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Giannis Antetokounmpo is working to return from a strained soleus muscle in his right calf.<\/p>\n
MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Giannis Antetokounmpo said Thursday he\u2019s focused on getting healthy and helping the Milwaukee Bucks turn their season around, not on rumors about his future plans.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo spoke to reporters for the first time since a Dec. 3 ESPN report indicated that he and his agent, Alex Saratsis, were talking with Bucks officials about whether he\u2019s best suited to stay in Milwaukee or get traded. Antetokounmpo strained his right calf in a victory over the Detroit Pistons that night and hasn\u2019t played since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be conversations that are going to be made between (my agent) and the Bucks, and him and his other players, and him and other teams and other GMs, executives around the league,\u201d Antetokounmpo said during the 24-minute media session. \u201cIt\u2019s something that you can\u2019t control. But, at the end of the day, I personally have not had the conversation with the Bucks. I\u2019m still locked in, locked in on my teammates. Most importantly, locked in on me getting back healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The speculation regarding Antetokounmpo\u2019s future has picked up as the Bucks have struggled through the last month. Milwaukee carried an 11-16 record into its Thursday night game against the Toronto Raptors. That included a 2-8 mark in games Antetokounmpo hadn\u2019t played.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo missed four games with a left adductor strain last month and hurt his calf in his fourth game back from that injury. Antetokounmpo, who turned 31 on Dec. 6, believes his rapid return from the adductor issue may have led to the calf problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it was a mistake of me coming back a little bit earlier, because once I come back, now you\u2019re overcompensating,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cThe only way you can pop your soleus is by overcompensating and then having an extreme amount of load or play a lot of games in a short period of time. Again, I think all of the things that I was thinking and trying to come back led to the incident that I had with my soleus.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a critical season for the Bucks because of all the concerns about Antetokounmpo\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
ESPN reported before the season that the Bucks and New York Knicks engaged in trade talks regarding Antetokounmpo in August but never gained traction on a potential deal. Antetokounmpo spoke to reporters one day later and said he\u2019s \u201clocked in\u201d with the Bucks but acknowledged the possibility he could eventually change his mind.<\/p>\n
The idea that Antetokounmpo could request a trade has been the talk of the NBA ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most I\u2019ve been ever talked about in my career,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cI\u2019m in my house with my kids and all that and I\u2019m opening the TV and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, Giannis is going to the Memphis Grizzlies,\u2019 or \u2018Giannis is going to the Detroit Pistons.\u2019 Which, hey man, I\u2019m not going to lie, I\u2019m the hottest chick in the game right now. No, I\u2019m joking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo said all this conjecture about his future is tough on his family and on the team. Antetokounmpo said he\u2019s had informal conversations with his teammates to offer encouragement and reassurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m never going to have a meeting with my teammates and sit everybody down and talk about like, \u2018Hey guys, hey, if we don\u2019t win I\u2019m going to get out of here,\u2019\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cLike, come on. We\u2019re grown \u2026 men. That\u2019s not going to happen. They\u2019re grown, too. I think they understand the deal. You\u2019ve just got to give urgency to the team. Like, \u2018Guys, this is like serious. Who are we trying to be? We\u2019ve got to turn this around. We have time to turn this around.\u2019 And you\u2019ve got to have a little bit more urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve had the conversation with the coach about it. I think I\u2019ve had the conversation with individual players about it. I\u2019ve been approached by teammates and asked about the rumors because it also might affect their own life and their own career. I\u2019m straight with them, whatever that answer might be.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he spoke to reporters about his future back in October, Antetokounmpo expressed hope he wouldn\u2019t have to address the issue for the rest of the season. Now he says he understands the topic is going to keep coming up because \u201cwhen people see cracks, they see opportunity to get in through those cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the nine-time All-NBA forward said he\u2019s not thinking about that issue. He\u2019s more concerned with returning to the floor and getting the Bucks to start winning consistently again.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day we\u2019re fighting for our lives,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cLike, we\u2019ve got to win a game. So, rumors won\u2019t help us win a game. Or, you know, anything else. We\u2019ve just got to focus on basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo is working to return from a strained soleus muscle in his right calf. MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,67999,102,121,3871,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-482004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo-future","11":"tag-milwaukee","12":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","13":"tag-milwaukeebucks","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115743874024338776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}