Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted to make sure his contract status didn’t distract the Milwaukee Bucks as they made a run at another crown.
NBA Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks Sign a New Contract Extension:
Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted to make sure his contract status didn’t distract the Milwaukee Bucks as they made a run at another crown.
That’s one reason the two- time MVP changed his mind and inked a three- time,$ 186 million extension rather than staying until coming summer to make his unborn plans known. Antetokounmpo, 28, explained his decision Tuesday, one day after publicizing on social media he’d agreed to the extension.
“I’m not required to respond to inquiries from the press regarding my contract and my decision to stay or leave.,” declared Giannis Antetokounmpo. Since I had a deep-seated desire to stay. I don’t want people, when we lose a game to come back and say, ‘ Oh, Giannis is being bothered, he doesn’t like what’s going on, this, that, he’s going to leave, blah, blah, blah. ’ No. The discussion right now is going to be straight basketball. ”
Antetokounmpo noted he made a analogous decision back in 2020, when he inked his supermax extension about a week before the launch of the season rather than pursuing free agency the ensuing summer. The Bucks proceeded to claim their first championship in fifty years.
“ It was veritably helpful, ” Antetokounmpo recalled. “ I didn’t have to suppose about it. And I don’t suppose it’s just helpful to me, it’s helpful to the platoon too. They have no desire to learn that Giannis is departing. Giannis is staying ’ the whole time. ”
Antetokounmpo’s advertisement on the dusk of the NBA’s season nature limited an important many months for the Bucks and their megastar. The Bucks posted the NBA’s stylish regular- season record last time but lost to the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs, a result that led to the blasting of trainer Mike Budenholzer and the hiring of Adrian Griffin. Giannis Antetokounmpo also said this summer he wouldn’t subscribe an extension this time and wanted to see how married the Bucks were about contending for another crown.
Milwaukee also acquired seven- time each- NBA guard Damian Lillard — like Antetokounmpo a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary platoon — from the Portland Trail Blazers. Indeed after that move, Antetokounmpo said he’d stay until the summer before subscribing an extension because it didn’t make fiscal sense to do it now.
Griffin declared on Tuesday that “he’s the stylish player in the world.” It’s really amazing to have him commit for several more occasions. After the Bucks selected Giannis Antetokounmpo out of Greece with the 15th overall choice in the 2013 draft, he has been a member of the team for the entirety of his career. He won successive MVP awards in 2019 and 2020 and led the 2020- 21 Bucks to the ballot’s first crown in a half- century, scoring 50 points in the title- deciding palm. He’s Milwaukee’s career leader in points, assists, blocks, triadic- doubles and games played.
“ I ’m extremely happy, ” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “ I am familiar with the ins and outs of the megacity. The megacity shows me a lot of love, and also whenever I go out there and have time with my family, they also give me space, which is crazy to me. When they see me on the road,( they) give me space. They admire who I’m as a person and what I ’ve done for the megacity of Milwaukee.
And for that, I can’t turn my reverse. Not now, not in the future, not noway . “ Additionally, I want to dedicate myself to giving back to Milwaukee, the megacity. We won one crown, but I believe we can win a alternate. ”
