{"id":536228,"date":"2026-01-14T15:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/536228\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T15:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:09:16","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-on-bucks-fans-voicing-displeasure-when-i-get-booed-i-boo-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/536228\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo on Bucks’ fans voicing displeasure: ‘When I get booed, I boo back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A frustrating season continued for the Milwaukee Bucks with their 139-106 loss<\/a> to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. It was their 18th defeat in their past 27 games, and as they left the court at halftime down 76-45, the fans inside Fiserv Forum let them hear it with a chorus of boos.<\/p>\n

Those boos would be surprisingly returned later in the game by their star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, after he hit a shot in the paint and was fouled.<\/p>\n

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Antetokounmpo gestured thumbs down to the crowd twice and let out an audible boo.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo has done this before, but previously it was on the road to opposing fans<\/a> \u2014 not his own. Afterward, he told reporters that he did not remember being booed by home fans before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely booing back. When I get booed, I boo back. I’ve been doing it all season. You [reporters] haven\u2019t been with me on the road,” said Antetokounmpo<\/a>. “Whenever I get booed, I boo back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that the booing was coming from his own fans didn\u2019t factor into Antetokounmpo\u2019s decision to react.<\/p>\n

\"Giannis<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks reacts against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the third quarter at Fiserv Forum. (Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Patrick McDermott via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, it does not matter. It doesn’t matter, I play basketball for my teammates,” he said. “I play basketball for myself and my family. When people don’t believe in me, I don’t tend to be with them. I tend to be against them. I tend to do what I’m here to do, what I’m good at, right?<\/p>\n

“I think I’m like a maverick. I’ve always been that way, so won’t change now, it doesn\u2019t matter if I am home, away. But, yeah, I’ve never been a part of something like that before, and I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t. But everybody has the opinion to do what they want to do; I’m not gonna tell them what to do or how to act when we don’t play hard, we lose games, or maybe not where we’re supposed to be. And I don’t think anybody has the right to tell me how I should act on the basketball court after I have been here 13 years. And I\u2019m basically the all-time leader in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The T-Wolves were playing without a suspended Rudy Gobert or Anthony Edwards, who was out for injury management. Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers said tired legs played a role in his team’s sluggish play. Antetokounmpo, however, disagreed.<\/p>\n

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“I don’t think it’s dead legs,” he said<\/a>. “Were we tired? Yeah, a little bit. We had a day off yesterday. I don’t see the reason.<\/p>\n

“It’s not dead legs. I’m never going to say I didn’t have legs. I’m going to say that I could do things better. My effort wasn’t there. Maybe I wasn’t as focused as I should. And then after that, when I look at myself, I look at overall the team, what we can do better, but I don’t think it’s dead legs. That cannot be an excuse.”<\/p>\n

The 17-23 Bucks<\/a> are back at it on Thursday with the start of a two-game road trip in San Antonio before an afternoon matchup on Monday against Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Bucks are just outside of the Eastern Conference play-in, but their recent stretch has put them in a deep hole to dig out of. The fans’ frustrations will continue, especially when Antetokounmpo\u2019s future<\/a> with the franchise remains murky<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A frustrating season continued for the Milwaukee Bucks with their 139-106 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[375,676,7,127,123,121,307,152,3954,6,373,969,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-536228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-fiserv-forum","12":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","13":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","16":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-rudy-gobert","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115894089689410593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536228","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=536228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}