Giannis Antetokounmpo may have inadvertently stressed out the entire Milwaukee Bucks fanbase on Sunday. Following Milwaukee’s 132-119 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Antetokounmpo, like many other NBA players, was asked about the shocking trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
At first, Antetokounmpo gave a response that was based in the human aspect of a trade like this, and, similar to Kevin Durant’s approach, he touched on the double standards players and teams are held to when it comes to trades.
“I understand the business of basketball, that sometimes teams need to make the best moves that are good for their organization and for their position and for their own pursuit of greatness and championships. But at the same time, it goes both ways. You cannot have a double standard here,” Antetokounmpo said.
“When the teams make the best moves for them and they believe they can get another player to win now, when a player believes that he can go to a different team and he believes he can have a chance to win a championship, we cannot crucify the person and say that he’s not loyal and he didn’t do the right thing and he let everybody down. Because history has shown you, you have to do what is best for you and your family. You have to do what’s best, most important to win.”
Most, if not all, players share the same sentiment as Antetokounmpo. But immediately after that speech, the Bucks superstar had something surprising to say about the trade.
With Doncic headed to Los Angeles, Antetokounmpo said — in what seemed like a joking tone — that he would like to see more Europeans playing in major markets.
“Okay let’s say something funny because I took it and spoke very serious,” Antetokounmpo said. “Now that a European will be, I believe, the face of the Lakers, this is something new for Europe. It’s never happened before. We have Pau Gasol. Obviously he was a great player. And how do you say — Vujacic? Sasha Vujacic? — great guy, one of my close friends.
“Now I just love it, you know what I want? I want Luka to the Lakers, I want [Nikola] Jokic to the Knicks. I want all the Europeans to go to all the big markets to see something incredible. This is what I want. This is my dream.”
While Antetokounmpo likely meant no harm with that quote, it’s an eyebrow raiser and gets you thinking about the possibility of him perhaps wanting to play in a bigger market. He is one of the aforementioned Europeans players, after all.
There’s been no indications that he wants to leave Milwaukee, or that the Bucks would ever pull off a trade of the same magnitude of what the Mavericks just did. But after the Doncic trade, it feels like anything is possible.
Antetokounmpo did say in 2021, just five months after the Bucks won a championship, that while he wasn’t looking to leave Milwaukee soon, “the next challenge might not be here.” He already signed a three-year, $175.3 million contract extension in October 2023, taking him through the 2026-27 season with a player option the following year, but that doesn’t mean he’ll play out that entire contract in Milwaukee.
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He’s one of the best players in the league, and just turned 30 in December. If he wanted to switch teams because Milwaukee hasn’t done its best in putting a viable title contender around him since they won it all in 2021, that would not be surprising.
Of course, this is all just a mental exercise, as Antetokounmpo surely didn’t mean it that way. But big market teams like the Knicks, Celtics and Lakers probably saw that quote and are wondering if they could work out a deal to get him to their city.
And if that were to happen, it would still be the second-most shocking trade to happen this week.
