Giannis Antetokounmpo won’t sign extension until title commitment from Bucks
By: Jamal Collier, ESPN
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he does not plan to sign a contract extension when he becomes eligible next month and that he won’t sign one until he’s comfortable knowing the organization will continue to compete for a championship.
In an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, the two-time MVP said “numbers-wise it doesn’t make sense,” adding that the organization still has something to prove before he potentially signs an extension next summer.
“Next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know,” Antetokounmpo said in the interview. “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”
Antetokounmpo will enter the third season of a five-year, $228 million supermax extension in 2023-24. His contract includes a player option after the 2024-25 season.
The Bucks can offer Antetokounmpo a three-year, $173 million extension beginning Sept. 22. However, Antetokounmpo outlined the factors that will go into his decision-making before he signs his next deal.
“At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship,” he told The Times. “As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it. The moment I feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild’ … there will never be hard feelings with the Milwaukee Bucks.”
Antetokounmpo reiterated a desire he has expressed in the past: to remain with one franchise his entire career, as Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki did. But he also called winning the NBA title in 2021 “the best feeling” he has had in basketball. He indicated that he would prioritize that feeling above all else when it comes to his future.
“At the end of the day, being a winner, it’s over that goal,” Antetokounmpo told The Times. “Winning a championship comes first. I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship.”
Milwaukee is coming off a disappointing first-round exit in April despite entering the playoffs as the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Following their exit, the Bucks fired coach Mike Budenholzer and hired Adrian Griffin, who was an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. Aside from that change, Milwaukee’s offseason was focused on bringing back its own core of free agents. The Bucks signed Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton to new deals to prevent them from leaving.
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