At least for right now, Giannis Antetokounmpo is focused on the Milwaukee Bucks.
Antetokounmpo was asked on Wednesday about a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania this week that the Bucks and the New York Knicks engaged in trade talks about him this summer. The Knicks were reportedly the only other team in the league that Antetokounmpo wanted to join.
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Antetokounmpo said Wednesday that he didn’t read Charania’s story, and he didn’t deny the Knicks connection explicitly. But Antetokounmpo said repeatedly that he is “locked in” with the Bucks in the weeks leading up to the 2025-26 campaign.
“I’ve said this many times, I want to be in a situation that I can win and now I’m here. I believe in this team,” he said, via The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. “I believe in my teammates. I’m here to lead this team to wherever we can go and it’s definitely going to be hard. We’re going to take it day-by-day, but I’m here. … I’m locked into whatever I have in front of me.
“Now, if in six, seven months, I change my mind I think that’s human too. You’re allowed to make any decision you want, but I’m locked in. I’m locked into this team. I’m locked into these guys, to this group and to this coaching staff and to myself.”
Notably, Antetokounmpo left the door open there for an exit in the future.
The two-time league MVP has spent his entire career with the Bucks, who selected him with the No. 15 overall pick in 2013 out of Greece. He averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists last season while making a league-high 11.8 field goals per game.
The Bucks, though, are in a weird spot. The franchise, which went 48-34 last season, was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for a third straight campaign. They lost Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton in the offseason, too, while picking up Myles Turner. It’s easy to understand why Antetokounmpo may want to be traded to a championship contender, especially as he enters his 13th season in the league and will turn 31 in December. He’s in the back half of his career, after all.
But the Bucks, at least according to head coach Doc Rivers, have never made a legitimate move to trade Antetokounmpo away.
“At the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Rivers said about the report, which he called “unbelievable.”
“I can tell you [general manager Jon Horst] has never called a team about Giannis. That has never happened. And until that happens, you really don’t have a story.”
So for the moment, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are content with the state of their relationship. But if things get off to a rocky start and the team struggles, Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee is sure to be called into question again in the coming months. And with the way he’s been playing, it’d be hard to find a team that wouldn’t be at least a little interested in trading for him.
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