IN FAIRNESS TO GIANNIS, TRADE HIM AND LET HIM REGAIN HIS ALL-TIME EMINENCE
Every game has drama or controversy, meaning the Bucks have lost their title hopes and should let Antetokounmpo move from Milwaukee to a team such as Oklahoma City, where he could win more rings
He never should be forgotten. His first name has seven letters and his last name has 13 letters and continues to be butchered for its life duration, once by Chicago’s Stacey King, who said on the air: “Ah-deh-toh-KOON-boh.” Prime Video features a documentary on Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is one of only three NBA players to amass 50 points and 10 rebounds in a game nine times, including 59 and 14 with seven assists Wednesday.
Yet it’s startling to say the Greek Freak should take one last gaze around Milwaukee, described by Donald Trump as “horrible,” and realize he must leave town.
His one NBA championship with the Bucks happened four seasons ago. Jrue Holiday was traded for Damian Lillard, a disappointment that only fed Boston’s machine. Doc Rivers was hired to gag in the postseason. The league’s best story is in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers are 13-0 with Donovan Mitchell exterminating the flames of LeBron James. It wasn’t long ago when Antetokounmpo, almost 30, said this in The Athletic: “Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. This is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in.”
If it once was fun thinking he’d stay forever in Wisconsin, where he once bought 50 pieces of chicken nuggets at Chick-Fil-A, Giannis needs to move on or be stuck with one title — the same number of championships won in Green Bay by Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. Not that he hasn’t been celebrated, but his eminence should be atop the sport. That won’t happen with the Bucks, who lost their shot to win another and are trying to recover from an injury riddled, 4-8 start. All he has to say is: I’m gone. He’ll be traded.
He must regain his cachet with several years left in his prime. And teams will line up. A stumblebum located 90 miles south should send everything in the United Center, even the Jordan statue, for Antetokounmpo — problem is, the Bulls don’t have enough in their stable to interest owner Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam and general manager Jon Horst. The team that has more than enough, in a league trying to avoid the killer penalties of the second-apron threshold, is in Oklahoma City, which has drafted extraordinarily well and could add Giannis while keeping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren.
Every time I peek at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, I wonder how a seating wall of 51 consecutive rows will be filled and how a 38,375-square-foot, 4K resolution video board will be watched — and how 1,100 toilets and urinals will be used — if the Los Angeles Clippers don’t find a star player. Paul George is gone. Kawhi Leonard might as well be done. The other night, the fans were chanting “Norman Powell!” for a 6-6 team that has empty home seats. Powell doesn’t bring Hollywood to a new arena when LeBron and Anthony Davis remain downtown. Giannis? Steve Ballmer doesn’t have enough to offer.
Would Golden State make a run? Antetokounmpo's three-year, $186 million extension kicks in next season. Could owner Joe Lacob give up everyone beyond Stephen Curry, Buddy Hield and — I detest saying this — Draymond Green? He’ll try. The Knicks need another star beyond Jalen Brunson. Antetokounmpo? Miami, maybe?
Noticing his angst, other teams are peppering Giannis. Detroit madman Isaiah Stewart tugged at the back of his jersey and was tossed from the game. “I've been in that position many times in my life," Antetokounmpo said. “I have two older brothers that pushed me on the floor, were tough on me. It doesn't really faze me anymore. All I could think about was, ‘Get up and make two free throws.’ At the same time, it's a dangerous play. It's not a basketball play.” Earlier this week, Giannis was massively posterized on a dunk by Toronto’s Bruno Fernando. Who is Bruno Fernando?
Last week, Jaylen Brown called him out as “a child.” Why? After elbowing Brown in the face, Antetokounmpo tried to high-five him, then pulled back his arm. “Obviously, it’s a joke,” Giannis said. “We’re playing basketball, but at the same time, you gotta have fun while playing. I think he’s an incredible player. He does whatever he can to help his team win. Extremely competitive player. We’ve played against one another many times. We always — I think — we always joke around within the flow of the game. It’s something I do with my kids. I play around. ‘Oh, give me a high five. Ope, you’re too slow.’ I just did it. I enjoyed it though. It was fun.”
That’s not all. A loss to the Knicks in New York led Antetokounmpo to call out writer Pat Pickens of the Associated Press. For some reason, Pickens sighed during a post-game interview. “If you don’t want to be here, you can leave,” Giannis said. “If you don’t want to be here, you can leave.”
“Kind of crazy,” Pickens said.
He needs a new city, a new venue, a new championship hope. Before his 59-14 game against Detroit, he told his teammates, “The first year I came to the Bucks, we were one of the worst teams in the NBA. I was able to get a lot of opportunity, and I was able to develop. Guys are missing right now. … Don't take this moment for granted.”
Said Rivers, maybe knowing what’s ahead: “I've seen a lot of great games. It's funny how a coach thinks, though. We called a timeout and Giannis has 22 of our 24. This ain't good. I'm thinking the exact opposite. We've got to get somebody else involved in this. After the game, you realize how special this is.”
The man is tired, 20 name letters and all. Will he be happy in, say, Oklahoma City?
It’s a small town, but if he can hold another big trophy in mid-June, trade him now.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.