The Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls went head-to-head on Saturday night. The game marked the return of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
By the end of the night, Antetokounmpo made some enemies. After breaking an unwritten rule by throwing down a powerful windmill dunk in the final seconds of a game that was clearly out of reach for the Bulls, Giannis caused a stir as the Bulls felt his move was disrespectful.
Following the game, Chicago center Nikola Vucevic discussed the scene and used the moment to throw a playful shot at Antetokounmpo, who hasn’t been able to escape trade drama lately.
"I'm assuming Giannis was mad about that report that came out the Bulls didn't want to trade for him," Vucevic told reporters after the game.
After an underwhelming start for the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis’ future has once again come into question. Plenty of rumors have suggested he won’t play out the remainder of his contract with the Bucks and could leave as early as the February deadline.
However, Giannis has pushed back on that notion. When he engaged in his own postgame presser, Giannis shot down the rumors once again.
“I’m here. Don’t ask me that question. I’m here. It’s disrespectful towards myself and my teammates. I wear that jersey every single day. It’s disrespectful towards the organization, my coaching staff, myself, and all the people that work hard for me to come out here and say I don’t want to be here,” Antetokounmpo told reporters.
“Don’t ask me that question. I’m here. I’m putting on the jersey. And as long as I’m here, I’m gonna give everything I have, even in the last second of the game.”
As far as the dunk that made Chicago upset goes, Giannis claimed it was simply excitement upon his return—and a motivating tool for his struggling team.
The Bucks had just three wins in their last 10 games before Saturday’s action. With that win, they move to 13-19 on the year, still way out of the playoff picture. With the 11th seed in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks trail the Atlanta Hawks by 1.5 games. They hope that Giannis is healthy and here to stay consistently as they work on getting back on track.