Giannis Antetokounmpo is the subject of persistent trade rumors.
The Milwaukee Bucks' superstar, though, hasn't given any indication that he actually wants out.
And so the way this has gone makes it feel like the Bucks won't trade Giannis if he doesn't ask for it, except that Giannis doesn't seem to be asking for it, and so then nothing is happening.
Antetokounmpo updated his side of matters in a new interview with The Athletic's Eric Nehm.
“There will never be a chance, and there will never be a moment, that I will come out and say ‘I want a trade,’” Antetokounmpo told Nehm. “That’s not … in … my … nature. OK?”
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Nehm wrote that those were deliberate pauses between each word in that last sentence from Giannis.
"The pauses between each of his words reflected a deliberateness that wasn’t there on Dec. 18, when his attempt to address the latest ESPN report about his possible departure resulted in a word-salad sort of news conference that only made the optics surrounding his situation worse," Nehm writes. "Yet this time around, Antetokounmpo’s message was quite clear."
Antetokounmpo can opt out of his contract after next season. So if nothing changes, he's with the Bucks for the next year-and-a-half, at minimum.
Giannis shared more honest thoughts, too.
"I can’t control what you’re going to say with my agent, or with my best friend, or with my chef," Antetokounmpo said. "I can only control what comes out of my mouth. And not one time have I shown that I’m not invested in this team. And if there was a time on the basketball court where you’ve seen that, 'Oh, Giannis doesn’t look like he wants to be a part of this team no more,' I want you to pinpoint that. There’s never been an interview where I’ve said that. So I don’t know why people discredit what I say. Like, even when your article will come out … people will say, 'Yeah, but. Yeah, but.'"
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For Bucks fans who really don't want to lose Antetokounmpo, these are encouraging comments.
For the rest of the league that may want to trade for him, the path just got a little bit tougher.
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