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On the verge of becoming the Milwaukee Bucks' all-time scoring leader, Giannis Antetokounmpo will no longer be following in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's footsteps

Throughout the Milwaukee Bucks’ 54-year history, there has been three all-time scoring leaders at one point in time. Now, make that four.

Giannis Antetokounmpo now stands as the Bucks’ all-time scoring leader after passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the team’s exhilarating 120-119 overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets Thursday night.

To say it’s been a long time coming is quite the understatement when it comes to Abdul-Jabbar’s reign at the top of the Bucks’ record books. Having poured through box scores and game logs on Basketball-Reference, it’s been 18,714 days since Abdul-Jabbar passed Jon McGlocklin as the team’s scoring leader following a 124-110 win over the Seattle SuperSonics back on January 4, 1971.

Having come to Milwaukee amid plenty of fanfare just as they wrapped up their expansion season in 1968-69, Abdul-Jabbar was given ample opportunity to write and set the team’s records based on his presence alone. It certainly speaks to his greatness that he was able to be as prolific as he was over his six years in Milwaukee that his franchise scoring mark, and others, had stood for as long as they did.

And he did so without many key features that exist in today’s NBA, whether it be the 3-point line and the modern spacing that would have come along with that or key counting stats such as blocks and steals, both of which weren’t tracked until the 1973-74 season.

There have certainly been great players to pass through the Bucks’ history that had the longevity to one day threaten to surpass the 14,211 total points Abdul-Jabbar scored from 1969 to 1975. Yet, no one as great as Antetokounmpo.

Now in his ninth year, it would have been hard to imagine Antetokounmpo equaling Abdul-Jabbar’s greatness and legacy with the Bucks when the Greek forward first donned that Bucks hat on his draft night back in 2013.

Then thought of as the ultimate project, Antetokounmpo and Abdul-Jabbar’s origin stories couldn’t have been further from one another. Abdul-Jabbar was practically a child prodigy, becoming a national figure as a teenager as he became a multi-time All-American while playing at Power Memorial Academy in New York City.

Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, came to basketball at 13 years old and he and his family weren’t even recognized as citizens of Greece right up until he was drafted nearly a decade ago.

Abdul-Jabbar was as sure of a thing when he entered the NBA after three illustrious years at UCLA where the Bruins went 88-2 over that span and won back-to-back-to-back national titles. Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, played in the second division in Greece, in part because of he and his family’s citizenship issues and financial hardships.

And, last but not least, Abdul-Jabbar famously wanted out of Milwaukee at his career apex and departed for Los Angeles after the Bucks’ 1974-75 season that was mired by disappointment after their run to the NBA Finals the year prior. Antetokounmpo, when faced with a similar set of circumstances following back-to-back MVP campaigns, decided to stay in Milwaukee and sign for the richest contract in NBA history.

Yet, the shared determination, focus and work ethic have been defining features in each Antetokounmpo and Abdul-Jabbar’s journeys to being among the greatest players to have ever play in the NBA.

There is no question that a little luck and fortune played a part in the Bucks landing both superstars, whether it be a coin flip landing tails or Giannis repaying every bit of gratitude back to the Bucks by becoming the biggest rags-to-riches story to ever grace the NBA.

The two men easily stand as one and two in Bucks history and the way in which the team had and has built around them amid a big spotlight that has led to the most successful eras for the team. They each repaid that by helping deliver the team’s two NBA titles, respectively.

Not only that, both Abdul-Jabbar and Antetokounmpo both stand as franchise saviors at critical points in their history. Abdul-Jabbar gave the Bucks exactly what they needed to establish themselves as a small market team in a rapidly expanding NBA at the end of the 1960s.

Antetokounmpo’s saviorship came at a time when the Bucks had never been more lost and his arrival to Milwaukee and America as a whole coincided with the Bucks having their worst season in franchise history and ownership changing hands. The threat of relocation always lingered until the plans to fund and construct Fiserv Forum with both private and public funds was approved in the summer and fall of 2015.

Without Abdul-Jabbar laying the foundation more than a half-century ago, Antetokounmpo wouldn’t have had this path for him to become a franchise icon and deliver on the promises he’s pledged throughout his career. And soon enough, sometime down the line when his illustrious career is done, Antetokounmpo’s #34 jersey will be hanging in the rafters of Fiserv Forum right next to Abdul-Jabbar’s #33.

Very fitting.