Damian Lillard Playfully Threatens To “Touch Up” Giannis Antetokounmpo

Joseph Galizia | 20/06/2025
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) and guard Damian Lillard (0) react after defeating the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena.

If there is one person you probably don’t want to throw hands with in the NBA, it’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek Freak stands close to 7 feet tall, 240-plus pounds, and appears to be made entirely out of granite. But Damian Lillard doesn’t appear to be afraid of boxing against his Milwaukee teammate.

The official IG account of the Bucks posted a new reel that showed the camaraderie of the entire squad from this past season. The clip included a few seconds showing Dame Time and Giannis squaring off and fake boxing with one another. Both superstars re-shared the post on their personal social media pages.

But Dame added a little playful spice aimed at the Greek God to his. See, the nine-time All-Star does have some boxing experience.

“It’s good for your legs, just strengthening your body,” Lillard said during a 2024 interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “You gotta keep your hands up. You gotta move. I think it’s good for that. It’s good for your conditioning.”

So, how did Dame Time add some spice? “Bout to get that African sh** touched up @giannis_34,” he wrote via his IG story on the post re-share, and added laughing emojis to further drive home that he was just joking.

It’s nice to see teammates drop their egos and just have some good old-fashioned fun with each other. Dame and Antetokounmpo have this kind of relationship, so if you thought you were actually gonna see them brawl like it’s WWE, unfortunately, they missed the joke.

“This guy is one of the best players I ever played with,” said the Greek Freak about Dame after the dynamic duo led the Bucks to an NBA Cup Championship this season.

If it wasn’t for the bad injury luck that Dame had this year, the Bucks could have potentially gone further in the postseason. Hopefully, his recovery goes well so he can be back boxing his teammate in 2026.

Post Edited By: Sameen Nawathe
Damian Lillard Giannis Antetokounmpo NBA Cup

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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