For 11 years, he was just about the best thing the Bucks had. Unfortunately, they were some of the worst years in franchise history.

Tuesday night, Michael Redd returned to the Bradley Center for the first time since his departure from the Bucks when his six-year, $91 million contract expired at the end of last season. After the first two games of this season saw Phoenix struggle offensively, Redd signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract with the Suns, who beat the Bucks 107-105 Tuesday night.

"I remember when Ray (Allen) got traded and when he came back the first time he was telling me, this is so weird," Redd recalled after the game. "I said 'really?' And then years later, yeah, this is weird. But once I go on the court I felt familiar with the rim and the court, the fans and the scenery."

Redd, who scored 14 points on 7-14 shooting from the field, was honored with a video tribute to the 11 years he spent as a Buck during the game's first time out. And while he did not stare at the video board the entire time so as to not appear to be ignoring coach Alvin Gentry, he did see most of it, and appreciated the warm round of applause.

"It was phenomenal," Redd said. "I didn't know they were going to do that, so I told Steiny (Bucks VP John Steinmiller) and the whole crew that I really appreciated them doing that. It was emotional and the fans are terrific."

At one point, Redd looked like his old self, knocking down six shots in the span of about five minutes to open up the second quarter.

"He's just a blessing to coach," Gentry told reporters after the game. "The guy works extremely, extremely hard and the guy is getting himself back in All-Star form. You saw some glimpses of it tonight; I think you will see more and more of it as time goes on."

After his flurry of baskets, the No. 4 scorer in Bucks history went cold, only making one of his final eight shots. But his coach isn't worried about the cold streaks.

"He'll continue to get better, his legs will continue to be stronger and then he'll shoot the ball better, but you could see in that stretch in the second quarter that he can get it going," Gentry said. "And when he does, you guys have seen it, he can get going, and when he does, he's a pretty tough collar."

While over the years a hot-shooting Michael Redd may have been a tough collar, the one thing that could slow him down was his own body.

Last season, the Bucks 2000 second round draft selection played in just 10 games while rehabbing his injured left knee. In fact, since first tearing his ACL and MCL in the Bucks 33rd game of the 2008-09 season, Redd only played in 28 more games in a Milwaukee uniform, starting just 12 of them.

In the pantheon of Wisconsin athletes that have failed to live up to their contracts, either through injury or ineffectiveness, Michael Redd's name is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Jeff Suppan, Tony Mandarich, Teddy Higuera and Franklin Stubbs.

After all, in the six years since signing his maximum-dollar, six-year contract, Redd was only healthy enough to play in 266 of the possible 492 regular season games while drawing a franchise crippling $91 million. In other words, for every single game Michael Redd wound up actually playing in, he drew a check for $342,105.

And you wonder why a beer cost $7?

All in all, Michael Redd is a perfectly decent man. He lives his faith, rarely speaks ill of others, donates time and money to causes he believes in, and is a role model for what kind of athlete you would want your children to emulate.

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