With his college career coming up to a close
In his final attempt to go ball with his bros
A title they won and with a performance so rare
Donte won the Most Outstanding Player
But would our hero stay, or would he go?
One year of eligibility, or he could turn pro
And with tears in his eyes, Donte would say
"I'm taking my talents to the NBA"
And with the seventeenth pick in the NBA draft
The Bucks would take Donte as other teams laughed
But to their chagrin his play would start to blossom
What started as bust now turned into awesome
Selah
And now we pick up with Donte present day where he anchors a Bucks bench unit that wrecks opponents. Still Donte had no easy path to playing time. He was taken early and expected to see some playing time early on. Surely the Bucks were looking for a solid wing who could pour in some threes alongside the ever-dominant Greek Freak and Khris Middleton. But Coach Budenholzer continued to preach to Donte, "Patience my padawan. For you are not as ready as you think you are," and Bud was right. In his first practice Donte was posterized by Giannis on 5 possessions in a row. He was aimless on the perimeter as Khris would back him down to sleep then rise up and hit the least efficient shot in basketball. When he played in his first few games he again would try to razzle dazzle the crowd who would ooh and ahh at his dribbling display only for players like Ish Smith or Garrett Temple to strip him for an uncontested layup. He had far to go.
So he did what he did before. He studied film, learned the playbook in and out, spent all his free time dribbling, and practiced his shooting form every time he tossed something in the garbage. After a particularly brutal stretch Donte would spend 5 straight days in the film room dissecting film. Assistant coaches would try to pry him away but he would resist, staying glued to the highlight reel of mistakes. And his first year in the league he would hardly play. the morale of Bucks fans was low. "Here we go again," they would think. They would drink away their sorrows at the bar reminiscing over previous players drafted. The Bucks had taken players like Thon Maker or DJ Wilson who had not seen much production. Sure the fans loved DJ, but he hardly got minutes. Thon was heralded to be the MVP by Kevin Garnett only to continually foul and hardly score. A man piped up from the back, "Remember Jabari?" The crowd shuttered. Sure Jabari had a rough run with two ACL tears in a few years, but also he played like he was in the 70s and notoriously
. Still another man from the side chimed in saying, "What about Jimmer Fredette?" The crowd responded as if they've just been stabbed. "Don't bring that up, Hammond was high off of March Madness." Finally reluctantly a man at the bar muttered under his breath, "I was all in on Rashad Vaughn. Boy was I wrong." People couldn't hold back and were now haphazardly crying. A man in the back vomited upon hearing Vaughn's name. This team had been blessed with Giannis yet struggled to find complementary pieces ever since, and they couldn't help but wonder if Donte would be another question in bar trivia and a forgettable GM decison.
But with year two Donte would rise from the ashes. All his time learning that he put in would prove fruitful in games. After coming in off the bench, Donte proved to be a pest, once again denying passing lanes and deflecting passes left and right. Players would again complain to their coaches, "This man is shadowing my every move. He is a human solar eclipse! This man is a defensive John Wick!" On offense he still made an impact, letting Giannis do his thing and waiting patiently behind the 3-point line until a pass would come his way and he would unleash a rainbow shot so miraculously beautiful the only reason the net would move is because it was paying homage to such a beautiful shot. Bucks fans rejoiced. Their draft pick had not been wasted! When Donte was on the court, the team would be winning and they ever so often did. The Bucks could smell an NBA title on the horizon with Donte was at the center of it, and this was only the beginning.
And so has the Big Ragu's career been up until this point, and while we don't know how it ends, we have an idea of how it will continue. The completely true accounts I detailed previously are just foreshadowing of the eventual destruction he shall soon wreck upon the NBA. His constant improvements earned his way into the hearts of his teammates and fans. With every deflected pass and occasional dunk he keeps building on his legacy, a legacy that will one day be written in history. And with that I encourage you to take notice and enjoy the Donte experience as it starts to unfold.
Blessed Be the Big Ragu
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