Giannis extension keeps pressure on
Clock on championship timeline not totally re-wound
A city, and a state, exhaled.
The rest of the country gasped. The last time a two-time Most Valuable Player in the NBA played in Milwaukee he had grown tired and ached for changed. The result was a trade that began a 49-year NBA Finals drought.
This time, the Milwaukee Bucks’ two-time MVP decided to commit to ending that aridity.
In a tweet announcing his decision to sign a five-year contract extension, Giannis Antetokounmpo wrote: "This is my home, this is my city.. I’m blessed to be able to be a part of the Milwaukee Bucks for the next 5 years. Let’s make these years count. The show goes on, let’s get it."
By signing the five-year, $228 million supermax extension (with an optout after the fourth year), Antetokounmpo is now positioned to surpass
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the franchise’s greatest player. The individual accolades are there. Regular-season dominance? Check. Forcing the game to change around you? Check.
The one thing Abdul-Jabbar took with him to Los Angeles in the summer of 1975 that Antetokounmpo has yet to attain is a championship ring.
Abdul-Jabbar’s Bucks won the organization’s lone title 50 years ago in
the 1970-71 season and went to another NBA Finals in 1974. No Bucks team since has reached the sport’s ultimate stage.
Antetokounmpo has long since said he wanted to build a legacy in Milwaukee and with the Bucks. He has done that. Had he forgone an extension – either now or after the season – and departed Milwaukee, his number would be retired the second he did. In the Hall of Fame, he’ll be considered a Buck, as once a star leaves his original city the odds that he bounces to another two or three seems certain.
But now, rather than being one of the greatest to play in Milwaukee – he can be the greatest. It’s a distinction few athletes achieve in a single city.
On the team level, the extension clearly means the window to win a title remains open. In a star-driven league, having one of the best in his prime years offers that opportunity if he is healthy.
The pressure on the Bucks is not alleviated, however. The clock on the Bucks and their championship timeline is not totally re-wound, but rather is given the benefit of Daylight Savings Time. Essentially, by signing the extension the Bucks have been given one extra year of having Antetokounmpo in the fold.
Following the signing of a supermax extension, that player is not allowed to be traded in the first year of the deal. That would be the 2021-22 season.
But late into that year, who knows how the landscape of the NBA and the Bucks could change. Antetokounmpo could easily let it be known he wants to be traded – not unlike Abdul-Jabbar after the Bucks slipped to 38-44 in his final season.
The upshot for the Bucks is that – like in the Abdul-Jabbar trade – they could get the best offer available in return regarding players, draft picks and freeing up salary cap space to set up a post-Antetokounmpo rebuild. It was a scenario that would not have existed had he exited via free agency after this season.
There are massive salary cap implications with this contract, no doubt. The Bucks are up against it and will be as long as their best player is on the roster. But that’s not Antetokounmpo’s concern – general manager Jon Horst and his staff are paid to manage it and to field a team within it. Ownership is charged with paying whatever bills that come due.
Therefore, this extension does not ease the burdens on head coach Mike Budenholzer, Horst or the ownership group. No, it only places those men in a different kind of bubble – one that ultimately will lay the lack of anything less than history at their feet.
If the team does not win, but Antetokounmpo continues to play at a high level and asks to be traded in a year, where will that blame fall? In this instance, the player could escape with reputation relatively unscathed.
In that way, it would be unlike AbdulJabbar, who some fans felt bailed on the city and the franchise. Time, indeed, healed old wounds in that regard, but should Antetokounmpo exert his influence in that manner sometime after 2022, who would blame him?
And for the city, this means a longer run in the national spotlight, to be talked about as a legitimate championship contender. It means more nationally televised broadcasts, marquee matchups on special days, a continued place on the global stage and frankly, relevancy.
“What we’re seeing right now is a reflection not only on Giannis but it’s a reflection on the city because what has happened is Giannis has fallen in love with Milwaukee, with the Bucks, I think with the fans and I think that what has happened is we’ve fallen in love with him," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.
“He brings so much enthusiasm, he brings so much love for the game, so much determination, so much competitiveness. It really is a great, great sign that he has decided that he wants to continue his career here in the City of Milwaukee.”
In this, the 50th anniversary season of the lone title won by a team that calls Milwaukee home, it can’t be underscored what it means for the Bucks being part of a legitimate championship conversation.
The near-misses for the Brewers and Bucks reaching a final series sting far more than the actual last championship losses in 1982 and 1974.
There are no guarantees, of course. It’s hard to win a title and the Bucks haven’t reached that point yet even with Antetokounmpo winning most valuable player and defensive player of the year awards.
The Eastern Conference has gotten more competitive. No one has stood pat. But going forward, Antetokounmpo agreeing to stay means the Bucks will not either.