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Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo revealed in a new interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was considering retiring during the 2020-21 season and even had discussions with the front office about the possibility.
Antetokounmpo had signed a $228 million five-year extension a week before the season began, which was the richest contract in NBA history at the time, and was struggling with expectations of being the best player in the world. To emphasize the point, he told a story about staying in an Orlando hotel and overhearing a grandmother telling her grandchildren all about him.
Of the Diary Sentinel:
“Yeah, it’s good to hear that, but that’s a lot of pressure. Going through that… to be the best, you have to play like the best. You have to practice like the best. You have to carry yourself like the dear, which is not easy.
“No matter how many times people say I handle it well, because that’s my personality…”
“It is difficult.
“It is not easy.
“In 2020, I was… ready to walk away from the game.”
Giannis continues to talk, but it’s now impossible to understand anything he’s saying.
“I had that conversation – yes – with the front office. I said…”
Here it is worth considering the context for Antetokounmpo’s doubts. In 2019, the Bucks blew a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals. They came back the following season looking like the best team in the league, but COVID-19 brought everything to a halt. The Bucks, more than perhaps any other team, struggled to cope with the bubble, largely because of social justice concerns in Milwaukee; they were bounced in the second round by the Miami Heat.
A few months later, after an extremely short off-season, they had to get right back to work in a strange COVID-altered world. The mental toll of those years was huge on everyone, and Antetokounmpo had the added pressure of trying to bounce back from two straight humiliating defeats in the playoffs.
“I’m a very stubborn person,” Giannis continues, raising his eyebrows the way he does, leaving wrinkles across his forehead.
“If something doesn’t make me happy, I will not do it. I don’t want to do it. I just stay home, stay with my kids, stay with my family and try to be happy. I do not give a hoot.
And this was true when I signed the biggest contract in NBA history.
“In 2020 I was ready to walk away from the game. I had that conversation – yes – with the front office.
“And, you know, quite normally everyone looks at me like I was crazy. ‘You just signed the biggest contract in NBA history and you want to walk away from the game and all that money…?’
“Mannnnn, you can take that money and put it in your…”
Of course, Antetokounmpo didn’t retire, and while he’s thought about it and even reported the idea to the front office, it’s hard to imagine him ever going through with such a plan – at least not for the long haul. He is too competitive and too driven, as his performance in the 2021 Finals showed as he led the Bucks to their first title in 50 years.
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