team and the franchise better comes into play.

"So I'm very honored to be placed beside a lot of the great players who have worn the Milwaukee Bucks uniform."

And the Bucks will always be honored to include him there.