No matter the egos involved, the belief in one’s own exceptional individualism, or the insistence that “this time will be different,” history does indeed repeat itself. It’s why, were the swath of concrete outside Fiserv Forum meant for monuments, the larger-than-life personas of the Milwaukee Bucks’ last great player in Giannis Antetokounmpo and its first in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should be fossilized together.
Antetokounmpo snuggling the Larry O’Brien and Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophies after the Bucks won the 2021 NBA championship, 50 years after Abdul-Jabbar led the Bucks to the 1971 title, was poetry.
Antetokounmpo being traded to Miami in the summer of 2026, 51 years after Abdul-Jabbar was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers, is pain.
And it likely will lead to another melancholic meandering through mediocrity for the franchise and city.
The 31-year-old Antetokounmpo, one of the five best in the world at playing basketball, and the only team he’s ever played for, agreed it was best to separate after 13 seasons. Well, they didn’t so much as agree as they came to the weary realization they were done with one another.
Though this past season was rough, the actual consummation of a trade remains somewhat of a surprise.
That’s because the Bucks ownership group, led by governor and co-owner Wes Edens and co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, are not people who typically capitulate to whims, angst or complaint. And, for some time, Antetokounmpo had not fashioned himself a team-hopping second chair.
Yet here they are.
The reasons for the separation is simple: The organization was tired of the melodrama, and Antetokounmpo felt his best chance at competing for a second title was elsewhere.
So there he goes.
I do not believe there are deep-rooted, hard feelings here, though. There is no conspiracy.
Like any relationship that spans over a decade, let alone a professional one that exists in the highly competitive − and cutthroat − business, Antetokounmpo and the organization’s kinship had its ebbs and flows. Over time, Antetokounmpo became tough to work with, but he was content through most of his years. Ownership was tough, too, but until recently, general manager Jon Horst had been given the green light to spend money and draft capital to reshape the roster and coaching staffs around Antetokounmpo.
This didn’t end on the best terms, which it rarely does in sports, but it was about as successful a partnership between a superstar and a team as one could draw up in the modern NBA.
The Bucks won a championship and an NBA Cup, advanced to another conference final and won the most regular-season games in the league (368) from 2019-25. It’s a remarkable example of longevity and competitiveness that is being, frankly, collectively bargained out of the league.
But when it came time for the playoffs, unfortunately, the Bucks fell short too often and were too snakebitten.
Antetokounmpo missed the entire 2024 playoffs with a calf injury and played just two games and 11 minutes in 2023.
Khris Middleton (knee) missed the 2022 Eastern Conference semifinals and Damian Lillard missed four of 11 playoff games in his brief Bucks career. Lillard was severely compromised in four others (right Achilles strain, left knee injury) in 2024 and played just over two games in 2025 (blood clot, torn left Achilles).
The “Big Three” never suited up together in the playoffs and Antetokounmpo and Lillard played 62 minutes together.
When Antetokounmpo did play in the postseason from 2022-25, he was sublime in averaging 31.5 points, 14.2 rebounds, 6.6 assists in 15 appearances.
Startingly, the Bucks were 4-11 in those games.
In all, the Bucks have gone just 11-17 in the postseason since the 2021 title with just one series victory. They haven’t even been close to advancing since going up 3-2 on Boston in the second round in 2022.
The injuries to Middleton and Lillard were huge factors, but the top-heavy nature of the rosters the past few years exposed its flaws. Antetokounmpo may be a force of nature, one of one, but it remains a team game.
While Antetokounmpo had shown trust in Horst to continue to remake the roster around his considerable talents, that trust had worn thin. It’s hard to blame him, either. Simply, the Bucks haven’t been good enough.
On the organizational side of things, a sound basketball case can be made for the Bucks moving their star. He’ll be 32 in December. The soft-tissue injuries, specifically in his calves, are mounting and concerning.
Committing another four years to him wouldn’t just cost $275 million in an extension. It would mean continuing to mortgage future draft assets and players. Continuity would be hard to rebuild. And, of course, the specter of his happiness would hang over the team annually.
This move shouldn’t be the last for the Bucks, though. The draft picks are worth only the paper they’re written on and should frankly be flipped as soon as possible to acquire another legitimate star that is under contract.
Building through the draft is nearly a fallacy, a 5-to-10-year proposition at best. That’s too long of a window as 6,000 people in the 17,500-seat arena are not going to be an appealing look, nor a satisfactory deposit into the bank account.
The hard reality, unfortunately, will likely be heartbreak for both parties.
In the near term, a refreshed and invigorated Antetokounmpo could win the MVP this season. He still performed at that level last season when healthy and will not have played any games since March 15.
Naturally, he will expect to follow the Abdul-Jabbar blueprint at his new residence. Or, a comparison of a more recent vintage will be that of Shaquille O’Neal’s arrival in Miami in 2004, when he paired with Dwyane Wade in winning a championship in 2006 at 33 years old.
But the NBA is a far, far different place five decades removed from Abdul-Jabbar’s time in L.A., or two decades removed from O’Neal’s spin though South Beach. Recent history forecasts Antetokounmpo will not win another title and will bounce around teams as his contract becomes onerous and his skills diminish.
Trading a former MVP still at his peak is a precedent the Bucks just set in the modern era − it hasn’t been done at all since the Lakers traded O’Neal to the Heat in 2004 − and those players are too far and few between to believe the organization will recover from it with a true shot at a title anytime soon. The Lakers survived that move because they had Kobe Bryant, and it took another five years before they won another title.
So the Bucks will, most likely, remain in the 48-win space they’ve already been in over the next few seasons − just without one of the most exciting, dominant and charismatic athletes on the planet and the most identifiable player in Milwaukee sports history. It’s fair to argue he rivals any Green Bay Packers player, also.
Friedrich Nietzsche posited that time repeats itself in an infinite loop, so perhaps the Bucks once again will find themselves with the best basketball player in the world. And perhaps the Larry O’Brien Trophy will once again find itself in Antetokounmpo’s embrace. Both parties will just have to hope that theory proves true, again, but the loop is much, much smaller than it was the first time around.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s symmetry with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all too familiar
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
