We’ve all seen the movie that played out with Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday before. A new report lights a fire under rumors that Antetokounmpo is eyeing another team — right now the Knicks — but then he comes out and throws cold water on it, calming things down. For now.
Here is what Antetokounmpo said on Wednesday, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“I’ve said this many times, I want to be in a situation that I can win and now I’m here. I believe in this team. I believe in my teammates. I’m here to lead this team to wherever we can go and it’s definitely going to be hard. We’re going to take it day-by-day, but I’m here. So, all the other extra stuff does not matter. I think I’ve communicated with my teammates, communicated with the people I respect and love that the moment I step on this court or in this facility I wear this jersey, the rest does not matter. I’m locked into whatever I have in front of me.
“Now, if in six, seven months, I change my mind, I think that’s human too, you’re allowed to make any decision you want, but I’m locked in. I’m locked in to this team. I’m locked in to these guys, to this group and to this coaching staff and to myself.”
Unsurprisingly, coach Doc Rivers was trying to play things down as well.
“If you read [Antetokounmpo’s] comments this summer, every comment he’s made is about being in Milwaukee, loving the city, but for some reason. And it’s funny, what’s the old saying, you create the story and then you report on the story you created. And that’s what it feels like. And it gets old for us. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it, but I can tell you Jon has never called a team about Giannis. That has never happened. And until that happens, you really don’t have a story.”
Notice Antetokounmpo said, “if in six, seven months I change my mind,” which would be next offseason, not him pushing for a trade at the February deadline. Antetokounmpo realizes that trading his $54.1 million salary in-season to a place he wants to be is incredibly difficult and unlikely to happen.
The real inflection point in this relationship between the Bucks and Antetokounmpo comes next offseason, when Antetokounmpo is extension eligible and the Bucks can offer a max deal of four years, around $260 million (or more, depending upon the salary cap). In the past, every time he was extension eligible, Antetokounmpo has used that as leverage to get the Bucks to do more to build a contending team, but he ultimately signed the deal and stayed in Wisconsin. He may well do that again, or he might refuse to sign it and then the trade talks are on.
Until then, Antetokounmpo says he is all in with the Bucks for this season.
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