Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly contemplating ending his business relationship with the Milwaukee Bucks in the near future. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports stated on October 31st that he could ask for a trade as early as the trade deadline in 2025.
“Teams are circling — and hopeful,” one Western Conference team executive said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened by the trade deadline,” said a top executive of a team that could be in the mix.
An Eastern Conference NBA executive has already heard the places believed to be Giannis’ would-be preferred destinations: “The teams I’ve heard are Miami and New York — the Nets, not the Knicks.”
Is Giannis Antetokounmpo joking?
Giannis Antetokounmpo has started using the media to create a narrative that he is considering leaving the team because the Bucks’ championship window is closing. Sam Amick of the Athletic stated on October 16 that Giannis jokingly during training camp that everyone in the organization would be fired if team didn’t win a championship.
“If we don’t win this year, would you get fired?” Antetokounmpo asks with a wry smile to his co-worker. “Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody.”
Marc Lasry’s relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo
Although his comments were seen as a joke, they have a much deeper meaning. Former Bucks owner Marc Lasry began to establish a relationship with Giannis after his first all-star appearance in 2017. Lasry spoke fondly of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s willingness to spend time with fans in February 2018.
“You know what, it’s actually great for him,” Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry said. “But more than that he’s willing to take the time to meet with all of them and that’s why people continue to show up. He actually keeps coming out after games and there are not many people who will do that.”
11 months later, Lasry stated that Giannis had the same attitude as him.
“Giannis has the same attitude that I have; this is a phenomenal country,” Lasry adds. “Only here could this happen for both of us. He could have made money playing in Greece but not the type of money he’ll make in the NBA. I love hard-luck stories. The players who make it to the NBA because of hard work.
Lasry’s fondness for Giannis allowed Antetokounmpo to influence the team’s basketball decisions. The team signed his brother, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, in July 2019. Fifteen months later, former ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski stated that Giannis had lunch with Lasry to discuss the team’s offseason plans.
Lasry kept his promise, as the team acquired Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans on November 23, 2020. Over the years, Lasry continued to strengthen his relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo. In 2022, Lasry revealed he was teaching Antetokounmpo about financial investments.
“I’m like, ‘Giannis, you can’t be having accounts at 50 different banks,” Lasry said. “Let me tell you something, if JPMorgan goes under, your little dinky banks are going to go under too. Let me explain what you should buy, you should buy US Treasuries, you should buy this…’”
Marc Lasry sells ownership stake
Although Antetokounmpo and Lasry are still on great terms, Lasry is no longer an owner of the Bucks. On February 27, 2023, Lasry sold his 25% stake in the team to Jimmy and Dee Haslam. Six months after the sale, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s relationship with the team started to deteriorate.
On September 28, 2023, Adrian Wojnarowski stated that general manager Jon Horst didn’t talk to Antetokounmpo before trading Holiday.
“Directly, he literally played no role,” Wojnarowski said on Thursday’s NBA on ESPN. “In fact, Jon Horst, Milwaukee’s GM, he did not bring this trade idea or sign off on it to Giannis Antetokounmpo because Jrue Holiday was involved, and the relationship there, the reverence this organization and these players have for Holiday. He did not want to put that to Giannis Antetokounmpo and have him have that on his conscious necessarily, that he might sign off or not sign off on it.”
Giannis admitted in February of 2024 he wanted Holiday to still be on the team.
“We traded Jrue Holiday; I won’t say I didn’t like it because Damian Lillard is now my teammate and with him we’re going to win the championship, but my best friend leaving, who was living two minutes away from me is tough,” expressed Antetokounmpo on Cosmote TV, per Eurohoops.net. “We won the championship and we cried together.”
The organization has continued not consulting with Antetokounmpo on roster moves as they didn’t re-sign his brother during the 2024 offseason. Furthermore, he is now being held responsible for organizational failures.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was blamed for the team picking Adrian Griffin over Nick Nurse as head coach in 2023. Marc Stein revealed in January of 2024 that Antetokounmpo didn’t want Nurse as his head coach.
Stein added an important note, though, pointing out “the desire to play for Griffin is better described as a determination to play for someone other than Nick Nurse.”
The shift in treatment is most likely the catalyst behind Giannis Antetokounmpo’s comments about leaving Milwaukee. He hopes his threat of leaving gets ownership to listen to him, with the idea that the organization would like to maintain a positive relationship with the best player in franchise history.
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