{"id":881739,"date":"2026-11-11T15:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/881739\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T15:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:21:12","slug":"miami-heat-giannis-antetokounmpo-has-words-on-wrist-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/881739\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat Giannis Antetokounmpo has words on wrist, Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 As he finally finished dressing nearly 90 minutes after the Heat defeated the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night at the Delta Center, Giannis Antetokounmpo made clear he wanted to move beyond drama.<\/p>\n

Such as the drama surrounding his team\u2019s uneven start.<\/p>\n

Such as\u00a0 the drama surrounding comments from former NBA coach Doc Rivers<\/a> about basketball IQ and team loyalty.<\/p>\n

Such as the drama about the sprained right wrist that had Antetokounmpo questionable 90 minutes before Tuesday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Heat prized offseason acquisition wanted to put the focus and keep the focus on one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won five of the last seven games,\u201d he said after closing with 30 points and 11 rebounds against the shorthanded Jazz in a closer-than-it-should-have-been 115-109 victory over the Jazz<\/a>. \u201cSo it\u2019s quiet. Keep it that way. Keep on doing our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, earlier in the night it actually was quite harrowing, as what was a 23-point Heat lead earlier in the game and a 12-point lead with 3:43 to play was reduced to five with 47.7 seconds to play.<\/p>\n

No matter, after an 0-4 start and the 10-day, five-game trip that ended with the victory over the Jazz, there at least could be a brief exhale before the Heat face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night at Kaseya Center to open a five-game homestand.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor people that have been in the NBA, at the end of the road trip you kind of like, kind of crave your own bed, your family, your city, your fans,\u201d Antetokounmpo said, the last of the Heat players to dress. \u201cWe\u2019ve been 10 days on the road. So I think it\u2019s one of the toughest games that you got to play because at the same time, you have a game, but you know that in less than 12 hours you\u2019re going to be home. So you just got to be mentally locked in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like for the majority of the game we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a point when it appeared Antetokounmpo would miss his first game with the Heat, the uncertainty such that coach Erik Spoelstra said he was prepared to have Nikola Jovic start in Antetokounmpo\u2019s\u00a0 place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll continue to get treatment on that,\u201d Spoelstra said, as his team headed into its two-day break. \u201cI don\u2019t think even if he just rested that something like that will just miraculously get better overnight, it\u2019s something that he\u2019s able to play through right now. And we\u2019ll monitor him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those words proved to be even more discussion about the wrist sprain that Antetokounmpo chose to entertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not concerned at all. If I was, I wouldn\u2019t play the game,\u201d he said, wearing wrist protection after the game, but without a similar wrap during the games. \u201cObviously I\u2019ve taken some bad hits, some bad falls. But at the end of the day, I tend to not whine about things or tend not to talk about things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m going to suit up, I\u2019m going to suit up and help the team win the game. If you play the game, there\u2019s no reason for you to talk about injuries. I played the game. It\u2019s over with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently over with as well, at least from Antetokounmpo\u2019s standpoint, is the kerfuffle that former NBA coach and current Rivers created during a podcast last week.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Rivers, who coached Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, said of the 10-time All-Star\u2019s final days with the Bucks, \u201cGiannis wanted out, but he was a Buck. And he didn\u2019t want to be the bad guy. He wanted (management) and those guys to say, \u2018We\u2019re trading you,\u2019 instead of him asking for a trade. To me, that was the game that was being played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers also said on that podcast, \u201cHe has this great passing ability, but he doesn\u2019t necessarily have this super IQ at the same time. It\u2019s really a strange thing, and he really has one way: downhill, force, force. Every play, he wants to force it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was followed up by Rivers telling ESPN he had texted Antetokounmpo an apology, offering somewhat of a retraction<\/a>, quoted by ESPN as saying, \u201cI hate this and feel bad about it. I apologize for the distraction. I\u2019m not trying to be one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he had received such a text from Rivers, Antetokounmpo said after the victory over the Jazz that it should remain a private matter,<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if he texted me. I haven\u2019t looked at my phone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut even if he texted me, as I said, that\u2019s private. That\u2019s between me and him. And it will always be that way. It will always be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was clear that Antetokounmpo\u2019s goal was to move on, even with it possible that Rivers will serve as an NBA analyst on upcoming Heat broadcasts on the network.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made those comments. He had those quotes. You guys gotta go ask him what he meant,\u201d Antetokounmpo said of Rivers\u2019 apology interview with ESPN. \u201cIf you feel like he has to clarify, you know, that\u2019s on him. It\u2019s not on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cConversations that have been taking place between me, my coaches, my teammates, my wife, my best friends, tend to be private. I never share them in the media. That\u2019s why it\u2019s between me and them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 As he finally finished dressing nearly 90 minutes after the Heat defeated the Utah Jazz on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3881,6,66],"class_list":["post-881739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-basketball","tag-heat","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miamiheat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117598491989753719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881739","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=881739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}