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Eric WoodyardESPN
Back-to-back NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has committed to the Milwaukee Bucks long-term.
Antetokounmpo agreed to sign a five-year, $228 million supermax extension with the Bucks on Tuesday, he announced on Twitter, with the terms being confirmed by agent Alex Saratsis to ESPN. The deal includes an opt out after the fourth year.
Had he passed on the offer, he would have been an unrestricted free agent next summer and the biggest name to hit the market since Kevin Durant in 2016.
Antetokounmpo is coming off a career year where he became just the third player in league history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. He also averaged career-highs in points (29.5) and rebounds (13.6) to go with 5.6 assists per game and a 31.9 player efficiency rating — the highest in a season in NBA history, per ESPN Stats & Information data.
Milwaukee has finished the regular season with the best record in the league each of the past two years, but failed to reach the NBA Finals either time. In 2019, the Bucks took a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in the conference finals before losing in six games. This past season, Milwaukee didn’t get that far, falling to the Miami Heat in five games during the semifinals in the Orlando bubble.
For all their regular-season success, the Bucks have reached the conference finals just once in Antetokounmpo’s seven-year tenure and haven’t reached the NBA Finals since 1974 with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who ultimately asked to be traded from Milwaukee after his sixth season as a three-time league MVP.
“I think [Antetokounmpo] should look into his own heart and make a decision based on what’s important to him and his professional life,” Abdul-Jabbar, who led the Bucks to their lone title in 1971, said to ESPN during a October 2019 trip to Milwaukee.
Antetokounmpo was a relative unknown when the Bucks made him the No. 15 overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft. Born in Greece to Nigerian parents, Antetokounmpo was playing in Greece’s second division before joining Milwaukee. He averaged just 6.8 points per game as a rookie, starting 23 games, but by his third year, his scoring average was up to 16.9 and he earned Most Improved Player honors. The next year, he made the first of his four All-Star appearances.
Milwaukee reached the playoffs three times in Antetokounmpo’s first five seasons with the team, but was eliminated in the first round each time. In 2018-19, Antetokounmpo ascended to the league’s MVP, becoming the first Bucks player since Abdul-Jabbar to win the award, while leading the team to its first playoff series win since 2001.
Antetokounmpo has improved his scoring average every season he’s been in the league, reaching 29.5 last season, when he became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to average at least 29.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists over the course of a season. However, his focus has remained that elusive championship.
“It’s simple. You’ve got to be better than what you were last year. If you did not win the whole thing, you’ve got to get better,” Antetokounmpo said during his September virtual news conference after accepting his MVP trophy. “If you win the whole thing, you’ve got to get better and do it again.”
With teams around the NBA clearing cap space with the hope of pursuing Antetokounmpo next summer, Milwaukee entered a critical offseason hoping to convince its best player since Abdul-Jabbar to stay by putting together a solid supporting cast.
“This is our Super Bowl,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said on Nov. 16. “We work at this every single day of every year to have great processes and great decision-making filters and we got through them and there’s confidence in that. I’m very confident in how we’re approaching this and how we’re working and the results we’re hopeful.”
Before the start of free agency, the Bucks agreed to a trade bringing in former All-Star Jrue Holiday as part of a four-team deal. A reported trade that would have brought Bogdan Bogdanovic to Milwaukee as part of a sign-and-trade deal fell apart before it could be completed, and the Bucks pivoted to bolstering their bench, adding DJ Augustin, Bryn Forbes and Torrey Craig while re-signing guard Pat Connaughton.
The Bucks also added rookie Jordan Nwora with the No. 45 pick in the draft. Antetokounmpo and All-Star guard Khris Middleton both reached out to the former Louisville forward on draft night with an introductory text message, he said, welcoming him to the team and telling him that the “goal is a championship here.”
Antetokounmpo, who turns 26 on Dec. 6, joined Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James this season as the only players to win multiple NBA MVP awards by age 25. He’s repeatedly expressed interest in staying in Milwaukee under the right circumstances.
“I’ve been encouraged my whole career in Milwaukee,” Antetokounmpo said after winning his second MVP. “I know that we’ve gotten better each year and I know that Milwaukee has great people that view every year the same I do every year, which is to play well, improve and win it all.”