Milwaukee fans booed the Bucks during Tuesday’s blowout loss against Minnesota, and Giannis Antetokounmpo gave the same reaction to the home crowd, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN. After scoring a basket and getting knocked to the court on a foul early in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo did a two-thumbs-down gesture and booed the fans while sitting under the basket.
Antetokounmpo has used the same gesture to respond to jeering crowds on the road, and he explained, “Whenever I get booed, I boo back,” regardless of where he’s playing.
“I play basketball for my teammates,” he said. “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. I don’t think anybody has the right to tell me how I should act on (a) basketball court after I’ve been here 13 years. And I’m basically the all-time leader in everything.”
Although it may be an isolated incident, Antetokounmpo’s reaction has to be disturbing for a front office that has been going out of its way to keep its star player happy. The Bucks are viewed as buyers heading into the trade deadline in hopes of upgrading their roster to make a postseason run, but Tuesday’s loss dropped them to 17-23 and left them 1.5 games out of the final play-in spot.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Pistons guard Daniss Jenkins is limited to 50 games on his two-way contract, and Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press points out in a subscriber-only mailbag column that he’s likely to reach that limit on February 5, which is also the day of the trade deadline. There’s a good chance Detroit will open up a roster spot and give a standard contract to Jenkins, who has emerged as a rotation player in his second NBA season, with Sankofa speculating that it’s likely to be a one- or two-year deal.
- Hunter Patterson of The Athletic examines ways the Pistons can use a traded player exception that allows them to take on an additional $14.3MM in salary. He cites Bucks forward Bobby Portis, Spurs center Kelly Olynyk, Hawks wing Luke Kennard, Celtics forward Sam Hauser and Mavericks wing Max Christie as potential targets. If Detroit doesn’t use it in a deal by the deadline, the TPE will remain available through July 7.
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has singled out the play of third-year forward Jarace Walker after each of the last two games, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Walker contributed 11 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench in Monday’s win over Boston. “He’s playing with force,” Carlisle said. “He’s playing with force at both ends. He’s done a lot of good things defensively. He’s rebounding the ball. Stepping into the right shots. As a third-year player, things are going to slow down as you progress in your career. Reads become more obvious. He’s making good decisions.”
Celtics have never been nor never will be in the Central Division
It’s because hauser was mentioned
What are you talking about? Nothing here is about the Celtics.
Pretty sure hauser was mentioned as a trade target so yes the Celtics were tagged
Oh Giannis is gone gone.
I was right, all along.
I hope he stays
Yeah no one ever saw this coming.
Yeah I know, I had to tell everyone. Now they know. But to act like they weren’t saying “Giannis is 100% staying, you are wrong” is just a lie.
Unless he’s traded to Golden State for a buffalo nickel and signed Curry jersey, you were absolutely not right all along.
Common place for you.
Everyone has known for years this was building up to this, the only thing you called was that the warriors would somehow trade for him paying only with scrubs and busts. That wasn’t right all along.
It hasn’t even happened yet, but it actually has and I was wrong, yeah sure, copemaster general, lmao. Bending over backwards must hurt that much.
You are just gaslighting if you think there wasn’t dozens of posters cussing me out on here for being right too early, as usual. Just give up bro. I said Kuminga+Dray+Buddy+3 FRP+3 pick swaps, thats STILL the best deal the Bucks can possibly get from anyone, considering the Spurs and Thunder have already ruled it out.
Bucks will be mediocre at best…
Cutting Dame will be the straw that broke the camels back for Giannis tenure in Milwaukee. Simply put, you cannot be a competitive team in the NBA with 20+ mil of dead money on the books. You need every dollar with these aprons. Stretching that money tanked this team’s success for this and the next 4 years.
I would also include hiring Doc Rivers has not been the answer. yet again.
You’re not wrong about Rivers but that problem is a much easier fix than 5 years of unmovable and unproductive money.
lol. Giannis doesnt give AF about the fans.
Good for him, he should not, his job is not please booing fans, as simple as!
An uproar right now but Giannis isn’t like most Americans. He’ll be patient. Sure, he gets upset if he’s booed, or more like it, his team is booed. How do you boo Giannis? He’s a reliable superstar and gives his all. It may be the FO which screws up and trades him, not him asking for it. Like that FO dummy who overthought things and thus traded Luka Doncic. Terrible.
I doubt anyone is actually booing Giannis. The team (his teammates and coach) are hot garbage and the boos are in response to that.
BeachGuy, the Bucks WANT to rebuild and therefore want him gone. To honestly tell him his “help” is Myles Turner and Kyle Kuzma, with a straight face, is maybe the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen from a front office.
Question from a casual NBA fan – Kuzma and Turner seemed to be quality players in their position at the time. Is it that the system and coaches did not put their talents to work properly or were they duped? They seem like decent players in their own right…
Kuzma is maybe the most overrated player of all-time. Not a star. Not ever a “Big 3” with anyone.
Turner is a decent role player/borderline star. Turner/Giannis’s styles don’t mesh at all.
If you are Giannis, you need a star guard, which he had in Dame, who they jettisoned to surround him with bigs. Giannis is better when surrounded by smaller guards…like Golden State has…
So close to a half way decent comment Davey. Keep trying.
I think Milwaukee’s plan was to surround Giannis with three point shooters. Seemed good. Maybe small guards are better. I wouldn’t know. We’ll watch developments.
Maybe, but to trade a superstar? For a smaller market team to trade its one huge superstar? No way, unless he demands out. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as Dallas trading Luka Doncic but maybe it would be worse! Fans might hate the FO and team and cancel their season tickets, etc. The Greek Freak wants to stay. Many still believe in loyalty. Or I believe many still do. Giannis is from Greece. Maybe he’s of that belief.
Cool, then expect this franchise to get progressively worse with no good ways to improve. Without picks or a young core, this team has zero future, and barely a present.
I liked Ant’s response a couple weeks ago when the Wolves were blown out at home by the lowly Net’s. The home crowd boo’d them and Ant responded to the reports and said “I’m with the fans, I would have boo’d us too.” He knew that they played like crap that night and owned it.
The problem with mega trades is that like 5 teams own 80% of the valuable firsts out there.. and nobody has cap space. They should have dealt him last season, before the Durant deal.
Booing your own team is dumb. Just leave if you aren’t enjoying yourself. And Wolves would’ve beat anyone badly that night the way they were shooting.
GA is a class act and what a great way to respond to that question.