As if there was any lingering doubt, the Bucks made it official the other day when they gave him a massive contract extension: Giannis Antetokounmpo is the bedrock of the franchise. Not only did the Greek Freak enhance his game last season, but he also delivered a promising stint at point guard, proof of his freakish versatility. Getting him to agree to an extension bodes well for the small-market Bucks; the goal is to keep their young core together and become a perennial playoff team in the very near future. Gianni spoke with Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Sentinel:
Everything was new to Giannis Antetokounmpo when he arrived in Milwaukee three years ago as a rookie first-round pick from Greece.
The 6-foot-11 Antetokounmpo even had to learn to drive a car, and a somewhat nervous Milwaukee Bucks general manager John Hammond helped out a few times from the passenger seat of a Ford Edge.
On Tuesday the Bucks player was put in another driver’s seat as he spoke with humor and candor to reporters about the four-year, $100 million contract he signed earlier in the day.
“That’s crazy,” Antetokounmpo said about his driving lessons. “No GM in the league would even do that. We almost had a car accident outside the practice facility. Thank God I was too good of a driver. I avoided it at the last minute.”
Hammond had a slightly different take on driving with Giannis.
“We had a lot of faith in Giannis as a basketball player, but early on, as a driver, we had some real concerns,” Hammond said with a laugh. “We worked on parking. Then we tried to work on parallel parking, all in preparation for his test. But he did it; he made it.”
Now the 21-year-old Antetokounmpo has made enough progress on the basketball court to be awarded the richest contract in franchise history, one that will pay him just shy of $23 million in the first year of the deal in 2017-’18.
He vowed Tuesday the big money would not change his approach to the game or the work habits that helped him get to this point. And Antetokounmpo said he never had any doubts he would stay in Milwaukee.
“I can’t imagine me being somewhere else,” Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t say this just for the media but from the bottom of my heart. I know after this five years, hopefully, we’ll be doing great, and I’ll be here five more years.
“As I said last summer, I want to be here for 20 years. I don’t like change, anyway.”
Antetokounmpo’s path from the second division in Greece to becoming a franchise-type NBA player is a storybook tale. Even his agent, Alex Saratsis, could not have predicted it.
“Anybody who sits here and says ‘I could see this coming’ would be lying,” Saratsis said. “He came in as a mold of clay. You have no idea.
“We still talk about it. His rookie year, if there had not been all the injuries, you never know how this turns out. Midway through the season they said, ‘This isn’t going the way we expected it to; go ahead. Give it a shot.’ I think that’s what propelled him.”
Antetokounmpo got the chance to play on the Bucks’ league-worst 15-67 team as a rookie under coach Larry Drew. Then he took a big step forward as part of a playoff team under coach Jason Kidd in the 2014-’15 season. And Kidd gave the Greek Freak a much bigger role last season when the youngster moved to the point guard spot.
“I think it was after the all-star break and we were playing in Atlanta, and Coach (Kidd) made the decision for me to be the point guard,” Antetokounmpo said. “I wasn’t expecting that. Fifteen minutes before the game, Coach was like, ‘You’re handling the ball today.’
“After that game, I was like, ‘OK, my teammates trust me with the ball in my hands. Coach trusts me.’ I might be able to take the next step right here. I think I took it. It’s not the finish line; it’s just the beginning.”
Antetokounmpo took less than the maximum contract of $106 million over four years and bypassed a possible fifth year in the deal, giving the Bucks flexibility for future negotiations. Forward Jabari Parker, also a key part of the Bucks’ young core, will be eligible for an extension next summer.
