For a good few months, everyone associated with the Milwaukee Bucks, be it the front desk, the members of the roster, or their fans, every single one of them could be found plucking rose petals, thinking “will he, won’t he?” loudly, as the rest of the league prepared their bids for Giannis Antetokounmpo. The trade deadline passed, with Giannis still in a Bucks jersey.
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It doesn’t mean the drama has come to an end. The Bucks have simply failed to put a championship-winning cast around the 2021 NBA Finals MVP. They are currently struggling at 12th in the Western Conference, 30 losses to their 23 wins, so it’s still very likely that Giannis might look elsewhere for his 2nd ring.
Naturally, with every condition pointing to a separation, the rumors were in full flow in the lead-up to this recently concluded trade deadline. Throughout it all, however, Giannis maintained a principled and professional stance, and the Bucks roster, at the very least, is grateful for it.
Bucks forward Myles Turner and New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, on their podcast, talked about how the mood in the locker room has been amidst this madness.
“I think it starts with literally what he is doing now, you can kind of see him, kind of can’t,” Turner said, pointing to the back of the gym, where Giannis was putting some work in.
“He’s just out there, putting in the work, bro. I think that’s a really big thing. He worked through all that noise. I think that no matter what happens, what you see, you’re always going to see his face on TV … there’s a new report this day. There, ”okay, he said this, this day,'” Turner continued.
“One thing I have to give him credit for is, he’s been dealing with this for quite some time now, for the past few years. He’s very stonefaced in front of us, he’s still the same guy. He’s joking, he’s laughing. He’s got a really outgoing personality, when he’s around us … honestly, I feel for him. I have not been on his level but I have been through 4-5 years of trade rumors. It’s not fun,” Turner explained.
The Bucks star noted that constant stories like that in the media can mess up a player and, subsequently, the psyche of a team, “especially when he’s hurt and not playing. So, it’s not an easy time but I think he’s handling it really well and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.”
Calling himself a bit of a conspiracy theorist, Turner floated the idea that since Giannis is an European superstar, the NBA wanted him out of a smaller market and playing for the big franchises that would bring more eyes, more money, and more everything else for the league.
“If you move someone like him, in the prime of his career, to a bigger team and whatnot, the following just goes up crazy, as opposed to him, spending his ‘best prime years’ on a small market team,” Turner argued.
Turner’s not wrong. The NBA would certainly love having Giannis play for a big team with some serious names on its roster. It would enhance their global marketability. Theories on the forums on the internet often try to link what’s happening with Giannis to how Luka Doncic found himself on a big-name market after a shocking trade that came out of left field.
For now, Giannis has shut down all talks of him wanting to move out of Milwaukee. So the best anyone can do is wait for the end of the season and see in which direction the wind blows come summertime.
