Giannis says he won't sign an extension until he sees a title commitment from Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said in an interview with the New York Times, that he won't sign an extension with the team this fall and won't do so until he sees that the team is going to continue to build toward another championship.
Antetokounmpo said that "numbers-wise it doesn't make sense," when referring to a new contract.
"Next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don't know," said Antetokounmpo, who won a title in 2021. "I would not be the best version of myself if I don't know that everybody's on the same page, everybody's going for a championship, everybody's going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don't feel that, I'm not signing."
The 2023-24 season will be the third year of a five-year supermax extension worth $228 million and he can opt out after the 2024-25 season. Antetokounmpo, a two-time NBA MVP who has been a unanimous first-team All-NBA selection each of the past four seasons, is set to make $45.6 million this season.
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"At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship," Antetokounmpo said. "As long as we're on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I'm all for it. The moment I feel like, 'Oh, yeah, we're trying to rebuild' ... there will never be hard feelings with the Milwaukee Bucks."
"At the end of the day, being a winner, it's over that goal," he added. "Winning a championship comes first. I don't want to be 20 years on the same team and don't win another championship."
The Bucks, a No. 1 seed, were eliminated in the first round of the 2023 playoffs in five games by the Miami Heat, who went on to lose in the NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets.