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More issues come to light in Milwaukee athletic department after broadcaster’s retirement

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Bill Johnson retired last night.

If you don’t know the name Bill Johnson, you probably aren’t a fan of Milwaukee Panthers basketball. Johnson was the play-by-play voice of the basketball team for the last 16 seasons before announcing on Instagram that his tenure is over.

Normally, a random play-by-play guy for a mid-major program retiring wouldn’t be anywhere near newsworthy, but this one is. Because Johnson went out in a blaze of glory, napalming every bridge he had left at the university.

You can read the post in all its glory here. The highlights? [All SIC]


  • “I would say it’s taking the last life boat off the Titanic, but that would be unfair to the crew of the Titanic.”
  • “Never have so many competant, talented people been run off by such a talentless group of entitled beaurocrats. No matter how much the coaches, players, and support staff care, they can’t overcome incompetent administrators. UWM leads the world in incompetent administrators.”
  • “Should Amanda Braun turn down an AD job just because she’s horribly under qualified? Hell no. She’s a bad AD, and a deplorable human being, but those are the cards she’s been dealt.”

Yeah.

It was good.

And it matters, because if (when?) this goes viral, it may actually expose some of the shenanigans that have been going on in the Milwaukee athletic department. For example, when new head coach Lavall Jordan was hired, it came after another candidate -- former Iowa State assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger -- was reportedly told that he would get the job and to start preparations for an introductory press conference.

When former head coach Rob Jeter was fired, the team was notified via a group-text, when they were told to check their email. That came after athletic director Amanda Braun refused to allow the team to participate in the CBI or the CIT even after a donor had reportedly offered to pay for the costs of the tournament. Sources told NBCSports.com that the program was unable to take an international trip over the summer for the same reason.

And now?

A state senator is getting involved in the mess, posting a series of negative tweets aimed at Braun. She also showed up at the press conference announced JEter’s dismissal and asked Braun the following question: “Do you feel like a lot of your decisions actually created the sabotage of the athletic department and of Coach Jeter’s ability to be even more effective?Because he was as effective as his predecessor.”

Lavall, you really want to walk into that, bro?