What’s different about Giannis Antetokounmpo situation this offseason?
What’s different about the Giannis Antetokounmpo situation this offseason? Jim Owczarski discusses next moves for the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I’m back.”
Milwaukee Bucks fans probably would like to hear Giannis Antetokounmpo use these words any day amid all the chatter about his future.
Hearing them used for another Antetokounmpo is pretty good, too.
“I’m back, I’m back,” a beaming Thanasis Antetokounmpo said during a live taping of his “Thanalysis Show” podcast at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. “I’m back. I’m back.”
The older Antetokounmpo is just referring to getting the chance to resume his basketball career, though not necessarily with the Bucks. Doctors have given him the clearance to return to basketball after he missed the 2024-25 season with a torn Achilles he suffered just over a year ago.
Where he continues his career is another question. Antetokounmpo, who played five seasons with the Bucks from 2019 to 2024, is a free agent after his contract with Milwaukee ended last summer.
The episode was filmed in late March but just released on podcast channels, the show’s YouTube account and social media platforms last week. Antetokounmpo discussed with the Journal Sentinel in December his injury and recovery in late 2024, noting that his goal was to always return to the NBA.
That hasn’t changed.
Antetokounmpo talked more about the injury and the support he’s had over the last year during his second annual “Thanalysis Live” which attracted several current Bucks players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma, Brook Lopez, along with twin brother Robin, and Bucks fan favorite Brandon Jennings.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo injury
Antetokounmpo was coming off his fifth season with the Bucks when he was going through a workout. He said he was starting his routine and said it felt “like someone kicked me.”
“Finished the play, limp out,” Antetokounmpo said.
He initially asked for a warm patch for his flight — he was scheduled to fly to Greece after filming a podcast — but then a trainer realized “something’s not right.” He squeezed Antetokounmpo’s calf and he started “screaming, crying.”
“Doctor came in right after that and they told me you might have a torn Achilles,” Antetokounmpo recalled.
Antetokounmpo couldn’t believe it.
“I’m like no way, I didn’t fall,” he said. “I feel pain, but pain is pain.”
Two MRIs confirmed his diagnosis.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo injury update
Antetokounmpo had surgery the next day and his long recovery began. To the public, he’s been visible through his podcast, at Bucks games, the 2024 Olympics and more.
But behind the scenes Antetokounmpo has been going through the “emotionally draining” process of rehab.
“Because I’m doing all these things off the court,” he said, “people just automatically assume, ‘oh you’re straight, you’re fine,'” he said. “No, basketball changed my life.”
Indeed. This was the first time in 14 years that Antetokounmpo wasn’t on the court, whether it was playing overseas, for his national team or in the NBA.
“I’m doing all these things outside the court and people are like you should do this, you should do that, that was the most draining thing,” he said. “Now people not thinking about basketball, not understanding I did this every day even today. Keep rehabbing.”
Antetokounmpo set goals throughout the process.
“When you’re healthy you have a bunch of problems, everything bothers you,” Antetokounmpo brought up. “But when it’s about health you only have one problem. Only one. Just how to get healthy, how to be back. I couldn’t walk and then I started putting the goals. Let me get out of the boot by the Olympics, I tried, I tried. I couldn’t. Let me be able to dance at my brother’s wedding. Please, please. And then I did that.”
And now, a year after the injury, he’s ready to resume his basketball career.
“I’m back, I’m back,” Thanasis said.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo on his support
Antetokounmpo said his support system helped get him through the recovery.
“I’m grateful for my family, my friends,” he said. “Like these are my brothers (former teammates in the crowd at the podcast show). Like Brook (Lopez), these guys. They’re my brothers. Calling me, texting me. You’re good.”
Thanasis said a lot of people today are “in their own bubble” and that they’ll “talk to you, but they’re really not listening. That wasn’t the case for him.
“To be able to them show so much care for me, ‘hey TA how you doing’ even though they’re going through this excruciating season or training camp or summer to really check on me I was happy, I was glad to really have people in my corner,” he said.
Antetokounmpo supported them back as he was a regular presence at Bucks home games this past season and even in Las Vegas to cheer on the team during its run to the NBA Cup championship last December.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo current team 2025
Antetokounmpo, 32, does not have a current team. He’s a free agent.
He last played for the Bucks in the 2023-24 season prior to his injury. He played in just 34 games off the bench and averaged 4.6 minutes, though beyond the stats Giannis Antetokounmpo has often praised his brother’s presence with the franchise and importance to him.
Besides the Bucks, Thanasis Antetokounmpo played briefly for the New York Knicks in 2016. He then had stints in Europe, including winning back-to-back Greek League championships with Panathinaikos in 2018 and 2019.
Watch Thanalysis Live podcast