Giannis Antetokounmpo Unsure About Bucks Contract Extension; Must 'See the Dynamics'

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he will need to wait to see how the team plays under new head coach Adrian Griffin before deciding on his next extension, according to the New York Times' Tania Ganguli.

"You've got to see the dynamics," Antetokounmpo said. "How the coach is going to be, how we're going to be together. At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship. 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 Bucks fired five-year head coach Mike Budenholzer in May after the team was upset in the first round by the Miami Heat.

Antetokounmpo is currently signed through the 2024-25 season with a player option in 2025-26. He will be eligible to sign a three-year extension in September, but is unlikely to consider extending until next season, Ganguli reported.

Even then, the star declined to commit to extending his Milwaukee contract in 2024.

"The real question's not going to be this year — numbers-wise it doesn't make sense," Antetokounmpo said. "But next year, next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don't know."

"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."

Antetokounmpo was named the MVP of the 2021 NBA Finals after helping the Bucks end a 50-year championship drought by racking up 50 points in a title-clinching Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns.

Since then, Milwaukee has not made it back to the finals, losing in the conference semifinals in 2022 before suffering the first-round upset in 2023.

Antetokounmpo made it clear that the Bucks will have to change that trajectory over the next two seasons in order to convince him to sign an extension.

"Winning a championship comes first," Giannis added. "I don't want to be 20 years on the same team and don't win another championship."

That could depend in large part on how the team gels under Griffin, who will be entering first year as an NBA head coach after five seasons as an assistant for the Toronto Raptors.

The five-year, $228 million extension Antetokounmpo signed in 2020 was the largest contract NBA history, and his next extension is set to be similarly expensive. The 28-year-old was one of six players in the NBA to rack up more than 30 points per game last season.