Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has put the Milwaukee Bucks on notice. If the Bucks are not all in on competing for championships every year, he will not sign a contract extension next summer. The seven-time All-Star is under contract through the 2025-26 season, but that year is a player option.
Giannis To Sign The Supermax
The Bucks can offer Antetokounmpo a three-year, $173 million supermax extension beginning Sept. 22.
“The real question’s not going to be this year — numbers-wise it doesn’t make sense,” Antetokounmpo said. “But next year, next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know. I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”
In the NBA, star players like Giannis are very aware that their public comments carry weight and they signal something to the organization as well as its fan base.
Through his representation and likely directly, Giannis has stated the same thing to Bucks ownership and management behind closed doors.
Making it public could mean he doesn’t believe everyone involved is on the same page as it relates to competing for a championship.
Bucks Are Missing Something
The Bucks’ offseason was pretty quiet. They re-signed Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton, 35 and 32 respectively, and older than the 28 year-old Giannis.
“You’ve got to see the dynamics,” Giannis said. “How the coach is going to be, how we’re going to be together. At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship. As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it. The moment I feel like, oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild —”
The Bucks finished with the best record in the league last season, but were embarrassed in round one of the playoffs by the Miami Heat.
The core of Giannis, Middleton, Lopez and Jrue Holiday is very good but there is something missing. Maybe it’s Middleton’s mounting injury history, or depending on a 35-year-old Lopez to keep defying the odds of an aging big man.
This team needs a little something extra, and Giannis knows it.
