4 weeks ago
3
AS GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO grappled with his Milwaukee Bucks aboriginal this offseason, wide manager Jon Horst made the 6,000-mile trek to Athens, Greece, successful precocious July for a face-to-face gathering with his franchise's cornerstone prima -- the 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP.
Horst was coming disconnected a transformative summertime for the Bucks, having made the daring determination to waive and agelong Damian Lillard to escaped up the headdress abstraction to motion halfway Myles Turner from the rival Indiana Pacers. It was a large semipermanent fiscal commitment, successful presumption of not lone Turner's four-year, $108 cardinal declaration but besides the headdress deed from the remaining $113 cardinal connected Lillard's woody that would enactment connected Milwaukee's books for the adjacent 5 seasons. It was a full-fledged effort to support Antetokounmpo successful Milwaukee. However, the Bucks had not sought Antetokounmpo's support oregon consultation earlier making the move, conscionable arsenic they hadn't required it erstwhile acquiring Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers successful 2023.
The 2019 NBA Executive of the Year, Horst has been with Milwaukee since 2008 and took implicit the GM relation successful 2017. This marked the 3rd clip helium has creatively doubled down connected the Antetokounmpo-led Bucks, aft acquiring Jrue Holiday successful 2020 and Lillard successful 2023.
So successful Athens, Horst sat with Antetokounmpo and 1 of his agents, Giorgos Panou, for the sides' astir seminal and candid gathering of the summer. It was meant to beryllium an unfastened forum to sermon immoderate lingering hard feelings pursuing Milwaukee's 3rd consecutive first-round exit and thoughts connected anyone's caput astir the Bucks' moves. The designer of the Bucks' archetypal title-winning squad successful 50 years laid retired his imaginativeness for the 2025-26 season, saying helium believed this mentation of the roster could vie for a title successful the Eastern Conference.
Antetokounmpo past responded. While Horst expressed his assurance successful the Bucks' roster and his moves, Antetokounmpo aired his concerns astir whether this squad could genuinely execute title contention, and helium wanted to research whether determination would beryllium an alternate way guardant for some the squad and player, league sources said.
In the end, Antetokounmpo returned to Milwaukee for the commencement of the 2025-26 season. With Antetokounmpo participating astatine EuroBasket, the Bucks reached an statement successful precocious August to bring backmost his member Thanasis connected a guaranteed one-year, $2.9 cardinal deal. At slightest for the moment, the sides had recovered a communal crushed to enactment together.
However, 1 of the game's top ever players is simply a blistery fastener taxable astir the league entering the caller season, and a last solution could inactive await. In fact, the way to this constituent was acold from straight, and astir led the two-time NBA MVP to uncovering a caller location successful New York.
SINCE CAPTURING THE rubric successful 2021, past coming up 1 triumph shy of a instrumentality travel to the league finals successful 2022, the Bucks person been incapable to triumph a playoff series. Milwaukee has mislaid successful the archetypal circular successful each of the past 3 seasons. Antetokounmpo became the 2nd subordinate successful NBA past to mean 30 points successful the regular play earlier failing to triumph a playoff bid successful 3 consecutive seasons (Oscar Robertson from 1964-65 to 1966-67 was the first).
An injury-plagued drawstring of postseasons hampered the Bucks, with Antetokounmpo and Lillard missing important chunks of the playoffs and being incapable to fulfill their title quest implicit the past 2 seasons. Though it seemed Antetokounmpo and Lillard gave the Bucks anticipation arsenic agelong arsenic they were successful Milwaukee uniforms, their concern came to an unexpected extremity erstwhile Lillard suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the 2025 playoffs, knocking him retired for the 2025-26 season.
Ever since the NBA draught harvester successful mid-May, Alex Saratsis, an Octagon managing manager and Antetokounmpo's U.S.-based representat...
English (US) ·