Pat Connaughton reflects on seven years of memories, impact with the Milwaukee Bucks

Show Caption

Planet Pat.

The Bench Mob.

The 2020 slam-dunk contest.

Countless opponents bloodying his nose.

Eleven new basketball courts in and around Milwaukee schools and public parks.

Knocking down a three-pointer in the second quarter of Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Finals to tie the Phoenix Suns and wholly erase a 16-point deficit. It was the third of four made three-pointers, which set the Bucks up to win their first title in 50 years.

A parade.

The memories of Pat Connaughton's seven seasons in Milwaukee are abundant and easily counted off for Bucks fans, but it admittedly took Connaughton some time to reflect after he was traded from the Bucks to the Charlotte Hornets in early July. It is the nature of most athletes to always look ahead, and for a time that was no different for him.

“I jumped to the competitive side – nothing really changes on that – I still think it needs to be and will be a big year for me and the competitive juices were flowing,” he told the Journal Sentinel about his mindset after the trade. “That’s essentially how I think I have been, not by accident, on winning teams essentially my whole life. Made the playoffs every single year I’ve been a part of things. So I didn’t think about the last seven years right away, I thought about the next step. How do I put myself in the best position for the next step and what’s in front of me?”

Bucks general manager Jon Horst let Connaughton know he would be dealt with enough notice to inform the people who needed to know and to start to process the unwilling end to his Bucks tenure. But it was a couple of days later when Connaughton went to write a farewell message on his Instagram account that the emotion of leaving came to him, and he joked he blacked out a bit while writing it.

It was then it had really begun to set in that this professional chapter had ended.

He thought about some public moments, but of course his mind went behind the scenes – sitting with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez on the team plane for seven years. Team trips, tee times, the ups and downs of a season. Relationships with dozens of teammates, coaches and front office and support staff.

“It was just like, enjoyment,” he said about looking back on his time with the Bucks. “I know when guys get traded, when guys get moved for any capacity or don’t get re-signed, they always have a chip on their shoulder and I’m not saying that’s not there, but you gotta also look at it as I was really lucky to find the Milwaukee Bucks at the time in my career that I did. I’d like to think the Bucks were lucky to find me at a time in my career in which they did. And it was an incredible seven-year run.

“The cool part is over the last seven years it transcended my basketball career, it transcended my business life off the basketball court, my philanthropic life, my personal life obviously and it was unique. I’m hugely thankful for everything the last seven years has brought me.”

Over the course of about a half-hour conversation in his Three Leaf Partners offices in downtown Milwaukee, a throughline was appreciation and recognition of how unlikely a ride it had been.

He spent his first three seasons in Portland before signing with Milwaukee in 2018 on a two-year deal, only the first of which was guaranteed at slightly above the league minimum.

“Potentially on the way back to baseball,” he admitted.

He was perhaps more well known locally as a quirky footnote, having been drafted by Brooklyn in 2015 with a pick the Bucks sent to the Nets in exchange for hiring head coach Jason Kidd.

But if his career in Milwaukee began as an interesting annotation, by the summer of 2025 he had become a big character in a championship tale. He never pretended to be “more” than he was – a key role player off the bench in 440 regular-season games and 73 in the playoffs – but his impact on the team, and with the Bucks fan base, was felt far more than 6.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game would indicate.

“Even as a guy who wasn’t necessarily expected to be anything for the team in his first year and then slowly grew into a huge part of the championship run and the organization, it’s really cool to see just because of the makeup of the people of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin,” he said. “It’s a lot of hard-working, blue-collar individuals that really love to cheer for their team.

“I think the organization and the ownership, (team president) Peter (Feigin) and management, they’ve done a great job of identifying people who fit that same type of character and mold to play for the team so that the fans feel a little bit more passion when they’re watching their team play night in and night out.”

Like former teammate Khris Middleton before him, Connaughton expressed no ill will or bitterness in being traded. He said he knew he could be moved but hoped it would not happen.

But the competitor in him acknowledged that he is looking forward to more than just the 14.7 minutes per game he played in 41 games last season, that his career-high 43-point, 11-rebound, 5-assist effort in essentially his last full game in a Bucks uniform was indicative of what’s left in his game.

This coming season, Connaughton will be reunited with Hornets head coach Charles Lee, who was an assistant in Milwaukee from 2018-23. And Connaughton wasn’t shy in saying he hopes to beat the Bucks in every game he plays against them. He’s in a contract year at 32 years old.

“I always knew that for me, individually, I knew it was going to be important to be in a position where I can play going into the last year of my deal and continue to try and extend my career in a meaningful way and hopefully not start the vet minimum clock and ‘hang on’ for another few years, but to show that the last game of my Bucks career essentially was not a random one-off,” he said.

“A broken clock is right twice a day, but I can still compete at a high level, I can still help a team win, I can play a different role as being a mentor to an organization that has a young group that’s trying to continually grow their culture and they’ve got a great guy at the helm (Lee) to do so and somebody I obviously have a lot of experience with and a close relationship with. So, I tried to look at the positives and the exciting times ahead.”

More will be written for Connaughton on the basketball court, away from Milwaukee.

But he exits having left an indelible mark.

Quite literally, too, his name is inscribed on the new basketball courts in Meaux Park in Milwaukee, Washington Park in Mukwonago, the Neighborhood House and Silver Spring Neighborhood Center in Milwaukee and more. The Connaughton Courts initiative through his eponymous foundation will be lasting reminders for children who will know him only vicariously.

More: Pat Connaughton's Milwaukee firm is developing several large area projects as he heads to Charlotte

Maybe he will find his way back into a Bucks uniform, maybe not. But he echoed a line in his farewell social media post that he isn’t truly saying goodbye.

“I’d like to think I’m a loyal guy,” he said, “my best friend has been my best friend since I was 3 years old, my family, the things that I do, the friends that I have are still friends from back home, relationships grow but some things stay the same and, I think for me, it doesn’t change with this situation.

“Milwaukee, yeah, I’ll always be back around. They may not see me as often when I was paying 41 home games here, but they’ll see me in the offseason, they’ll see me in the city. The foundation and the real estate development company will remain here in Milwaukee. We’ll always be looking to give back to a place that obviously gave so much to me throughout the seven years that I’ve been there.”