This was not about the Milwaukee Bucks kicking the Giannis Antetokounmpo can down the road — again.
Not entirely, anyway.
Yes, the offers from around the league will improve when summertime hits. Teams such as Miami, Minnesota, Golden State and New York will likely be just as interested in discussing a deal for the “Greek Freak” then, if not more, and most will have more assets available for their respective pitches.
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It’s also true that a new crop of desperate teams will inevitably join these sweepstakes after falling short in the forthcoming playoffs, with squads such as San Antonio, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers often mentioned. And what if Oklahoma City, which has been hoarding damn near half the league’s first-round picks, falls short in its title defense? You never say never in this league.
Even with all the (incredibly) strong signs that Antetokounmpo is ready to move on, with this Bucks team nowhere near the title-contending caliber that he has every right to expect, the upside of waiting just a few months longer gives Bucks general manager Jon Horst justification for the choice not to move him at Thursday’s trade deadline.
Still, as the Bucks made so abundantly clear just minutes after the deadline passed, when they posted a video so cheeky and cocksure that you would have thought Antetokounmpo had signed another extension, their Plan A(ntetokounmpo) is the same as it ever was going forward: Find a way to keep him in Milwaukee — again — no matter how unlikely it might seem.
Just In: Conversations have started about @ShamsCharania’s future, and discussing whether the ESPN Senior NBA Insider’s best fit is staying on Giannis’ All-Star Celebrity team or elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/IS6XMlQSPf
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) February 5, 2026
It’s one thing for the home team to stick to this script, though. The part that was so unexpected, which spoke volumes about why Antetokounmpo’s nature as a person has made it so much harder for him to get out of town, was when he decided to play along with a post of his own that was sent with that same spirit. (Warning, there’s some salty language.)
Legends don’t chase. They attract 💯😎 pic.twitter.com/62r1jg93vt
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) February 5, 2026
As of now, Giannis’ post has been retweeted more than 8,000 times, and the Bucks’ comedy bit has over 2,000 retweets. Make no mistake, this was red meat for the Milwaukee masses.
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No one should be all that surprised that the two parties are handling it this way. There’s 13 years of shared history here, and a relationship between a star player and an organization that’s among the more special in the Association. The Bucks, who drafted him as an 18-year-old out of Greece and changed his family’s fortunes in many ways, have played a massive part in his Disney tale.
For Antetokounmpo, it’s obvious that he doesn’t want to be the bad guy here. Or to have his Bucks legacy tainted by an ugly ending. In essence, he doesn’t have it in him to go full Jimmy Butler (the Minnesota version) or James Harden (take your pick).
Anyone who read this quote from his late-night phone interview with Eric Nehm, our longtime Bucks beat writer, on Tuesday could tell that much.
“There’s going to be some people that are like, ‘Hey, man, when s— got hard, he left us,” he said. “When it didn’t go his way, he left. It bothers me — which it should not be bothering me — because I don’t like to quit.”
That sort of selfless style, fair or not, is to the Bucks’ benefit.
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For anyone who’s exhausted by the marathon feel of this, rest assured that the looming extension — and what he signals in the summer regarding it — will provide clarity once and for all. If Antetokounmpo indicates that he won’t sign the four-year, $275 million deal that he’s eligible for on Oct. 1, then even the Bucks will know that it’s finally time to move on.
Yet, the tone of all this messaging has been quite revealing, as it’s driven by the Bucks still believing they can try, yet again, to convince him to stay. And Antetokounmpo, in turn, continues to publicly play along while professing his love for the city at every possible turn.
“I want to be here, but I want to be here to win,” as he put it simply to Nehm.
So let’s indulge the Bucks’ (fever) dream for a moment.
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If the Bucks were to shock the basketball world here, it would take the kind of roster overhaul that seems virtually impossible right about now. And it involves a whole lot of “ifs” that they hope can go their way….
- What if they can get a player such as Ja Morant at a bargain-basement price this offseason? After all, the Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies were known to have talks heading into the deadline, and it would be easy enough to resume those conversations down the line.
- What if they can find another impact player via trade from there, one that will be easier to land because they’ll be able to access three first-round picks at that point?
- What if they get lucky in the lottery, landing a first-rounder so high that it makes the aforementioned pursuit of an impact player that much easier? The Bucks, currently at 20-29, have the league’s eighth-worst record. Their 2026 first-round pick, for the record, will be the worst of theirs or New Orleans’ (the 13-40 Pelicans have the second-worst record).
However, right about the time you start squinting just hard enough to see the vision, you run into a potential conflict that could turn into a game-changer: Antetokounmpo’s eventual return from his calf injury, and him playing down the stretch of this season, ironically, would weaken the pitch to keep him around by leading to a worse draft pick. There’s this, too: With so many suitors already concerned about his history of health issues, the notion of Antetokounmpo playing could cause some concern on that front heading into the offseason.
Yet as Nehm reported, in no uncertain terms, on Thursday, Antetokounmpo fully intends to play once the injury he suffered on Jan. 23 is fully healed. The key phrasing from Nehm’s report reads: “… to help the Bucks make a push for the postseason.” So yes, in other words, Giannis will play when he wants to play.
In other breaking news, Milwaukee gets quite cold from time to time.
Anyone who knows Antetokounmpo knows that he’s not the type to sit for ping pong balls, or anything else, and the mere mention of that idea by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on Thursday was enough to make you wonder how the Bucks will ultimately play this when that time comes.
That’s an issue for another time, though.
On this trade deadline day, when so many believed Antetokounmpo might finally be moved, with the entire league’s market responding to his superstar status, the Bucks and their (understandably fatigued) fans were able to keep the Giannis dream alive while enjoying a few punchlines along the way, too.
And believe it or not, it’s not the end of this road just yet.