https://eu.jsonline.com/story/sports/nba/bucks/2026/06/24/how-the-giannis-antetokounmpo-era-in-milwaukee-came-to-a-bitter-end/90478839007/During a Dec. 17 media session, Antetokounmpo said he did not speak to ownership at all about his future with the team during the season.
This, despite having done exactly that after the earlier December report. It was another lie in ownership?s eyes, and it was beginning to wear on them.
"When you're around Giannis, and then what you hear on the outside, it's two different worlds," Rivers said on the Bill Simmons podcast after the season. "I think a lot people were talking for him. I don't know if they necessarily were doing that in what he was actually saying, and it made things murky, and it made things very, very difficult."
Giannis comes across like a diva in that article.
Some stuff on the team having to sign his brothers
Ownership tried to assuage Antetokounmpo's discontent by re-signing his older brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo. It was only then that ESPN stopped. But even the signing failed to smooth everything over. Waiting until late August to finalize Thanasis' minimum deal irritated the family and its representatives.
"I have seen them make every decision with the foundational piece being, "What will Giannis think of this??" one team source said of the top of the organization.
Added another:?And that is what has gotten us to this point.?
The team also signed Giannis' youngest brother, Alex, to a contract that gave him his first chance at playing in the NBA. The brothers' personal skills coach Mike Kalavros also was allowed to travel with the team.
These deals bothered Rivers and other coaches, as they felt the organization had bowed too much to appease their star player. To them, Antetokounmpo wanted things both ways.
"Giannis said so many things," a former coach said, "It stems from your actions, which is, "My brothers have to be on this team." Well then, are you about a championship? 'Cause they're not only not helping us win a championship, it's creating dissension."
The article goes over his influence on the coaching changes and the dissent in the locker room of which Giannis often led.
The star told them he was committed for the upcoming season.
What Antetokounmpo avoided was that he did not believe Doc Rivers could push him, or the team, to the level he aspired. Or that if Rivers were dismissed, it would help convince him to fully buy into a new, upcoming plan for the team.
In a way, he felt he had used his influence regarding the decisions on Mike Budenholzer, Adrian Griffin and Damian Lillard, which he regretted. And Antetokounmpo was keenly aware of how another coach firing might affect his reputation.
The article also talks about little effort both Giannis & Lillard made to improve their on-court chemistry / relationship. They talked about doing things but never followed through. Their on-court chemistry was a problem throughout their time together.
I believe the same would have happened with Tatum & Giannis. I think Giannis is plain difficult to play. Tatum & Lillard could play together.
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So many different reports of Giannis taking over and drawing up the team plays. Directing teammates what to do. Not what the coach wanted to do but what Giannis wanted them to do. Happened under A Griffin and happened under Doc. Many times.
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Antetokounmpo then began to amplify his issues. He criticized the coaches for not holding him accountable, how the offense was being run, and his teammate?s selfishness. That dissatisfaction then spilled onto the court. He stopped shooting. He booed the fans at Fiserv Forum. It looked like he wanted to walk off the court in San Antonio.
This was Giannis during last season. Throwing his toys out the pram.
I still think that Bucks team underachieved + that they would have won more with Jaylen Brown than they did with (a healthy) Giannis. This type of information only reinforces that belief.
But Antetokounmpo?s unavailability (he missed 46 games entirely and played only 12 games fully healthy), the petulance with which he did play, combined with those speaking to ESPN on his behalf in contrast to his public declarations of commitment, had worn out the ownership, coaching staff, even the locker room.
It's hard to know Antetokounmpo's level of self-awareness, but whatever buttons he tried to push, or methods of communication he felt best to use, fell just as flat as those of the head coach.
Antetokounmpo let it be known he did not like locker room leaks, but his mental state was chronicled nearly all season by anonymous sources. He pleaded for accountability but then tried to pass off those reports as someone else?s doing. He would call his teammates selfish but then stand on a visiting team?s court with a former coach and yell about how that person would make sure he got the ball.
Topic: NBA 2026-27 offseason trades, signings & rumors (Read 27720 times)