As Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to offer up encouragement about a long-term future with the Milwaukee Bucks, pressure on the team only increases.
Watching on while Giannis Antetokounmpo accepted his second consecutive MVP award via video call from Athens, Greece on Friday, the Milwaukee Bucks‘ hierarchy were left with plenty of reasons to feel good.
First of all, there was the general significance of the moment. A player who has spent his entire career with the Bucks to this point, Antetokounmpo has entered into incredibly rarefied air as not just a multiple-time MVP winner, but also the only player outside of Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon to be both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year simultaneously.
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All of that provides for an obvious source of pride, and the kind of scenario that teams around the league generally spend decades dreaming about. But of course, with just one more season left on Antetokounmpo’s current contract and the prospect of a supermax extension looming once free agency eventually opens this offseason, the possibility of extending the current good feeling is at the forefront of the minds with all who are associated with the Bucks.
In that regard, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s comments to Ernie Johnson during the NBA TV MVP presentation, will also have been music to the ears of everyone invested in Milwaukee basketball:
"“Obviously, I had a great meeting with the owners, talked about the team, talked about what went wrong, what can we improve.As long as everybody is on the same page and as long as everybody is fighting for the same thing every single day, which is to be a champion, I don’t see why not be in Milwaukee for the next 15 years.”"
The reality, though, is that Antetokounmpo has remained nothing but consistent all along. He’s made it as simple as it really can be: Giannis wants to stay in Milwaukee, as long as the Bucks can provide him an opportunity to win a championship.
It’s true that recent NBA history is littered with cases of superstars who have reneged on their word only to flee for brighter lights or greener pastures when the big moment arrives, but not many of those were necessarily speaking in such a clear and direct fashion, as Giannis is now, so close to their decisions.
As Giannis continues to lay out his intentions, though, the pressure that ownership are under only grows. That isn’t just the pressure to keep Antetokounmpo, and the race to assemble a roster that can get him to sign on dotted line, but it’s also the prospect that if he does decide to leave it will expose their failure for all to see in no uncertain terms.
Antetokounmpo has never offered up any suggestion that he wants to seek out a bigger market or more glamorous city for the next stage of his career. He has always made it about basketball.
Let alone the countless interactions that have undoubtedly been had privately, speaking publicly, Giannis has clearly and openly communicated what matters to him and what the Bucks need to do on multiple occasions over a number of years.
In many ways, that will only make things even worse if Giannis does end up leaving. This won’t be a case of cloak and dagger actions, and cards being clutched closely to the chest. Giannis continues to publicly pledge his commitment to the Bucks, but he does so conditionally. He can’t be blamed for the caveat, as it’s the only sensible thing to do for anyone in his situation.
On the other side of the story, if the Bucks fail to meet those conditions, there’ll be little question as to where the blame will then fall. And at this point, that should already be leaving ownership, and all of the franchise’s key decision-makers from there on down to be shifting just a little uncomfortably in their seats.