Giannis Says He Can Play in NBA Until He's '36-38,' Eyes Greek Team to End Career

Giannis Antetokounmpo has a plan for his professional basketball career that involves playing out his final years in Greece.

Appearing on ANT1's The 2night Show (h/t BasketNews.com), Antetokounmpo said he "can play in the NBA until I'm 36-38" at which point he would "like to end my career" on a Greek team.

"I don't want to live in the United States," he explained. "As soon as I leave the NBA, I want to return to Greece. I could end my career here, whether this team is called Filathlitikos, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, or Aris, I'm talking about all the teams now."

Assuming he follows through with this plan, it would mean Antetokounmpo will play six to eight more seasons in the NBA. He will turn 31 on Dec. 6.

Of course, the key question there is where Antetokounmpo will spend the majority of those seasons. By his own admission, he is currently "locked in" with the Milwaukee Bucks going into the start of the 2025-26 season, but there's also the possibility that he could "change my mind" if things don't go well.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Oct. 7 that Antetokounmpo identified the New York Knicks earlier in the offseason as the one team he would like to play for if he were to push for a trade out of Milwaukee.

Charania added the Bucks and Knicks "engaged in conversations for a window of time" over the summer, but those discussions never gained any traction.

Based on the timeline that Antetokounmpo laid out, it will give him between 18 to 20 seasons in the NBA. That's enough time for him to potentially reach 30,000 points and 15,000 rebounds in his career.

Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are currently the only players in NBA history to hit both of those thresholds.

Antetokounmpo has continued to represent his home country as his professional career took off. He helped lead Greece's men's basketball team to an eighth-place finish at the 2024 Olympics in the country's first appearance at the Summer Games in 16 years.

Prior to entering the 2013 NBA draft, Antetokounmpo played two seasons with Filathlitikos. The Bucks selected him with the No. 15 pick in the draft 12 years ago. He has led the franchise to an NBA title during the 2020-21 season after winning back-to-back MVP awards in 2018-19 and 2019-20.