As the world awaits his decision and what he will do with his supermax extension going into the 2020-21 season, all is quiet around Giannis Antetokounmpo.
In the end, the biggest decision facing the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason stand as the last one that needs to be made before their 2020-21 season starts on December 23.
All of the Bucks’ offseason additions made through the draft, free agency and trade are starting to settle in, especially as training camp has officially started in earnest. Now they wait on what Giannis Antetokounmpo will choose to do with his five-year, $228 million supermax extension offer.
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With two weeks remaining between now and the deadline for when Antetokounmpo has to sign his extension, if he ultimately chooses to, all has been quiet around Antetokounmpo as he has not yet met with the media since camp opened up last week.
Even as all Bucks fans have been waiting with bated breath to hear from the two-time MVP or know of his decision, that still hasn’t stopped rampant and baseless speculation from increasing as we inch ever closer to the deadline.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s teammates have fanned the speculation flames as the Milwaukee Bucks have prepared for the start of the 2020-21 season.
While Antetokounmpo has not yet met with media since returning back stateside from Greece late last month, his Bucks teammates have addressed the speculation that has hung over the organization at the start of camp.
As the Greek superstar turned 26 years old Sunday, Bucks All-Star forward Khris Middleton and reserve wing Pat Connaughton spearheaded all of his teammates to buy pens for Antetokounmpo, all with a tongue-in-cheek message.
"Me and PC thought the perfect gift to him from his teammates would be to give him a pen. So, 19 pens in his locker for a birthday present. I told him those should be some of the best birthday gifts he's ever gotten. So, hopefully he enjoys it and uses it." - @Khris22m
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) December 6, 2020
While that has been one way to touch on the speculation, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer addressed how things have largely been normal when directing the superstar as he remarked to Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"“We’re incredibly fortunate in that Giannis, he’s all about winning and he wants everything to be the best,” Budenholzer said. “He wants to be coached hard. He wants everybody to do everything they can every day to get better. He’s built exactly how we want to practice. He’s built exactly how you want a training camp to be.“And so, I think, I don’t know other players and other personalities in this situation, it could be uneasy or uncomfortable. With him, you’re like, “He probably wants me to coach him harder. He probably wants me to go at him even…”“He just welcomes that and as a coach, that’s really what you’re doing in training camp every year whether you’re an assistant coach or a head coach. That’s the time to push guys and be on them. So, in that sense, it probably hasn’t changed anything, it’s probably just enhanced it and that’s just one of the reasons why he is so great and we’re so fortunate to have him.”"
Putting Budenholzer’s many platitudes and coach speak aside, it’s certainly comforting to know that Antetokounmpo’s future hasn’t disrupted the present as the new-look Bucks have regrouped for camp last week.
Still, Antetokounmpo’s decision is bound to come to light sooner rather than later. For the great lengths that the eight-year forward has gone in trying to dispel any talk of his future, even dating back to the start of last season’s training camp where he declared talking about his future would be disrespectful to his teammates, that has essentially carried over into this year under a blanket of silence.
That hasn’t stopped Bucks fans furiously scrolling through Twitter timelines or analyzing Antetokounmpo’s daily posts on social media and anxiously drawing conclusions for when his announcement will come.
As he has shown all throughout this time, Antetokounmpo is intent on playing it his way while all of the noise has continued on around him. We’ll know of his intentions within the next two weeks and it may leave all Bucks fans in a state of euphoria or it very well could be something of a two weeks notice and ramp up into a season that was already shaping up to be a pressure cooker.