Giannis Antetokounmpo was more reflective than bitter in the aftermath of the Bucks’ elimination from the 2025 National Basketball Association Playoffs. For the third straight season, they found themselves bowing out in the first round, not quite the streak they sought to preserve after claiming the championship in 2021.
And yet, for all the relative failures of the green and cream, he refused to enunciate his thoughts on the possibility of jumping ship in order to make the most of his peak years. At 30 and fresh from posting his most complete numbers since bringing home back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards at the turn of the decade, he is widely considered to be better situated elsewhere.
Antetokounmpo was right in fending off members of the media in his post-mortem, of course. It served no purpose for him to feed into speculation on where he would be winding up, and not simply because he is signed with the Bucks until 2028. The wounds from the one-four series loss to the Pacers were still fresh, made even more painful by their shocking capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory the other day. And so he ever so calmly noted that “I’m not going to do this” — meaning fan the rumors by speaking out of turn. “I know how it’s going to translate.”
If anything, Antetokounmpo actually gave Bucks fans cause for optimism by arguing that, “as a team, we work hard. We play the right way. Not being able to win games definitely hurts, but you’ve got to keep doing what you’re doing.” He added that he wanted to win Game Five for fellow All-Star Damian Lillard, who suffered a torn left Achilles tendon in Game Four after seemingly truncating his convalescence from deep
vein thrombosis. “I felt like he came back maybe earlier than he’s supposed to, went down, sacrificed his body for us. I felt like, as a team, the least we can do is show up and win the game. For Dame. Obviously it hurts that we didn’t win the game, but it hurts more that we weren’t able to win the game for Dame.”
That the Bucks came close to prevailing both in regulation and in overtime, only to be done in by miscues and, perhaps, sheer bad luck, clearly gnawed at Antetokounmpo. That said, he knew well enough to table for another day any contemplation beyond merely getting over the setback. The discussion is coming, to be sure, and those around him would do well to make sure that when it happens, answers can and will be provided. Time and again, he has expressed a keen desire to be surrounded by the right personnel to compete for the hardware. And, time and again, he has been rebuffed by fate. Which begs the question: How long he can stay patient? Only he knows.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
