Ever since the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has been thinking: ‘what if I’m next?’
Perhaps it hasn’t been in those exact words. However, that’s what he jestingly told reporters shortly after the exchange went down. Ironically, Antetokounmpo is one of the players that Mavs president Nico Harrison tried to move Doncic for. Those talks never got off the ground, but they did come at a time when Antetokounmpo’s commitment was already being questioned, so it didn’t hurt to try.
Nearly eight months later, Antetokounmpo has re-stated his position on potentially being traded.
Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo Dishes On Trade Rumors, His Needs
“Look, I hope it never happens, but I’m still waiting for it,” Antetokounmpo tells SPORT24’s Haris Stavrou.
“Because it doesn’t mean that just because you’ve contributed to the team, the team won’t do what’s best for them.”
Diving into oft-discussed anecdotal evidence of new ownership making significant roster changes after they take over the team, he adds:
“It’s not always the owners themselves. And when I say the owners, the presidents of the team now, they are not the same as the ones who won the championship, they are different. And if Giannis doesn’t do it for me, can’t offer it to me, I’ll trade him. I will do the best for my team and for my investment. Because I have put hundreds of millions into the team.”
To clarify, when Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to an NBA championship in 2021, the franchise’s primary co-owners were Marc Lasry, Jamie Dinan and Wes Edens. In April 2023, Cleveland Browns (NFL) co-owners Dee Haslam and Jimmy Haslam purchased Lasry’s 25% share for $800 million.
That offseason, Milwaukee traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for Damian Lillard, sacrificing their defensive foundation. They also fired two-time Coach of the Year, Mike Budenholzer, replacing him with first-year head coach Adrian Griffin. The experiment went poorly that Antetokounmpo considered 2023-24 to be the “hardest season” of his career.
It also provided him with first-hand experience of how ownership changes can have a trickle-down effect on the roster.
‘I Like Challenges’
To be sure, Antetokounmpo would prefer to stay in Milwaukee. He’s simply being open-minded and, more importantly, realistic:
“Surely, if I were flying in the clouds, I would say ‘yeah, there’s no way I’m being traded, I’m Giannis Antetokounmpo,’” he explains. “Because I don’t fly in the clouds and I’m very normal, normal, down to earth, I say ‘anything is possible, you never know.’”
However, he’s a two-time NBA MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. He’s an NBA Finals MVP and an NBA In-Season Tournament MVP. He’s a nine-time All-Star who was averaging 6.8 points per game as a rookie and 22.9 points per game three seasons later, leading to him winning the 2017 Most Improved Player award. All of that being said, Antetokounmpo doesn’t shy away from challenges.
“One thing I want to say is that I like challenges,” he answers when asked if he’s willing to play for another team.
“I’ve realized that I like living with pressure. Is that good? Is that bad? I don’t know. If I’m in an environment where there’s no pressure and I don’t believe we can achieve anything great, I don’t want to be there, things just go on. It doesn’t make me happy anymore, as a person.”
“I want to do what makes me happy,” he explains, “and what makes me happy is winning and feeling like there’s a challenge.”
With that in mind, though there’s always skepticism surrounding splash trades, Milwaukee obviously can’t rest on their laurels. Not when Antetokounmpo isn’t.
Point-Giannis?
Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun doesn’t believe that the Greek Freak is a great passer. Even so, given his explosiveness and the gravity Antetokounmpo generates when attacking the rim, drive-and-kicks have become second-nature to him. That steady increase in experience has actually just made him a more comfortable facilitator in general.
So, understandably, Antetokounmpo feels that “to get the best out of the team and to get the best out of me, I have to be a creator.”
“I need to feel like I can and do create,” he dishes. “If you look at the last two months of the team, where I had the green light, if I have the ball in my hands and I have that green light to create… I don’t always have to execute, but I have to feel like I’m creating, that I’m part of the team and not just an executioner…”
Bloody good passing from Giannis.
13 AST | 12 REB | 11 PTS pic.twitter.com/6LGIFIIK6h
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 7, 2025
“This is how my true self comes out,” he continues, “because that’s what I did at Filathlitikos and that’s what I always wanted to do. And there were times when I did that in my career, but most of the time I was the executor. In the last two months when I was more of a team creator, I had a good time. I think the team did very well during that time.
Again, what Antetokounmpo is stating isn’t exactly new information. When he assumed more playmaking duties due to Lillard’s blood clot diagnosis, he was quite pleased about it. Furthermore, after Lillard was sidelined, the Bucks managed to go 10-4 for the remainder of the season. In fact, they closed out the regular season on an eight-game win streak.
© Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
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