Giannis Antetokounmpo Bucks media day Sept. 29 – full interview
Giannis Antetokounpo was still in Greece on Bucks Media Day Sept. 29. He has Covid-19. He spoke to reporters through a live video stream in the media room at Fiserv Forum instead (and the video locks up towards the end).
The Milwaukee Bucks will move their training camp to Miami ahead of a preseason game against the Heat.Giannis Antetokounmpo will join the team in Miami after being delayed in Greece due to a positive COVID-19 test.
After starting their preseason work in Milwaukee, the Bucks will move training camp to Miami for a few days ahead of an exhibition game with the Heat on Oct. 6.
And Giannis Antetokounmpo will be joining his teammates there.
The two-time NBA MVP was delayed in his home country of Greece after testing positive for COVID-19.
“He’ll be flying in either tonight or in the morning,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Oct. 2, just before his team’s own flight to Florida.
Doc Rivers likes getting away for training camp
This is the Bucks’ second training camp under Rivers. Last season, the team decamped to Irvine, California. At previous coaching stops with the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers, Rivers took his teams to Hawaii, Nevada and South Carolina.
The reasoning for Miami is pretty simple.
“Well, because we play Miami in the first game, so it’s just easier,” Rivers said. “What I love to do, whatever team we play first, make it a warm-weather, nice place that we can just be there.
“We had Miami first on the schedule. I typically like playing West Coast teams, honestly. But the schedule was kind of set already.”
It was a little different this season with a few days on the team’s normal practice floor at the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center.
“Just economically it was easier for us,” Rivers said. “We would have loved to do it (for the full camp), but I think splitting the cost is just easier.”
The Bucks got off to a slow start at 2-8 last season, but Rivers said that didn’t affect any decisions about this year’s camp.
“We’re just so different,” he said. “We’re playing differently. So not really, to be honest. Except for just the execution part of it.
“I thought those first 10 games we lost a lot of close games. So we are really working on execution. That’s tough without Giannis because that’s a guy you want to do a lot of it with.”
From a player’s perspective, Bucks forward Taurean Prince didn’t care where training camp is located.
“I’ve been doing it so long,” said Prince, who is heading into his 10th season. “It really doesn’t matter to me. It’s just about hooping.”