Milwaukee Bucks: Tampering fine shows excitement for Giannis
By Jordan Foote
The Milwaukee Bucks are excited about their future. They want Giannis Antetokounmpo to be a part of it. The franchise learned a costly lesson this week, though.
There aren’t many NBA teams with a brighter future than the Milwaukee Bucks. A lot of that can be credited to their up-and-coming superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The 24-year-old is coming off his best season as a professional, posting averages of 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game in 2018-19. Winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, Antetokounmpo cemented his status as one of the league’s premier players. His general manager knows it, too.
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On a Fox Sports Wisconsin broadcast, reigning Executive of the Year Jon Horst spent some time answering questions ahead of the 2019-20 season. When asked about Antetokounmpo’s long-term future in regards to a potential contract extension, here’s what Horst had to say:
"“The answer for right now is we can’t talk or negotiate anything… Giannis, basically a year from now, will be eligible for a supermax extension. At that time, of course, he’ll be offered a supermax extension.”"
Although anyone in their right mind would agree with Horst that Antetokounmpo will be offered a supermax contract extension down the line, teams aren’t allowed to say that publicly. Per Shams Charania, Horst’s comments were a violation of the league’s rules against when commenting on the status of player contracts is allowed.
A $50,000 fine is pocket change to a franchise worth over $1 billion but nonetheless, the rest of the NBA was put on notice with this fine. Comments such as this one won’t be tolerated.
On the other hand, can anyone blame Horst for being so excited about the future? Antetokounmpo won’t turn 25 until Dec. 6 and his prime is still probably a few years away. There’s only one hole left in his game for him to fix: 3-point shooting. If this offseason has been any indication, Antetokounmpo plans on improving in that area for the betterment of the team.
This may have been the first time as of late that Horst made it clear he intends on locking up his star player long-term, but he’s reassured fans of that countless times. First and foremost, he extended Antetokounmpo’s supporting cast of Eric Bledsoe, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez for the next several seasons.
After that, Horst signed Giannis’ older brother, Thanasis, to a two-way deal. He’s went above and beyond to make his star feel comfortable.
There have been numerous rumblings about the possibility of Antetokounmpo somehow joining the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2021. While that would throw everyone for a curve and shift the entire balance of power in the league right back to California, it almost surely isn’t going to happen.
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Jon Horst has a plan in place. He’s spent the last few seasons setting up his roster to be an NBA Finals contender in 2019-20 and 2020-21. Not worried about luxury tax implications, the league’s dreaded repeater tax or any other financial burdens that may pop up, the Milwaukee Bucks will do everything under their power to make Giannis Antetokounmpo a Buck for life.