Giannis Antetokounmpo was determined to win at something.
The Milwaukee Bucks had just been eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Indiana Pacers for the second straight year and Antetokounmpo was fuming.
If he couldn’t win the game, he was at least gonna win the fight.
Giannis went nose to nose with the father of Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers’ top star. He appeared to be engaged in an obligatory post-game hug with Pacers guard Benedict Mathurin when it suddenly became clear it was no hug at all.
Giannis was clutching the back of Mathurin’s neck saying nasty things to him as both teams came together in confrontation for roughly the hundredth time in two weeks.
“I’ve won a championship, they haven’t,” Antetokounmpo said during a postgame press conference, demanding respect be put on his name.
I’ve won a championship. For longtime Bucks fans those words remain surreal.
To anyone growing up over the past three decades, it seemed preposterous the Bucks could ever win an NBA championship, let alone boast a player great enough to remind everyone that he is the standard for greatness in the league.
During Antetokounmpo’s rookie season it certainly felt far-fetched. Back then, a small and dedicated band of Bucks season ticket holders could hear their own voices echo in the perpetually empty Bradley Center.
The Bucks were so bad that year that even the 76ers finished with a better record, despite having intentionally gone on a 26-game losing streak as part of their famed “process.”
Ownership was clueless. Then-coach Larry Drew stared blankly into space during most of the games, not even bothering to watch the action on the court.
But Giannis- all arms and legs, and a thin frame ravaged from a lifetime of starvation- was the lone bright spot. The Bucks were out of every game midway through the second quarter, so the rest of each game could be spent watching Giannis try to master different nuances of the sport.
Each subsequent season brought more success and hope to Milwaukee until finally the team broke through, winning an NBA championship.
“Khris!” Giannis shouted in the direction of teammate Khris Middleton during the championship celebration. “We f—ing did it!”
They had indeed. But today, Khris is gone. The harbinger of the title run, Jrue Holiday is gone. The Bucks trademark downhill, freewheeling style of play is gone.
If the Bucks want to return to championship glory, Giannis Antetokounmpo needs to be gone as well.
Giannis says he’s open to moving on from Milwaukee but he’s so loyal and dignified, that is as far as he’ll go with his public words. The Bucks have no path back to contention without trading him.
All-Star guard Damian Lillard tore his achilles and will miss next season altogether. Kyle Kuzma, for whom the team traded Khris Middleton, disappeared during the playoffs. The Bucks’ other two best players, Bobby Portis and Brooke Lopez, are aging dinosaurs and free agents.
The Bucks can reset the franchise by trading Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are possibly the best team in the NBA. They went 68-14 this season, boast the league’s presumptive MVP in Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, and seemed poised to win a championship.
Once upon a time in 2019, the Thunder traded their best player for a boatload of draft picks and young players. The Thunder sent Paul George (who is nowhere near the player Giannis is) to the Clippers for Alexander, excellent role player and future Buck Danilo Gallinari, and five first round draft picks. One of those picks ended up being All-Star forward Jalen Williams.
Williams and Alexander make up one of the league’s most potent tandems.
A decade ago, the Boston Celtics traded stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets for a bevy of future assets. Those assets turned out to be Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who last year led the Celtics to an NBA championship.
The Houston Rockets traded former MVP James Harden (also to Brooklyn) and reset the team.
Now, they boast one of the NBA’s best young cores and are in the running to trade those young pieces for Antetokounmpo.
Fears of losing a star of Antetokounmpo’s caliber in a trade are unfounded.
The Thunder are the league’s best team; The Clippers, receiving the “star” of the trade, haven’t won anything. Ditto for the Nets who traded for stars not once but twice, handing both of their trade partners championship nuclei.
This year, the Dallas Mavericks were rewarded with the top pick in the 2025 NBA draft for trading their superstar, Luka Doncic, at midseason.
It’s time for the Bucks to do the same. The assets they could receive for Antetokounmpo will do more to boost the team’s future than a few more fledgling years of poor roster construction around him.
The Bucks can’t turn back the clock to the days of empty arenas, awful teams and hopeless seasons.
Trading Antetokounmpo is the fastest route to returning to championship glory.
