Bob Lanier will have his #16 jersey banner re-dedicated tonight when the Bucks host the Pistons. (Getty)

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February 20, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- “The Dobber” was most definitely down, and no one could blame him.

After all, Bob Lanier was about to leave Detroit, one of America’s greatest sports cities, after making his home and carving out a Hall-of-Fame career there.

“I remember getting on the plane crying as I left Detroit,” he said. “It was sad. I was thinking about a life I was comfortable with, and I got to know a lot of people there. I had hitched my horse to a wagon that had seen a lot of bumps in the road.”

On Feb. 4, 1980, the Detroit Pistons traded Lanier, a seven-time National Basketball Association All-Star, to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kent Benson and a first-round draft pick.

Little did Lanier know what an emotional rollercoaster ride he would take from that moment to one that awaited him soon afterward in his new home.

“When I got to Milwaukee, I remember the first game that I played,” Lanier said. “The people gave me such a big ovation. It made the hair stand up on my skin. From day one, they welcomed me and my family with open arms.

“It was a great ride. I smile today and feel it in my heart when I think about it.”

Lanier will likely have a flashback or two to those days Wednesday, Feb. 20, when the Bucks rededicate his retired jersey No. 16 at halftime of their game against none other than the Pistons at the Bradley Center. The jersey rededication is the fourth in the Bucks’ ongoing series in celebration of their 40th anniversary season.

Lanier’s status as an American basketball hero dates back to his college years, when the Buffalo, N.Y. native led tiny St. Bonaventure University into the 1970 NCAA Final Four. Regrettably, he was injured during the Bonnies’ regional final victory and unable to play in their national semifinal loss to Artis Gilmore’s Jacksonville University team.

The Pistons made the three-time Converse All-American the first pick in that summer’s NBA Draft. He averaged 15.6 points and 8.1 rebounds in making the NBA All-Rookie Team, then went on to average close to 23 points and 13 rebounds in Detroit uniform over nine-plus seasons.

Detroit was struggling entering the 1980 All-Star break, and that's when the trade came down. Lanier didn't see it coming, but it didn't completely shock him, either.

“Jack McCloskey had come to Detroit (as general manager), and I think the bottom line was I wasn’t in the picture,” Lanier said. “They were going to revamp the team. I don’t know how they figured it out. We knew something was going on, but I didn’t know what it was.”

When he heard the news that he was headed for Milwaukee, Lanier remembers his first reaction.

“I thought, ‘Man, it’s gonna be awfully cold!,’” he said.

No sooner had Lanier arrived in town that he began to experience Milwaukee’s warmth. It quickly melted away whatever snow and ice happened to be around at the time.

“It was the people I met there,” Lanier said. “I met so many incredibly great people – on the court, on the community side, at the team level … Jim Fitzgerald was the owner at the time, and he was just a phenomenal, phenomenal person; not only smart, but he understood how important it is to be a people person.

“Don Nelson, who was there at the time, was a coach who connected with his team. He made learning fun, and you could understand very easily what he wanted and his expectations. He was very clear on all of those kinds of things.”

Lanier found a great support network just about everywhere he went.

“I think having Wayne Embry there back then was also extremely helpful, not only being a champion, having won a championship with Boston, but as a black man that was someone we could look up to who had played it and was now a key corporate executive,” he said.

Last but not least, Lanier soon realized that he had become an integral piece of a very special puzzle.

“We had a very good team of individuals that had a singular goal,” he said, “and that was to put together the best possible team that they could put together and focus on trying to win a championship.”

During Lanier’s nine-plus years in Detroit, the Pistons averaged 36 wins per season and played 22 playoff games. In the four and a half seasons that followed, Lanier would find himself far busier come springtime than he’d ever been before.

In Lanier's four-plus seasons with the Bucks, he averaged 13.5 points and 5.9 rebounds in 278 games. Milwaukee averaged 53 wins per season during his tenure and won five divisional titles.

Lanier averaged 15.1 points and 7.6 rebounds in 45 playoff games as a Buck and was part of the 1983-84 squad that reached the Eastern Conference Finals.

Lanier joined teammate Sidney Moncrief as a representative in the 1982 All-Star Game and logged eight points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.

Bob amassed 19,248 points in 14 NBA seasons and finished his career with averages of 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds. The Bucks retired his No. 16 jersey on Dec. 4, 1984, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

The team success Lanier experienced in Milwaukee left a far greater impression on him than any of his individual accomplishments, though, and he still thanks his coaches and teammates for that today.

“It was the most dynamic, collective group of talented players that I think a guy could really ask for,” he said. “Marques, Junior, Brian, Sidney, Paul Pressey … so many great players and other ones backing them up.

It was just a great collection of individuals that you could get together with and talk ball. They had great basketball intellects, we came to work every day and worked hard, and we always had each other’s backs. It was a phenomenal experience.

“The only regret I have is that I wish I had been a younger player with those guys – their talent and their basketball intellects around me. Those guys were pretty phenomenal.”

And Lanier had great admiration for how Nelson implemented "those guys."

“Nellie had a strategy that was player-friendly,” he said. “He used his strengths well. He had big-guard-, small-forward-oriented teams. ‘Q.B.’ (Quinn Buckner) wasn’t the greatest skill-level player, but he was a great leader. Everybody followed him. He was a director.

“Then you had Sidney (Moncrief) and Brian (Winters) at the ‘2’ spot, you had Junior (Bridgeman), who could switch between the ‘2’ and the ‘3,’ and Marques (Johnson) to play the ‘3’ and some ‘4.’ The one thing that really hurt us, I think, was at the ‘4’ spot, because after David Meyers left, we never could really find a solid '4.' If we had been able to keep Meyers, I think we really would have solved that problem.”

The Bucks knew they were getting a powerful inside presence in Lanier. Another facet of his game made an indelible impression on Bridgeman, who became one of Lanier’s closest teammates.

“Bob could really shoot the ball,” Bridgeman said. “He won all of the shooting contests we used to have, and that was saying something, because we had some great shooters on those teams.”

Lanier has just one lingering regret when he reviews his 14 years as an NBA player.

“The only sadness I have when I think back on my career is that out of all the great big men who played during my era, I was the only one who didn’t win a ring,” he said. “(Bill) Russell got 12 of them, Wilt (Chamberlain) got his, Willis (Reed) got his, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) got his, (Bill) Walton got his, Nate Thurmond and Wes Unseld got theirs.

“I played during, I think, the greatest big-man era the league has ever known. But I’m the only one in that group that I’m aware of that didn’t win a ring.”

So instead of taking a ring, Lanier gave back. And he has never stopped giving back.

He has worked for the NBA since 1988, spending the past 10 years as special assistant to commissioner David Stern.

He has been a goodwill ambassador for the league, spreading an always inspirational message of hope and education to children and adults all over the globe.

This is nothing new for Lanier; he was extremely active with Athletes For Youth and the Boys and Girls Club dating back to his playing days in Milwaukee. He won the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 1978.

These days, though, his impact has become worldwide. He has not only been heavily involved in outreach programs all over the United States, but was instrumental in establishing the league's Basketball Without Borders initiative.

“The NBA has enabled me to touch more people’s lives than I could have touched on my own,” Lanier said. “Our commissioner gets it. He understands that touching young peoples’ lives will make it possible for us to build a better America.”

Bob Lanier has helped build a better Milwaukee, and Bucks fans will have the opportunity to thank him for that at Wednesday’s tribute.

“Well, obviously it’s a big honor and I’m humbled by it,” he said. “I’m not one that likes a lot of fanfare; I’m not one who likes a lot of recognition stuff, but it’s a nice honor, I think more so, for my family. They’ll be there.”

Hopefully, Bucks fans will show Lanier that many members of his extended family are there for him, too.