Ahead of what should be a wild NBA offseason, the biggest fish in the pond, Giannis Antetokounmpo has made his intentions very clear.
How? By not really saying anything at all.
We’re in the middle of June, and at no point has Antetokounmpo even hinted about leaving for potentially greener pastures. He has not formally requested a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks. He has not dipped his toes in the water of possible prospective trade suitors. In fact, Antetokounmpo has never even publicly said that he wants to leave Milwaukee in the first place. Factor in skepticism from anonymous league executives about Antetokounmpo playing for a different NBA team next season, and it sure feels like continuing to talk about a possible trade for one of the best players in the world amounts to just spinning one’s wheels for fun.
Yet, on Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the currently nonexistent “saga” with Antetokounmpo may drag out well into the summer. Hmm. Something seems fishy here:
None of this is meant to cast doubt that Antetokounmpo doesn’t want to leave the Bucks.
He and his camp could simply be operating very covertly behind the scenes. I’m super skeptical they’d be able to do anything in private without someone finding it out and blaring over the airwaves in today’s hyperreactive, attention-driven media landscape, but it’s not impossible.
Still, knowing that, for now, there’s almost no smoke concerning an Antetokounmpo trade. I mean, if someone of Antetokounmpo’s stature was genuinely considering wearing a new uniform, you’d think we’d at least have a burgeoning ember or something, right? Any sort of hint at all would suffice. Any morsel of information would be great! But we haven’t even gotten that. Until we get any sort of inkling from Antetokounmpo, continuing to talk about a trade being possible or realistic feels like reckless speculation.
Antetokounmpo himself seems to agree. He probably wouldn’t have posted about missing former long-time ESPN NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski — who Charania replaced — if he didn’t feel some type of way about what Charania has put out in public about his future:
Does anyone else miss Woj?!
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) June 11, 2025
Antetokounmpo is one of the greatest NBA players ever. Full stop. Until further notice, all I’m asking of everyone is to remember that delicate, important fact before they start trying to spark a conversation about his getting traded without any tangible evidence that it’s something he actually wants.