Giannis: The end of an era

I would like to live in an alternate universe where the Bucks never broke up the band. In this world, the core four players who brought Milwaukee its first championship in 50 years—Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, and Jrue Holiday—are never traded away. Their children grow up together, their families vacation together, they support each other into the sunset of their careers and beyond.

When I look back at the last decade of Bucks basketball, the memories I cherish the most are not set against the Deer District delirium of epic playoff runs, regardless of how magical those were. No, my treasured moments of Bucks bliss took place at the open scrimmage event that is held on a Sunday morning before each new season.

My family and I have made these scrimmages an annual tradition. Tickets are free or cheap and seating is mostly general admission, so you can get close to the action if you arrive early. We see the team run drills, hear from players and coaches, and watch them play a scrimmage game against each other. My favorite part was always towards the end, when Giannis’ little ones would run around with Khris or Jrue’s kids, who eventually got big enough to help throw out the free stuff—usually signed, small plastic basketballs and T-shirts—that my stepkids would excitedly catch and bring home.

On those holy Sundays, Fiserv Forum was filled with such unadulterated love and unblemished hope for the season to come. They were a gathering of grateful faithful welcoming their heroes back to the battlefield. When I imagine that alternate universe, it is those scenes of stress-free camaraderie that I see.

We would be living in that world had the core four won one or more championships, but reality being what it is, the front office felt compelled to retool the roster. And so, Jrue got traded first, then Khris, then Brook.

Now Bucks fans face our darkest hour yet, the departure of the Greek Freak. That lanky kid from Athens with a funny name who turned a fledgling franchise into a perennial contender, the immigrant who took a small market squad from the dregs of the NBA to the top of the basketball mountain, the 2-time MVP, 10-time All-Star, 7-time All-NBA First Team, Defensive Player of the Year, and NBA Finals MVP, is taking his talents to South Beach.

As a lifelong Bucks fan, there may never again be a harder pill to swallow.

Obviously, this is the Bucks organization’s worst nightmare. Giannis is a singular superstar, a profoundly popular player. Rarely has an athlete meant so much to a franchise and its city than Giannis has meant to the Bucks and Milwaukee. His story has been nothing short of a fairytale, until now, at least for us Bucks fans.

Considering Giannis has put family and loyalty above all else—embodying the Greek phrase philotimo (φιλότιμο), roughly translated to “love of honor”—it was easy to buy into the fantasy that he would end his career as a one-team player like Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kobe Bryant. We believed that we had become a part of his extended family, making his loyalty unshakeable. I don’t know if we were totally wrong. I believe he considers Milwaukee to be his second home. I could feel it when I interviewed him back in 2018 in the Bucks locker room for a piece I wrote about the end of the Bradley Center.

Before we get salty and wallow in self-pity, let us remember the times that he nearly left, but chose to stay. In his rookie season (2013-2014), teenage Giannis knocked on the office door of John Hammond—the Bucks general manager at the time—multiple times a week to check on the status of his family’s travel visas. Due to the fact that they were living illegally in Greece as immigrants from Nigeria, the process was especially difficult.

During the winter, Giannis gave the Bucks an ultimatum: bring my family to Milwaukee or I go back to Greece. Luckily, former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl—the Bucks owner at the time—called in a favor to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to get the visa applications approved. On the night of February 3, 2014, with Giannis’ parents in the building, the rookie played with a newfound sense of joy. It was his best performance up to that point. When I asked about his favorite memories in the Bradley Center, that was the one.

Let us remember that in the beginning of the 2020 season, Giannis could have decided not to sign the supermax extension—then the largest in NBA history—and let his contract with the Bucks expire. But he didn’t. Seven months later the Bucks won the Larry O’Brien trophy, which is forever.

It feels normal to want more from our idols. We want our favorite musicians to keep putting out new music, our favorite shows to keep putting out new episodes, and our favorite athletes to keep winning. Our culture has a rapacious appetite for content and results that isn’t realistic or healthy. But so it goes.

In terms of where he landed, it is not lost on me that the Miami Heat have been one of our fiercest rivals over the past decade. In my eyes, there were only two acceptable destinations for Giannis. One was a team in Europe, preferably in Greece, so he could do for professional basketball in Europe what Lionel Messi has done for professional soccer in the United States.

The other was the Atlanta Hawks, who were eagerly pursuing him ahead of the 2013 NBA Draft. This included two secret meetings in Europe and going so far as to fly Giannis and Thanasis to Atlanta, where they stayed in the home of Danny Ferry—the Hawks general manager at the time—eating dinner and playing games with his kids.

On June 22, 2026, the day Shams Charania reported a Giannis trade was imminent, I watched Giannis: The Marvelous Journey, the 2024 Amazon Prime documentary. Towards the end of the film, the Greek journalist Harris Stavrou says: “Giannis, Thanasis, Alex and Kostas, they really love Greece. That’s the place they grew up. But we don’t deserve Giannis. That’s my point of view.”

The context for Stavrou’s quote, which is outlined in the film, is how racist and hostile Greek society could be towards immigrants. Giannis and his brothers recount running through certain neighborhoods in Athens to avoid being harassed. Giannis’ wife Mariah even questioned his allegiance to a country that has been inhospitable towards people like him.

Stavrou’s quote made me wonder whether Milwaukee deserved 13 years of Giannis. In contrast to Greek society, the people of Milwaukee have shown tremendous appreciation and adoration for Giannis and his family. When he was running through our town because he lacked cash for a cab ride, a couple gave him a ride to the arena. For the most part, the Bucks organization treated him with the same level of respect, at least until the last year or so, which precipitated his departure.

Did Milwaukee deserve Giannis?

It’s a silly, subjective question.

Outsiders would likely say, “Absolutely not. You should be so lucky to have had him for as long as you did.”

I can agree with the second part.

Cushioning the blow is this golden age of Milwaukee Brewers baseball that we are in, which, amazingly, has run parallel to the Giannis years and has been far less dependent on the health and success of one player.

That said, it must be said: Thank you Giannis.

Ευχαριστώ για το δώρο.

Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.