Not Your Ordinary Blacklist
Not all assassins are paid to kill, some do it for the love of the game.
Have you ever seen the show “The Blacklist?” If you have, then you already understand the reference I’m making between “Raymond Reddington” and Michael Redd.
See, Michael Redd wasn’t your typical assassin. He was a left-handed bucket from Columbus, Ohio in which current Bucks star Khris Middleton reminds me of a lot.
I grew up in Milwaukee so I was lucky enough to catch my fair share of Bucks games, and Redd was everything that Milwaukee stands for: grit, blue-collar, grind, etc. Redd would place himself amongst the greatest scorers in the league in the early-to-mid 2000s and as one of my personal favorite players as a kid.
Michael Redd was a Ohio kid through and through, he played three years (97'-00') of college ball at The Ohio State University where he averaged 19.6 PPG on 44% shooting for his career. He earned 97'-98' Big Ten ROY honors as well as being named to the 99' All-Big Ten Tourney First Team after leading OSU to the Final Four his Sophomore year.
After his Junior year (99'-00'), Redd declared for the NBA Draft and was selected 43rd overall by the Milwaukee Bucks.
If you knew anything about the Bucks in the early 2000s then you know how deadly that squad truly was: Ray Allen, Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, Sam Cassell, the Bucks were title contenders with coach George Karl leading the way.
Unfortunately for Redd he sat behind Allen for his first three years, but he made noise in practices during those years, constantly having competitive games against both Allen and Glenn. Karl noticed of course, and decided that Redd was deserving of more minutes. Redd would go from 5.8 MPG his rookie season to 21.1 MPG in his second season.
Redd shot an impressive 44% from three point range his second season and doing it on three attempts a game made him a force to be reckoned with from distance. He shot 43% from three on five attempts a game in his third season proving that he was a sniper and had to be watched at all times.
Redd would get his big break in 03'-04' when the Bucks traded Ray Allen to Seattle that would bring in veteran Point Guard, Gary Payton. In that season, Redd averaged 21.7 PPG on 44/35/86 shooting splits. He would be named to the All-NBA Third Team along with making his first and only All-Star game appearance.
Now although that year was his only “All-Star worthy” season, it was not Redd’s best season. Redd would only get better as he averaged 23.0 PPG and 25.4 PPG the next two seasons. In 2006 however is when Redd put everything together, he averaged a career high 26.7 PPG on 46/38/82 shooting splits.
Redd had two of his best games ever this season: 45 points against Kobe and the Lakers, and a 57 point explosion against Phoenix that is still the Bucks Franchise record for points scored in a single game.
2006 was the best version of Michael Redd that we ever got to see. The way he was able to score with relative ease all while playing his brand of basketball was beautiful to watch. He was a pure scorer when healthy and by staying with the Bucks when he had multiple opportunities to reach higher plateaus with better teams, he stayed, becoming a household name in a blue-collar city.
In 2008, Redd would become apart of history, as he and the rest of Team USA (Redeem Team) would go on to capture gold in the Beijing Olympics. During that run Redd would set the qualifying record for most threes in a game and he would break Penny Hardaway’s olympic record for most threes in the whole tournament.
Unfortunately Redd would tear both his ACL and MCL in his left knee during the 08'-09' NBA season, a season in which he would be inactive a lot leading up to the injury. Redd would return healthy for the 09'-10' season before receiving the same injury to the same knee.
Of course Redd never fully recovered from such a devastating injury that occured twice. And after playing just one season with the Suns, he would retire.
Once again, Michael Redd was one of my favorite players growing up. He made scoring at a high level look so easy that I thought I could do it. It's unfortunate that injuries are apart of the game, but it was more than amazing to sit back and watch such a gifted scorer and player put the city of Milwaukee on his back for 11 years.
