AS GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO grappled along with his Milwaukee Bucks future this offseason, common supervisor Jon Horst made the 6,000-mile trek to Athens, Greece, in late July for a face-to-face assembly along with his franchise’s cornerstone star — the 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP.
Horst was coming off a transformative summer time for the Bucks, having made the daring transfer to waive and stretch Damian Lillard to unencumber the cap area to signal heart Myles Turner from the rival Indiana Pacers. It was a significant long-term monetary dedication, by way of not solely Turner’s four-year, $108 million contract but in addition the cap hit from the remaining $113 million on Lillard’s deal that might keep on Milwaukee’s books for the subsequent 5 seasons. It was a full-fledged effort to maintain Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. Nonetheless, the Bucks had not sought Antetokounmpo’s approval or session earlier than making the transfer, simply as they hadn’t required it when buying Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers in 2023.
The 2019 NBA Government of the 12 months, Horst has been with Milwaukee since 2008 and took over the GM function in 2017. This marked the third time he has creatively doubled down on the Antetokounmpo-led Bucks, after buying Jrue Holiday in 2020 and Lillard in 2023.
So in Athens, Horst sat with Antetokounmpo and one among his brokers, Giorgos Panou, for the perimeters’ most seminal and candid assembly of the summer time. It was meant to be an open discussion board to debate any lingering exhausting emotions following Milwaukee’s third consecutive first-round exit and ideas on anybody’s thoughts concerning the Bucks’ strikes. The architect of the Bucks’ first title-winning group in 50 years laid out his imaginative and prescient for the 2025-26 season, saying he believed this model of the roster may compete for a championship within the Japanese Convention.
Antetokounmpo then responded. Whereas Horst expressed his confidence within the Bucks’ roster and his strikes, Antetokounmpo aired his considerations about whether or not this group may actually obtain championship competition, and he needed to discover whether or not there can be another path ahead for each the group and participant, league sources mentioned.
Ultimately, Antetokounmpo returned to Milwaukee for the beginning of the 2025-26 season. With Antetokounmpo collaborating at EuroBasket, the Bucks reached an settlement in late August to deliver again his brother Thanasis on a assured one-year, $2.9 million deal. A minimum of for the second, the perimeters had discovered a standard floor to remain collectively.
Nonetheless, one of many recreation’s biggest ever gamers is a sizzling button matter across the league getting into the brand new season, and a remaining decision may nonetheless await. The truth is, the trail so far was removed from straight, and almost led the two-time NBA MVP to discovering a brand new residence in New York.
SINCE CAPTURING THE title in 2021, then developing one win shy of a return journey to the convention finals in 2022, the Bucks have been unable to win a playoff collection. Milwaukee has misplaced within the first spherical in every of the previous three seasons. Antetokounmpo turned the second participant in NBA historical past to common 30 factors within the common season earlier than failing to win a playoff collection in three straight seasons (Oscar Robertson from 1964-65 to 1966-67 was the primary).
An injury-plagued string of postseasons hampered the Bucks, with Antetokounmpo and Lillard lacking vital chunks of the playoffs and being unable to meet their championship quest over the previous two seasons. Although it appeared Antetokounmpo and Lillard gave the Bucks hope so long as they had been in Milwaukee uniforms, their partnership got here to an sudden finish when Lillard suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the course of the 2025 playoffs, knocking him out for the 2025-26 season.
Ever because the NBA draft mix in mid-Could, Alex Saratsis, an Octagon managing director and Antetokounmpo’s U.S.-based consultant, has fielded rampant curiosity in Antetokounmpo and performed severe due diligence on very best outdoors suits ought to the star and his reps push to be traded from the Bucks. A number of groups had been mentioned internally, however one emerged as the one place Antetokounmpo needed to play outdoors of Milwaukee: the New York Knicks, a number of sources with direct data of the state of affairs instructed ESPN.
The Bucks picked up the Knicks’ name on Antetokounmpo, and the perimeters engaged in conversations for a window of time in August, league sources mentioned, however the groups by no means bought traction on a deal.
The Bucks insisted to the Knicks that they most popular to not transfer Antetokounmpo, however these in Milwaukee consider New York didn’t make a powerful sufficient provide to proceed even discussing a commerce, league sources mentioned. It is unclear how the Bucks would have responded to an all-out chase by the Knicks. The multiweek course of was described by one supply with direct data of the talks as an unique negotiating window. New York, for its half, believes the Bucks by no means had been severe about entertaining an Antetokounmpo commerce, sources mentioned.
The Knicks have had a watch on Antetokounmpo for the previous couple of years underneath president Leon Rose, who heads a entrance workplace that constructed the franchise right into a perennial playoff contender since taking up in 2020. Individuals in league circles, together with some in New York, have believed since 2024 that Antetokounmpo would finally wish to come to the Knicks if he ever explored a commerce.
Even with that data, the Knicks made a collection of strikes impartial of Antetokounmpo’s potential wishes to attempt to transfer the franchise nearer to a title. New York traded its treasure chest of draft picks to amass Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets in June 2024, then despatched Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-rounder to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns in early October 2024. The Knicks then signed Bridges to a four-year, $150 million extension this August, which makes him ineligible to be traded till February.
These maneuvers left the Knicks’ pool of nonplayer belongings restricted to at least one first-round choose, three choose swaps and eight second-rounders, primarily decimating their capability to make an awesome provide to Milwaukee. As is, the Knicks, who’re coming off an look within the Japanese Convention finals for the primary time in 25 years, enter the season because the co-favorites within the East together with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
ANTETOKOUNMPO HAS EXPRESSED publicly and privately over the previous few years that he desires to win a second championship and that any failure to place the Bucks able to take action could lead on him to look elsewhere.
“I wish to be on a group that enables me and offers me an opportunity to win a championship,” Antetokounmpo mentioned Sept. 29 at media day, the place he appeared remotely after lacking the beginning of coaching camp as a consequence of COVID-19, in keeping with the group. “I feel it is a disservice to basketball, simply to the sport, to not need it to compete in a excessive stage, to need your season to finish in April.”
In a telling trade, Bucks managing governor Wes Edens mentioned at media day that he had a dialog with Antetokounmpo in June when the Bucks’ star expressed his dedication to Milwaukee.
An hour later, Antetokounmpo mentioned: “I can not recall that assembly.”
“The final three years, we have been eradicated within the first spherical, so it is not a lot to speak about,” he added. “We simply bought to place our heads down and keep locked in the entire 12 months lengthy and attempt to win some video games and hopefully get within the playoffs after which do not get eradicated within the first spherical. That is just about it. After which we go from there.”
Then final Saturday, after touring from Greece to affix the Bucks in Miami, Antetokounmpo mentioned: “I simply need extra. I wish to win one other championship. I wish to win one other medal for the nationwide group. Legacy is essential for me. … You bought to play to win. I do not play to be round and receives a commission.”
Bucks sources had feared, partly due to Antetokounmpo’s expressed need to win one other championship, that he would make a proper commerce request in the course of the week of July 28 when Horst launched into his one-day journey to Greece. League sources near the state of affairs had been anticipating the identical factor. Antetokounmpo was repeatedly asking himself, even after the Bucks’ beautiful launch of Lillard to signal Turner: Can this roster actually compete for a title? Antetokounmpo had severe questions and shared his emotions immediately with Horst, league sources mentioned.
This offseason marked the primary time that Antetokounmpo actually initiated the pursuit of his greatest exterior choices, and he had discussions with the Bucks that in the end led to the conversations between the franchise and the Knicks. Quick-forward months now, and he’ll be paying shut consideration to not solely how the Bucks carry out to start out the season but in addition to the panorama of the remainder of the league.
Bucks homeowners Jimmy Haslem and Edens, together with Horst and coach Doc Rivers, had been adamant all offseason that they needed to maintain Antetokounmpo, that it might be extraordinarily troublesome to pry him away. Rival executives believed the one means Antetokounmpo may have compelled a transfer elsewhere was by making a spectacle and pushing himself out like a number of NBA stars who requested trades lately. However those that know Antetokounmpo nicely say that’s the antithesis of who he’s, and in the end, he utilized no public strain to Milwaukee this summer time. He has constructed a picture on loyalty, and his actions, particularly two contract extensions with the franchise in 2020 and 2023, have come with out prior warning and thru his personal declaration.
Now he returns to the Bucks for his thirteenth season having caught with Milwaukee by way of the highs and lows. He has this season and the 2026-27 marketing campaign left on his present deal earlier than the power to decide out and turn out to be a free agent, however whether or not he stays in a Milwaukee uniform to that time stays in heavy query.
It’s anticipated that Antetokounmpo will maintain his choices open relying on how the Bucks begin the season, in keeping with league sources. From the outset of the Bucks’ season, the strain is obvious all through the group like by no means earlier than. It is seen as a make-or-break season in Milwaukee. Stakeholders inside the group perceive the primary quarter of the marketing campaign will maintain vital weight for the long run path. Antetokounmpo can even have a grip on groups throughout the league this season as a result of franchises will wish to guarantee they’re well-positioned within the seismic occasion of his commerce.
For Antetokounmpo, the second of peak leverage will come subsequent summer time when he has only one assured season remaining on his contract. On Oct. 1, 2026, he can be eligible for a four-year, $275 million most extension by way of the 2030-31 season, and he’d be capable of signal the identical cope with one other group six months after a commerce if he’s moved. That can enhance his capability to place the place he desires to be dealt if he chooses to hunt a commerce as a result of any group prepared to offer the steep worth crucial to amass him would wish to know whether or not he’s dedicated for the long run.
For now, the Bucks’ group believes in its capability to contend within the East with Antetokounmpo on its aspect and season-altering accidents to Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Boston’s Jayson Tatum opening up the highest of the convention. Antetokounmpo is coming off his second consecutive season averaging 30 factors, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 60% taking pictures; no different participant has completed that even as soon as in NBA historical past. Now, with Lillard gone, the offensive burden on Antetokounmpo getting into the season will solely enhance.
His capability to be superhuman each night time offers the Bucks perception that this group can problem anybody within the East. They haven’t dipped into the luxurious tax for this season, however waiving Lillard to herald Turner places a further $22.5 million on their books for every of the subsequent 5 seasons.
The group’s play will decide whether or not Antetokounmpo turns into a viable commerce goal in-season and whether or not he checks his greatest exterior choices, as soon as once more, in the course of the warmth of competitors. The entire league continues to observe as a result of what looms is one easy query: Will the window for Antetokounmpo reopen earlier than subsequent summer time?
