Wednesday brought a new development in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors.
Whispers around the Milwaukee Bucks star have been swirling for a week now, since it was reported that the player and team were having conversations about his future with the franchise. The Bucks strongly denied that report, but it was still a noticeable bit of smoke in an area where some think there’s fire.
Antetokounmpo has been out since Wednesday, when he sustained a non-contact calf strain and is reportedly expected to miss around four weeks. In the meantime, NBA TV’s Chris Haynes reported Tuesday that Antetokounmpo “addressed some of his teammates recently to stress the importance of focusing on basketball and not to allow outside distractions to interfere with the process at hand.”
That was somewhat notable, though it was hardly a tell in either way when it came to Antetokounmpo’s intentions. What was interesting, however, was two of Antetokounmpo’s teammates bluntly shooting the report down.
Asked Wednesday about the reported meeting, Kyle Kuzma said he didn’t remember any such meeting:
“I don’t really know, honestly. I don’t really remember a time he met with us. Yeah, he didn’t sit us down like ‘The Apprentice.’ It didn’t go down like that.”
Kevin Porter Jr. was even firmer, blasting the report as false information and saying everyone needs to wait until Antetokounmpo himself says something:
“Did that actually happen? Are you asking me? I mean, no. This is the last thing I’m gonna say about anything regarding false information. At the end of the day, everyone needs to wait until Giannis says something. Because all of this is just he say, she say and I guarantee you when we start winning and go 8-0, 9-0, you won’t see nothing about the Bucks. You won’t say, ‘Oh, the Bucks are 8-0, 9-0, they’re flourishing and Giannis is —’ We’re not gonna see that positive news. At least for me, this is the last time I’m going to answer anything false.”
It’s worth noting that Haynes said Antetokounmpo only met with “some” Bucks players, but if the whole point was to urge the Bucks to stay focused on basketball instead of trade rumors, it would be a curious decision to exclude Kuzma and Porter. Both players are averaging at least 25 minutes per game for Milwaukee and rank second and fourth on the team in points per game.
So there appears to be some confusion on how much Antetokounmpo is even talking to his teammates. For now, the Bucks are 10-15 and have several more games to play before the Greek Freak is healthy again.
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