What will Bucks do at NBA trade deadline? This overlooked Giannis quote might hold the answer

Giannis Antetokounmpo gave The Athletic's Sam Amick an 11-minute interview on Wednesday night. The entire interview was illuminating and well worth a read, but as so often happens when a superstar grants any sort of exclusive, the social media aggregation machine honed in on only a single, newsy quote. 

Antetokounmpo has been the subject of trade rumors since last spring. Those rumors have become the dominant story of the 2025-26 season. The Bucks are 16-21 as of this writing, have limited control over their future draft capital and have $20 million or so in dead Damian Lillard money squatting on their books for the next four seasons. In other words, their outlook is grim, but by all accounts, they would not entertain the notion of trading Antetokounmpo unless he asked for it. This makes Antetokounmpo's declaration to Amick that he would not request a trade seemingly quite significant.

"There will never be a chance, and there will never be a moment that I will come out and say, 'I want a trade,' " Antetokounmpo said. "That's not … in … my … nature. OK?"

Predictably, this quote has made the rounds. Bucks fans are understandably thrilled to hear this sort of talk out of their franchise player. But within the same interview, Antetokounmpo suggested that while this is his stance right now, it may not be forever. 

"Until today, my wife is great. She's a great mother. She's a great partner. She supports me. Until today. Tomorrow, she might wake up and be like, 'I don't want this. I fell out of love,' he said. "Until today, me and (Bucks general manager) Jon (Horst) have a good relationship. Tomorrow, (Horst) might think there's something else out there, and he might have to do whatever he has to do."

When Amick asked if he planned to spend the rest of his career in Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo said yes, unless a time comes in which the Bucks don't want him anymore. When Amick suggested he wielded the power in the situation, Antetokounmpo responded, "I'm not the one in charge. I am an employee." He has taken this tone quite a bit amid these rumors. During December's rumor flare up, Antetokounmpo essentially argued that he could not be held responsible for what his representatives do. "If my agent is talking to the Bucks about it, he's his own person," he said. After owner Wes Edens mentioned a productive meeting between him and Antetokounmpo in June, Antetokounmpo responded at Bucks media day "I cannot recall that meeting."

All of this together paints a picture of Antetokounmpo trying to distance himself from these backroom dealings. Maybe these conversations are happening behind the scenes. He wants it known that he's not a part of them and that he does not want to be a part of them. But until Antetokounmpo puts pen to paper on the contract extension that he is eligible to sign this offseason, nobody outside of Milwaukee is going to believe that he is committed to the Bucks for life. For now, these quotes amount to little more than semantic games. Even if he's not directly participating in them, these conversations are happening. He has said in the past that winning a second championship is more important to him than retiring as a Buck. It's all talk until he has to make a binding, contractual decision.

Amick asked a direct and important question. Antetokounmpo gave an answer that made for an easy quote. The news cycle ran with it, and in the process, largely missed what was ultimately the most interesting part of the interview. The final question Amick asked was quick and to the point: can the Bucks figure it out? Normally, this is the sort of question that yields a quick soundbite, almost alway in the affirmative with perhaps a single minor adjustment or improvement that needs to be made. 

But instead, Antetokounmpo gave a deep, thoughtful answer about what he believes a winning team needs in the NBA. After the first paragraph of his transcription, Amick notes that Antetokunmpo, "with his passion rising as he speaks over the loud beeping sounds of a nearby forklift, starts clapping his hands together." After the third paragraph, Amick notes that a Bucks staffer essentially tells Antetokounpo to hurry up, but the star shouts "one second" so he can finish his thought. The answer, essentially, is a guide from a one of the greatest players in NBA history to the rest of his team about what he thinks they need to do in order to save to this season. In short: Antetokounmpo wants sacrifice. Here is the full, lengthy quote.

"You cannot win on your own terms, right? Do you think when I won the championship (in 2021), that I didn't want to have the ball down the stretch and make all the shots that (former Bucks guard) Khris (Middleton) was making? I wanted that. But at the end of the day, winning cannot be on your terms. So I feel like sometimes on young teams, you have to win by you being pretty, by you being the ball-dominant player, by you feeling good and making the plays. No, you have to be selfless. You have to be selfless. I've seen this over and over again.

I have seen it over and over. There's some people that you have to play through them to win the championship. And there's some teams like, say, two years ago when Boston won. Was Jrue Holiday his 100% self? No, he played a role. He was part of a system. Al Horford. Derrick White. (Payton) Pritchard. (Jayson) Tatum and Jaylen Brown were able to thrive. Winning doesn't always look the same. It's either you're a winner, or you're not a winner. I want to win. I want to win. And the thing about this team is that as long as we figure out, 'How can we be selfless and give things away?' It's buying into winning -- really winning -- and then we are going to figure it out. And if we don't buy in, we don't come together.

I've been a part of winning teams, and winning teams don't always win championships, right? Indiana was a winning team but didn't wind up with the championship. So I've seen some teams, and some players, who are buying in -- like (Kyle) Kuzma. Kuzma won a championship (with the Lakers in 2020), then went to Washington and played a lot of years. He's a vet. But he's the most bought-in player, right? He's coming off the bench making $25 million ($22.4 million this season, in fact). He could be like, 'Guys, I'm the third option. I'm second option. Give me the ball.' But he is buying in. He's coming off of the bench. Then he starts. Comes off the bench. Gets touches. Doesn't get touches. That's what winning looks like, you know?

But to answer your question, I think we have to buy in more. Winning won't always look the way we want it to look. Maybe one day I have to have 20 rebounds, eight assists, 12 points. But then maybe another night (he) has to do more things. But winning doesn't always look the same."

There is a rare honesty in this answer that says something bigger about the psyche of just about every successful NBA player. Remember, Antetokounmpo won Finals MVP in 2021. He scored 50 points in the closeout game of the series. And he's still thinking about all of the shots Middleton took instead of him. Some version of this thought process is probably playing out in the mind of almost every player in the NBA. After all, for most of their pre-NBA careers, most NBA players had only ever been stars. That's how they got to the NBA in the first place. They were the best player on their AAU team. And their high school team. And their college team.

But the things that get you to the NBA and the things that keep you in the NBA aren't always the same. In this league, everyone is a star, and when everyone is a star, standing out often means doing the grunt work that stars aren't eager to do. Even at the absolute highest levels, even when you're as good as Giannis Antetokounmpo, you have to make sacrifices for the greater good of the team. You have to pass up shots that you want. You have to do dirty work. Like those older, accomplished Celtics veterans did, you have to be a part of a team.

The fact that Antetokounmpo would go this far out of his way to spell out his belief on this matter when asked if the Bucks can turn their season around suggests that, at least so far, he doesn't believe his team is doing those things. And, well, there's a fair bit of evidence to support that notion.

As the Bucks have attempted to load up around Antetokounmpo, they've been linked to several big-name scorers on the trade market. But look at their statistical profile. They have the second-highest effective field goal percentage in the NBA. On a per-play basis, they have one of the best half-court offenses in the NBA, and when Antetokounmpo is on the floor, they score at will. Yet the Bucks are only 13-10 with Antetokounmpo available this season, and that's having played the NBA's fourth-easiest schedule to date. So what's going wrong?

In short, it's everything except the scoring. The Bucks rank 28th in rebounding rate. Now, Doc Rivers teams never get offensive rebounds, but even with Antetokounmpo, they rank just 16th in defensive rebounding. They rank 18th in defense. They foul far more often than they get fouled. They're in the middle of the pack when it comes to passing volume, and while some of that is inherent to building around Antetokounmpo's specific skills, their passing numbers actually went down during his recent eight-game absence.

In a way, these can be read almost as marching orders. The Bucks need to get players who can do the dirty work. Who can be selfless in the ways that Antetokounmpo described. They seemingly don't have enough players to do that right now. Interestingly, Kuzma, the one player Antetokounmpo calls out be name here as someone who is doing so, almost has to be in any big trade the Bucks make for salary purposes.

Nobody really knows how much longer Antetokounmpo will play for the Bucks. Not even him, given all of that talk about how different things might be tomorrow. But for now, Antetokounmpo is laying out a sort of blueprint for what he wants the Bucks, or any team he plays for, to be. And so long as he remains a Buck, Milwaukee has the power to at least try to build that sort of team. They may not be able to control his desires, but they can control what they put around him. Unlike any of the quotes about his future, this one is actionable, and from that perspective, it is probably the most substantive thing he's said all season.