In 2009, the Milwaukee Bucks selected point guard Brandon Jennings with the 10th overall pick in the NBA Draft. As many Bucks fans will remember, Jennings became the youngest player in NBA history to score 55 points in a game early in the season, a year which turned out to be yet another disappointment for the franchise during that time.
But Jennings was far from the problem with the team. In his first four seasons with Milwaukee, Jennings averaged 17.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.
As fans will also recall, Jennings was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Khris Middleton, who is now the Bucks’ all-time leader in three-point shots made.
Jennings dealt with a plethora of injuring throughout his NBA career, including a torn Achilles that altered the course of his future. After stints with the Pistons, Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, and Washington Wizards, Jennings finished his career where it began with Milwaukee in 2017-18.
Former Milwaukee Bucks Star Brandon Jennings Expresses Regret for Not Signing an Extension
Speaking on the “All the Smoke” podcast, which is hosted by former NBA stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Jennings revealed that, if he had known what was going on, he may not have been traded.
“Man you know what’s crazy about me getting traded that year is I should’ve signed a deal [an extension offer] with Milwaukee that summer,” Jennings said. “I didn’t decline it, I didn’t know. So [my representatives were] like, ‘Ah, we should go for the max,’ and they offered me [a four-year, $40 million extension] and they turned it down. Well, we talked about it, but I felt like it was more like, outside forces, like my mother. People felt like I was a max. But then at that time, you gotta think — nobody got the max. Everybody was getting 40… So that’s why I got traded.”
As one can see from Jennings’ comments, he did not know what the Bucks were offering him. His agents declined the four-year $40 million extension, looking instead for a max extension.
The Bucks traded Jennings for Middleton after that.
The former Bucks point guard made a grand total of $40 million in his nine-year career.
Former Milwaukee Bucks Point Guard Brandon Jennings Discusses His Career-Altering Injury
Jennings, of course, is well-known in Milwaukee for coining the phrase “Bucks in Six.” That motto was resurrected during the Bucks’ run to the NBA Finals in 2021, a series that they won in six games after being down 2-0.
Due to his impact on the team’s culture, Jennings is frequently invited back for various functions and rode with the current players in the Championship parade.
For Jennings, it was his torn Achilles in 2015 that helped him realize that he needed to get his life outside of basketball under control so that he could have a future after his career ended.
“But for me with the Achilles, that’s when I lost my passion for the game, because that’s when I started finding out a lot about other things outside of basketball that I needed to get in control of. I’m sure we’ve all been there,” Jennings said. “We’re making all this money, we don’t really know what’s going on. So you know, laying up in the bed, just hearing how people feel. Seeing Reggie Jackson get $80 million from Detroit, you just get down.
“I feel like that’s why I didn’t get the $80 million and I didn’t become an All-Star, because I needed to get things in control [in] my life first.
“That’s why I’m still here.”
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