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Milwaukee Bucks
Sep 2, 2025 6:31 AM EDT
Over the weekend, news came down that the Milwaukee Bucks had signed free-agent Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the very athletic and much-liked forward who also happens to be the older brother of star Giannis Antetokounmpo. The elder Antetokounmpo has been a fringe NBA player even in his best years, but at age 33, those years are well behind him.
Thanasis last played for the Bucks in 2023-24, and scored a total of 32 points that season, making 34 appearances. Giving him a contract has led to some accusations of nepotism around the league, the suggestion being that Milwaukee only signed Thanasis Antetokounmpo to ensure that Giannis is happy and won’t ask for a trade out of Milwaukee.
To which executives around the league said something along the lines of, “Well, duh.”
“Yeah, of course they signed him to make Giannis happy,” one NBA executive said. “Thanasis would not be in the NBA otherwise. But the fact is, there are 29 other teams in the league that would have signed Thanasis on the first day of free agency if we thought it would mean getting Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster.”
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Why Have the Milwaukee Bucks Been So Active This Summer?
The Bucks’ ends, then, justifies the means in the case of Thanasis Antetokounmpo and his brother.
Indeed, the Bucks as an organization have done well to avoid an ugly summer of strife here in 2025, after the offseason began with speculation that Giannis Antetokounmpo would ask for a trade after a third consecutive ouster in the first round of the playoffs.
The team took another controversial step by eating the overwrought contract of guard Damian Lillard (who tore his Achilles tendon) on a waive-and-stretch provision and using the space that create to add Myles Turner, the top free agent on the market. That, too, was controversial, as Milwaukee will take a $22.5 million cap hit for five years just to dump Lillard.
Last week, too, the Bucks wanted to show their support of Antetokounmpo by sending GM Jon Horst and coach Doc Rivers to EuroBasket, where Antetokounmpo’s national team–Greece–has been competing.
Giannis Antetokoumpo Trade Speculation Is Over
The Bucks, of course, won a championship with Antetokounmpo as the featured player in 2021 but have done little of note since and, in reality, have moved backwards. They reached the second round of the playoffs in 2022 before injuries set in over the past three seasons and saw them knocked out in the first round of the postseason each time.
With Lillard’s injury keeping him out all of next season, the time appeared to have come for Milwaukee to overhaul the roster, including a trade of Antetokounmpo. And ESPN reported that Antetokounmpo was weighing the idea of asking for a trade out of MIlwaukee this summer to restart elsewhere.
That was why the Bucks were so active in free agency with the Turner deal. Still, the possibility of an Antetokounmpo trade lingered well into August–until the signing of Thanasis Antetokounmpo sealed the deal and ensured that Giannis would remain with the Bucks, the only team he has known in what will now be his 13th NBA season.
About the Author
Sean Deveney