{"id":666380,"date":"2026-03-19T05:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/666380\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:51:25","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-and-bucks-in-standoff-as-season-winds-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/666380\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bucks in Standoff as Season Winds Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> are reportedly at loggerheads over whether he should continue playing this season.<\/p>\n

The Bucks have 14 games left to play this season and are 6.5 games behind the Charlotte Hornets for the final Play-In Tournament spot. According to The Athletic<\/a>, they are intent on shutting their star player down.<\/p>\n

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However, he is not on board with the decision and wants to see out the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

The Greek Freak has missed 32 games due to injuries this season. He suffered a hyperextended knee after an awkward landing that followed a vicious slam during Sunday\u2019s win over the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has been on a minutes restriction over the last few months, having dealt with calf, groin, ankle and knee injuries over the course of the season.<\/p>\n

The player told reporters he was fine and wanted to return to the game on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think I hyperextended my knee,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen the clip. I want to see the clip. Doesn\u2019t matter. That\u2019s pretty much it. I wanted to get back in the game. They looked at me and said, \u2018No, it\u2019s not worth it.\u2019 We were up 13, 15. They was like, \u2018No, no way, it\u2019s not worth it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s MRI Came Back Clean\"Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives to the basket. Michael McLoone-Imagn ImagesMichael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Michael McLoone-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said Antetokounmpo\u2019s MRI looked \u201creally good\u201d when he spoke to the media on Tuesday, though he was not aware when the player could return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news was it was a really good image, so there was no damage. Nothing,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cIt was really just good news. But I don\u2019t know the next part (about a timeline for his return).\u201d<\/p>\n

The team kept the two-time MVP out of Tuesday\u2019s game despite his negative MRI. He had already been listed as questionable with an ankle sprain; the team updated its injury report to reflect that he was out with a bone bruise caused by a left knee hyperextension.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBucks leadership has already approached Antetokounmpo about the idea of not playing another game for Milwaukee this season, which the franchise\u2019s all-time leading scorer firmly rebuffed, league sources told The Athletic Tuesday,\u201d The Athletic reports.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo was the subject of trade rumors earlier this year, with the Miami Heat among the frontrunners. The Bucks managed to hold onto him past the February 5 deadline, but they should have a decision to make in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Related: Steve Kerr Addresses Erik Spoelstra’s Comments on Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Lindys Sports<\/a> on Mar 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are reportedly at loggerheads over whether he should continue playing this season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,473,2660,123,126,26228,189,102,121,3871,6,361],"class_list":["post-666380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-bucks","tag-basketball","tag-bucks","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-doc-rivers","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-knee-injuries","tag-miami-heat","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-milwaukeebucks","tag-nba","tag-the-bucks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116254284124512160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666380","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=666380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}