INDIANAPOLIS – Giannis Antetokounmpo backpedaled quickly down the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse as the arena fell into a stunned silence moments after his fading 16-footer splashed through the net to give the Milwaukee Bucks a 117-115 victory on Nov. 3. As AJ Green ran to celebrate with him, Antetokounmpo turned and signaled to the crowd that he was, indeed, “The Man,” before putting his finger to his lips to shush the crowd.
It wasn’t quite like Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s somewhat vulgar celebration of his masculinity when he beat Cleveland with a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left in the second round of the playoffs last season, but the message was received.
Antetokounmpo then crossed the court, booing and putting his thumbs down in response to the home crowd’s icy greeting to former Pacers center Myles Turner. It was the second time Antetokounmpo booed and pointed his thumbs down during the game.
“It was just me trying to show camaraderie, encouragement to my teammate,” Antetokounmpo said. “Which, if you really think about it, four or five months ago he was the one blocking my shot, pushing me on the floor. And I’m here, I’m not booing him, I don’t hate him. It’s the complete opposite. I respect him. I respect him when I played against him and now that he’s my teammate it’s a lot love towards him.”
It was an emotional, but pointed, punctuation point to just the latest chapter in what has become the league’s most heated rivalry that is at times smarmy, often feverish and routinely dangerous.
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“You could say that, but it’s kind of just being competitive nature, competing the last two years to get to the same place (in the playoffs) and knocked us out, so obviously we should feel some type of way about it and have some extra fire to us when we play,” Bucks guard Gary Trent Jr. said.
AJ Green added: “I think definitely the history. Myles coming back. I just think that’s their identity, their brand, they’re just gonna be relentless, keep coming, keep coming, be physical, play fast. So we gotta expect that and match it.”
The Bucks signing of Turner as a free agent stirred the embers before any games were played, and the intense booing of Turner during his tribute video added some dry kindling before the team’s first regular season meeting of 2025-26 caught fire again.
“I’ve learned that we’re back to rivalry basketball,” Turner said while sitting in the visitor’s locker room for the first time. “It’s a fun space to be in. Antics are antics, but when it comes to the game, when it comes to the emotion of the game, that’s where yo have to lose yourself and that’s what I was able to do tonight.”
It didn’t matter that Haliburton (Achilles), Ryan Nembhard (shoulder), Bennedict Mathurin (toe), TJ McConnell (hamstring) and Obi Toppin (foot) were out. Aaron Nesmith and Isaiah Jackson weren’t, and in general the Pacers are a team that regardless of personnel are going to try and put Antetokounmpo down and get the other Bucks to react unfavorably.
And none of that included a mouse running through the Bucks locker room after the game or their showers flooding into the locker space.
Outside of Antetokounmpo’s gestures, the game included:
“I love it,” Antetokounmpo said. “The city, Indianapolis, the state, Indiana, I think they know basketball. We’ve played against one another many times. We’ve won, we’ve lost, we’ve faced them in the playoffs. They was able to beat us twice. They have an incredible team, an incredible coach, they play new-era basketball so you gotta respect it. Whenever you come here in Indiana, Indianapolis, you know you’re going to play a tough game.”
The teams are not scheduled to play one another again until the Bucks return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Dec. 23 (there is a chance they meet in NBA Cup tournament play), but while Haliburton will be out the rest of the Pacers no doubt will be ready to add another chapter to this ever-growing novel.
Here is the recent – but long – history between the teams:
2025 playoffs
2024-25 regular season
2024 playoffs
2023-24 regular season
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo game-winning shot, taunts are latest chapter in Bucks-Pacers rivalry
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
