NBA FINALS: BUCKS VS. SUNS

July 7, 2021

Khris Middleton

Milwaukee Bucks

Practice Day

Q. You spent time with a handful of coaches and what does Bud bring to the Bucks that you appreciate?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: His honesty, for one. A guy that is going to tell you what he sees, and another thing is it's just the trust. We see things sometimes differently on the court, bring it to him, ask if we could do it or suggest that we do it and he trusts us to go out there and execute that. So, those are two things, for sure.

Q. I want to ask you about the Brisbane Bullets. What made you want to get involved with that and how involved are you on a daily basis?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: Right now definitely not involved on a daily basis at all. But it's something that I was excited about. My cousin end up, Josh Powell, end up bringing me the opportunity. I think being a part of an ownership group is something I wanted to be, something I wanted to do, for sure. As a player it could be tough but I realize the responsibilities I had wasn't going to really affect my basketball career right now, but it's something I think a lot of players are starting to trend towards is finding ways to invest their money, finding things to do with their money that can grow, and it's something I'm interested in.

The sport for sure is definitely growing over there in Australia. I've been there a couple times and just seeing their fan base, how much it's growing and how much they're passionate about the sport. So, I thought it was just an all-in-all win for myself.

Q. Is it also maybe a start to something bigger later for you or this is about as big as you want to go?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: No, I hope so. Hopefully I can learn a lot from this business while I'm a part of it but then once I retire find a bigger picture of what I actually want to do when I retire, but this is something that I think is a great start for myself.

Q. Reflecting back on the road you guys had in these playoffs, when did you understand that this team was made for the Finals?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: It's been a couple years in the coming, I think. We’ve have had a lot of shortcomings I think but we stayed with it. We had a great season this year, a lot of ups and downs, battled some injuries and whatnot, we stuck with it. In the playoff run we have been on, it's been challenging and tough too but we never got down on ourselves, knowing that we still had a chance to compete.

Q. How would you describe this first game that you had yesterday against the Suns and what do you think were the biggest challenges that you faced yesterday?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: Intense, but I think that's as expected for the first games of the Finals, especially us being on the road. I think we hung in there for the most part pretty well. They went on a couple runs and we responded well in the first half. Second half, Chris Paul got into his rhythm and was able to extend lead for them and we weren't really able to catch up after that, but all in all I think it was a great test for us in the first game. I just hope we come out and respond a little bit better.

Q. I know you guys aren't in excuses mode but when you got a player of Giannis's caliber who comes back and we're sitting there watching every single step, how is he feeling, how is he looking, you're trying to figure out how to do what do you on the floor, is it always tougher to get rhythm again when somebody like that comes back? And does that mean for Game 2 it should be a little bit easier?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: No. I mean, we have been playing with Giannis in and out of the lineup this year and years before. We know how to play with him we know how to play without him. Rhythm could be one thing, but like you said we're not going to give no excuses. Everybody's going through something at this point, we got to figure it out.

Q. When you look back at the Game 6 of the East semifinals and Game 3 and Game 6 of the East Finals, what got you really going at that moment, at that point and what kind of stuff you can use to help you in the Finals?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: Me personally?

Q. Yeah, you personally. You had 19 points in the fourth quarter, 20 points in the fourth quarter, and I remember 23 points at a single quarter. So, what really made you going at that moment and also what kind of stuff you can really use that momentum to use that in the Finals?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: I don't think I really put it on myself to do it. I think it just kind of happened naturally and organically. I saw a couple shots go down, stayed aggressive, sometimes it's going to be my night, sometimes it's going to be other guys' nights, but for me I just tried to stay the course throughout the game, take the same shots I would if I'm cold, take the same shots I would if I'm hot. Just those two games I just got really hot.