The Milwaukee Bucks offices tremble every time Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s contract enters extension dates. It already happened in 2020 and it happened again in 2023 that his attitudes in press conferences and behind closed doors have pushed the mobilization of John Horst, president of franchise operations. First, renewing immediately after the team acquired Jrue Holiday and, three years later, doing the same precisely when it was Holiday who left and Damian Lillard who landed in Wisconsin.
However, judging by his latest statements, it seems that this time it is the Greek who feels the pressure on his back. After last season, the Bucks are forced to take a positive course and become contenders again to turn off the alarms about the end of the ‘Antetokounmpo cycle’. “If we don’t win the ring, I could be traded,” says the star without displaying his characteristic humor for a single second.
«It’s the job we have. It’s the world we all live in. At any time, if you don’t achieve success, it can happen to all of us. If you don’t do a job well enough, you’re out,” he told the journalist. The Athletic Sam Amick.
Perhaps his words are a bit dramatic. But it is no less true that a new fall at the first opportunity in the playoffs would shake the foundations of the project and rethink the extent to which it is viable. The option, of course, would not be to enter into reconstruction with Anteto on board. But rather propose a profound remodeling around him or, as he indicates, start from scratch through his transfer. The die is cast.
(Cover photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
