Giannis Antetokounmpo believes there is a way back from all of this. A way to stay in Milwaukee after this summer, after he becomes eligible for a contract extension Oct. 1, and beyond.
Even with a bad Milwaukee Bucks team that tanked at the end, even with his anger over an on-going dispute about whether he’s being wrongly held out of games, Antetokounmpo has not yet given up on Milwaukee. Or the Bucks.
The past season has been the most difficult of his basketball career. He suffered three serious injuries, endured several blowout losses and, for the first time in 10 years, the Bucks haven’t made the playoffs. But it was the trade speculation and uncertain future that fueled relentless coverage and speculation, and has resulted in Giannis fatigue.
He scrubbed his social media accounts, booed back at fans in defense of teammates and himself, and tried to keep playing. There’s beauty in the struggle and hard times never scare someone with a background like Antetokounmpo.
But everyone else changed. In five years, Antetokounmpo has gone from Wisconsin’s darling adopted son and indefatigable hero of the 2021 NBA Championship to something else. The Villain.
Would he be willing to talk about it?
Yes, he said.
But there are a lot of questions − pages full in a notebook. It’s OK, he said. He will answer them all. He wishes he could just answer them curtly. Yes, or no, and not care at all what anyone reports or says or thinks or does.
But he does care what Bucks fans think.
In the first two stories that came out of two lengthy one-on-one interviews, Antetokounmpo addressed the lack of communication with Bucks leadership, including the owners, and how important his family has been to him throughout all of this.
Here’s the rest.
Lori Nickel: This is something that’s always bothered me. I asked you this directly the day coach Adrian Griffin was fired − how involved you were with that. And you said, you give an opinion, but you do not make the decision.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: “1000%.”
Nobody believes you. Nobody believes me.
Antetokounmpo: “I’m telling you the truth. I see, of course; I interview, but I don’t make the decision. That’s everyone, not just me. All the players, well not all of them − for the longest time it was Bud [coach Mike Budenholzer], Giannis and Khris [Middleton]. But I don’t make a decision. I was the youngest player on the team.”
That doesn’t matter, you were wise beyond your years and you were already a leader. Age didn’t matter.
Antetokounmpo: “I appreciate that you say that I’m wise beyond my years, but imagine being working in a male-dominant business and sport. Everybody has an ego. Everybody has it. It’s a business. Everyone has to do their job, make their job significant.”
People thought you had Griff hired. People thought you had Doc [coach Doc Rivers] hired, people thought you had Jrue [Holiday] traded … It goes on and on and on and on. You run the whole thing.
Antetokounmpo, sarcastically: “I do. I have so much time. I’m so good in my job. I have four kids and a wife, right? And my mother lives with me in the same property, right? So I have time to run everything.
“There’s only 24 hours in a day. And also if this is what they believe, I should get paid more. I don’t know what the salary of a GM is; I should get the salary of a GM. I should get the salary of the coach. I should get more.
“Sorry, if that’s what they believe, I should get more. But it doesn’t matter what they believe. I know what is the truth.”
Do you see a path for you to come back and stay here?
Antetokounmpo: “100%. Yeah, yeah.”
What would you need to see?
Antetokounmpo: “Everything about my decision is based on winning; culture. Like you saw I talked with [Boston] coach Joe Mazzulla. I said, ‘you had so many opportunities to make excuses, but you didn’t.’ [The Celtics started the season slow.] And he said, ‘Oh, they’re good players.’
“I said, no. It’s about the mentality that you instilled in your place. Vassilis Spanoulis − the same thing. That why I love Spanoulis. It’s about the mentality that he’s instilled in the [Greek] national team, that we are here to give everything that we have. We are here to bond together. We are here to figure out ways to win. No excuses. Move as a group and you move as a unit. So, I love that.
“I won’t say that our team right now is not like that, but − maybe I might be wrong, but I don’t think I am; I have the most years out of everybody in that locker room − I think that some people know how to win; some people don’t. It’s not because they don’t want to, it’s just because they’ve never been in that stage before.
“As long as it’s great organized basketball and a team that’s willing to play selfless basketball, and chase some goal that’s bigger than themselves, I’ll be here. Do you see that with the Bucks? You’ve been around, what 10 years? You tell me what you see.”
I see that there’s an on-off button with them and, right now, it’s off. And I never understood this concept of a gap year with you, that makes no sense to me. I see major lacking examples of good leadership …
(Players and coaches jump in to hug Giannis and wish him well).
So then, to keep you here, is it about a system? Or is it about a coaching change? A management change?
Antetokounmpo: “I will never, ever be in a position to affect somebody’s life. I can’t do it. My heart doesn’t go to that. Sometimes I say my opinion. But I would never push the button. That’s not who I am. To me it’s about winning, a good system, a system that I can thrive. But I don’t care about ‘be myself,’ because sometimes in order for you to win, you don’t win in your own terms. I just want to feel like I’m part of something bigger. Chasing something.”
This is a question I would ask myself if things were bad, so I’m going ask you as well: Is there anything that you think you did to upset the owners?
Antetokounmpo: “Never.”
Jon? (General manager Jon Horst.)
Antetokounmpo: “Never.”
How is your relationship right now with Jon?
Antetokounmpo: “Jon Horst. I talk more with him. Not as much as I’ve talked to him in the past. But yeah, I talked with Jon all through the summer. But that’s pretty much … it’s not the same as before. I talked to [former president] Peter Feigin when he was here every other day and even now when he’s not here, I still speak with him.”
Do you understand why I’m asking you this? I feel like they’re making you … live with something. I can’t put my finger on it.
Antetokounmpo: “I am going to tell you my opinion. Then you have to interview them, and then they can tell you their opinion. I carry myself in such a way that it’s very hard for me to upset somebody, even with my teammates. If you walk in the locker room, they will tell you, Giannis has never raised his voice. Giannis leads with example. Giannis is not an [expletive].
“My job is to play basketball. That’s why I get paid. That’s what I love to do. Just play basketball. My job is not to organize things and bring the pieces. That is not my job.
“I am not one of the guys that ever did disrespect to the ownership. Why? I came from nothing. Zero, zero, I grew up in a bed that was like this [points to a loading cart in the hallway], me and my brothers had to sleep sideways, like sardines. So, what do I look like if I am going to the owners saying, ‘I want this, I want that, I want that.’ They give me a life that I would never have imagined.
“… I am living an incredible life, and not just for my kids, my nieces, my brothers, my mother, people that I take care of in Nigeria. So who am I to go and say, ‘This is not good enough, and I demand this.’
“I’m not American. I’m very sorry that I am saying this with you. But I didn’t grow up with [the mantra of]: ‘I expect … I expect this to come, I expect this. I demand this.’ Never in my life.
“So, everything they’ve told me, I always said yes. They gave me a contract, I said, yes.”
(Note: Requests to interview Horst, the team president and ownership has thus far either been denied or ignored.)
How bad is this rift between you and the team and you not playing down the stretch, being held out.
Antetokounmpo: “I get it. I’ve been hurt … I was on a minutes restriction when I came back from being hurt. But why don’t I play now? To keep my value high so I can get traded?
“I don’t care if it’s the right thing. I don’t care if it’s smart thing. I don’t. I just want to play. This is what I do.
“I play when I’m able to play. I didn’t sit out my first season when we only won 15 games. Why, when it was the NBA Finals, did I come back six days [after a serious knee hyperextension]. Why? It doesn’t change. This is who I am. And now you’re telling me to go against my nature.”
But you have admitted you have to be smart about your body now. And a good leader would show you why you have to sit, and explain what you are working for today and tomorrow and the future. And that leader talks to you every day about it, not just once and be done.
Antetokounmpo: “No. It goes against my nature. My nature is to play. I don’t think about what’s smart. I think about playing and winning. If I thought about was smart, I probably wouldn’t even be in Milwaukee. I think about playing and winning.
“I want to maximize my life. I want to live life hard. They can do whatever they want; I want to live my life hard.
“If it’s a game against the Dallas Mavericks, I want to play. I am sorry. That’s how I was built. Factory settings. You can’t change the factory settings. You can’t. This is how I came from factory. You know what you got yourself into.”
This year, you didn’t have a wingman, that top scorer, and co-leader, to share the burden. Dame [Damian Lillard] could do that. Brook [Lopez] could do that, Khris, Jrue. If you look at your games and November, particularly, where you were sometimes surrounded by three or four defenders and you’re being pulled to the ground, you looked like you were overexerting yourself at times. You looked like you felt like you had to carry this team alone. You have never really addressed that burden.
Antetokounmpo: “It’s hard. It’s really hard. I’ll say this: At the end of the year, last year, I kind of played like that when Dame got hurt [with blood clots] in the calf.”
(He then goes on to list numerous NBA examples this season that have All-Star-caliber players leading teams in the standings.)
Antetokounmpo: “Anybody that thinks that without having a person next to you, to share that load, and to bounce off ideas and play − he does not know basketball.”
At least one.
Antetokounmpo: “Yes. You have to have to have a guy. Like, the period that me and Dame was healthy, we won the NBA Cup. Ying and Yang. You need to have that guy and then you need to have everyone fill their roles.”
It’s too much for one person to bear. It takes a toll mentally, too.
Antetokounmpo: “Yes, you won’t win. You won’t win. You won’t win. You won’t win. People say, oh, the 2021 championship blah blah, ‘Giannis carried everybody.’ I did not carry nobody. I had Jrue Holiday, had Khris Middleton, had Brook Lopez, I had Bobby Portis, I had Pat Connaughton, I had PJ Tucker. I just did my job. And sometimes I had to do my job a little bit more … and sometimes a little bit less.
“This year, coming in, knowing that I have this burden, which I’ve seen in the history of the game − one player cannot win. So I’m fighting for something that’s greater than me. But I know deep down, guys, it’s almost impossible. It’s like filling the perfect bracket. Nobody’s ever done it. So that’s what you’re asking me to do.”
You want to be put in a position to succeed.
Antetokounmpo: “Yeah. Exactly. Is it bad for me saying, I’m 31 years old, I won the championship when I was 26 years old. Then the question creeps in your head, like … Did I wait too long? Did I do the right thing?”
Did you wait too long for what?
Antetokounmpo: “Being here. [Staying in Milwaukee.]
“But then I’m like, No, this is what I want. I want to be here. I want to be with my team. I want to win here again. This is my home. I’ve spent more years [that I can remember] here than in Greece. It’s my home. I want to help the community with my wife and my brothers.
“Thanasis is loved here, my brother, my mother are loved here. My kids and I … it’s a normal life, I have a normal life. If you go somewhere else, all this switches. But I don’t want to look back and be like …”
(Antetokounmpo pauses. He’s joined by his brothers Thanasis and Alex, who played together in the latest Bucks game, and he congratulates them, beaming with pride, but also looking worn out and tired.)
Antetokounmpo: “This is why you have conversations with all-time greats like KG (Kevin Garnett). Dirk (Nowitzki) was in the same position, and chose to stay. We’ll see. We’ll see what’s going to happen.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo opens up about future with Bucks | Lori Nickel
Reporting by Lori Nickel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
