Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most important basketball player to ever step foot on the floor for the Milwaukee Bucks.
That didn't stop the home fans from showering Giannis and his teammates with boos on Tuesday night as they went to the locker room down by 33 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Giannis, who has dealt with doubters near and far his whole life, noticed the boos.
And so on an and-1 basket early in the third quarter, he took a moment to send up a pair of thumbs down and a booing sound right back to the crowd. Yeah, at home.
"Whenever I get booed, I boo back," Giannis said after the game, via ESPN.
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The Bucks went on to lose, 139-106, in a game that the Wolves didn't even have Anthony Edwards or Rudy Gobert.
In a season that many have viewed as the last chance to keep Giannis around before the Bucks would have to consider trading him, they're not doing a good job at showing that this is a spot he can still win another championship. A booing home crowd doesn't seem to help the vibe, either.
"I play basketball for my teammates," Antetokounmpo said postgame. "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 do what I'm here to do, what I'm good at. It won't change home or 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 their opinion to do what they want to do. "I'm not going to tell them what to do and how they should act when we don't play hard. Or when we lose games, or when we're not where we're supposed to be."
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Giannis also pointed this out in his postgame comments: "I'm basically the all-time leader in everything (in Milwaukee)."
This is the guy who scored 50 points in a closeout game to win an NBA title for the first time in 50 years for the Bucks. He's grown up in Milwaukee after arriving from Greece as a gangly 18-year old.
Rarely is a story like that booed, especially when he's chosen to say. Giannis recently said he wouldn't personally request a trade. That's not how he operates.
But with the Bucks 17-23 now, and the home crowd displeased, this chapter is starting to look like it may not have a storybook ending.
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