Antetokounmpo scored 29 points in his return from an eight-game absence on Sunday (AEDT) following ongoing speculation he\u2019ll seek a trade away from the struggling 13-19 Bucks as soon as before the February 6 deadline.<\/p>\n
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Milwaukee, on a gradual decline since its 2021 championship win, went 2-6 in Antetokounmpo\u2019s absence, while he\u2019s contracted until the 2027\/28 season but with an opt-out clause in the final year.<\/p>\n
Speaking after Sunday\u2019s match, Antetokounmpo shut down a \u201cdisrespectful\u201d question on whether he still wants to be in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here. Don\u2019t ask me that question. I\u2019m here. It\u2019s disrespectful towards myself and my teammates,\u201d Antetokounmpo told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wear that jersey every single day. It\u2019s disrespectful towards the organisation, my coaching staff, myself, and all the people that work hard for me to come out here and say I don\u2019t want to be here,\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t ask me that question. I\u2019m here. I\u2019m putting on the jersey. And as long as I\u2019m here, I\u2019m gonna give everything I have, even in the last second of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It came after the 31-year old threw down a thunderous windmill dunk in the final seconds of the match when Milwaukee had already sewn up the victory in a rare sight that broke the NBA\u2019s unspoken rule to not add to a lead when a game is already decided.<\/p>\n
It prompted heated post-match scenes including Bulls centre Nikola Vucevic confronting Antetokounmpo to nearly ignite an all-in brawl.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo, who also took to X (formerly known as Twitter) with a not-so-subtle post sharing a picture of the dunk, explained his motivation to reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we 11th in the East or 12th? We just gotta keep finding our identity,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we need to get a bit scrappy at the end, so be it. We\u2019re not the champs. Why should \u2018play the clock out and have respect and fair play\u2019, we\u2019re fighting for our lives right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is real talk. I\u2019ve been 13 years in the league. If we keep on losing, probably half of the team won\u2019t be here. We\u2019re not going to make the playoffs. I really don\u2019t care. At the end of the day, I just want to be available, be healthy and help my team win. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if (a windmill dunk) is what has to happen for everybody to wake up and understand, we\u2019re fighting for our lives and we got to get our hands dirty, so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly, Vucevic wasn\u2019t a fan.<\/p>\n
Asked about the post-match scenes, the Bulls big man used it as an opportunity to take a cheeky shot at Antetokounmpo and the trade drama surrounding him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m assuming Giannis was mad about that report that came out that the Bulls didn\u2019t want to trade for him,\u201d the 35-year told reporters.<\/p>\n
Vucevic added with a sarcastic tone: \u201cI asked him why you did (the dunk). He said: \u2018Yeah, you guys didn\u2019t want to trade for me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two teams rematch in Milwaukee on February 4 (all times AEDT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo has sent a clear message. \u2018The Greek Freak\u2019 very much made his intentions clear on trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[2095,64,63,689,171148,5127,2066,203352,19061,203356,203353,800,3738,203359,9286,5130,4620,590,2041,2067,677,203358,203360,203361,10134,85,183095,203354,203357,2535,2614,203355,3585,12216],"class_list":["post-377231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-championship-win","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-clear-message","tag-coaching-staff","tag-contentious-windmill","tag-eight-game-absence","tag-espn-inc","tag-fox-sports","tag-heated-post-match-scenes","tag-illinois","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-opt-out-clause","tag-post-match-scenes","tag-real-talk","tag-single-day","tag-sports","tag-team-win","tag-teams-rematch","tag-trade-drama","tag-trade-rumours","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-windmill-dunk","tag-winning-streak","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}