Giannis Wants To ‘Build A Culture In Milwaukee’ That Can ‘Compete Every Single Year’ For Titles

The Milwaukee Bucks’ season came to an end on Tuesday night. The best team in the league during the 2019-20 season fell to the Miami Heat, 4-1, in a series that did not include Giannis Antetokounmpo for essentially half of Game 4 and all of Game 5 due to a right ankle sprain that required a boot.

Even beyond the additional context about his future, it was brutal for Milwaukee to have the reigning league MVP on the sideline with its season on the line. Then, of course, there is the additional context of his future. The Bucks are going to put a supermax extension in front of him the nanosecond that’s allowed, and he will have to make a decision that legitimately could end up shaping the future of the league: Does he stay in Milwaukee, or does he opt to go elsewhere in pursuit of championships?

As is legally required when a guy is in that spot, every word they speak before making to that major decision will be subject to scrutiny. The latest entry into this chapter of Antetokounmpo’s career came following the loss, when he spoke to the media and discussed his desire to build a championship culture with the Bucks.

“Hopefully we can learn from this and get better as a team and come back,” Antetokounmpo said. “Hopefully we can build a culture in Milwaukee that, for many years, we can come out and compete every single year for a championship.”

Antetokounmpo also discussed the decision to keep him on the sideline, something that he admits he wanted to avoid. However, he did express his appreciate for the organization deciding to make his health the No. 1 priority over a game.

While the exact number is up in the air, Tim Bontemps of ESPN noted that the deal the Bucks can offer Antetokounmpo is expected to be around $220 million, which would be about $80 million more than what any other team could give him.