Bucks should try their best to leave Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee, who lost superstar, will repeat the same mistake

TA/Rob Peterson

Milwaukee (in a corner of my memory) - In my early childhood Milwaukee time, Jabbar was always tall and majestic.

Jabbar once played for the Bucks in my hometown. He was everywhere: he appeared on the front page of two local sports newspapers, appeared on the cover of the magazine, appeared in the ABC national live game, and later on the sixth game of the 1974 Finals, facing the Celtics at the Boston Garden Arena.

But for me and my imaginative imagination that best symbolizes Jabbar's huge presence, it was not newspaper headlines or TV shots, but a gorgeous neon sign at an electronics store near the Old Capitol Plaza shopping center northwest Milwaukee. The sign has a wide top, narrowed in the middle, and slanted slightly to one side- whether to go left or right, depending on which direction you approach it. The bottom of the sign narrowed further, eventually turning into an arrow pointing directly to the store.

For that store, that neon sign means: we are ready to welcome you. And to me, it looks like the Nets that swayed after Jabbar hit the bottom line sky hook.

I once told my father about this when I was driving by, and he responded to me: "Yes, I understand what you mean."

You can also imagine it. Just like the Net on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

I still remember this memory clearly half a century later, which is the symbol of greatness: the stars may occasionally leave an impression, while the superstars will be deeply imprinted in memory, even in imagination.

This is why rumors about Giannis Antetokounmpo trades worry Bucks fans so much. They know what they have: an unparalleled superstar who resonates with just one name, who has brought his first NBA championship since...Jabbar.

So, my advice to the Bucks is: do your best to keep the "Greek Monster". You must never let him go, and you must never send him away for the highest bid chips. Even if the Dallas Mavericks are willing to give away the No. 1 picks, more draft picks, plus Jerry World (AT&T Stadium - no, that's already from the Green Bay Packers); or the Rockets propose Alperen Shinkin, more draft picks, and NASA Aviation Control Center; or the San Antonio Spurs are willing to give out this year's No. 2 picks, Stephen Castle, more draft picks and the entire Alamo Monument.

For Bucks fans, Antetokounmpo is their historical landmark.

Do something radical! Resist the urge to "take a few more draft picks + rebuild for a few years or longer". Don't trade this greatest player in team history.

Because if the Bucks really trade Antetokounmpo, this team may fall into another long, uncrowd winter for decades.

How do Bucks fans know this? They have already experienced it. And it would be too cruel to ask them to experience it again.

Although Jabbar's situation was different from that of Giannis today, there are still some similarities between the two.

During his six seasons for Milwaukee, Jabbar not only established himself as the "bucks' best player in history", but also consolidated his position as "one of the greatest players" in college and professional basketball history.

He has won the NCAA championship for three consecutive years at UCLA and is the most favored "proud son of heaven". How stable is it? Look at the expression of the soul as if it was out of body after the Suns general manager Jerry Colangelo failed in the coin draw. That draw won the Bucks the No. 1 pick in the 1969 NBA Draft. He knew that that moment not only changed the fate of the two teams, but also affected the history of the entire league.

The reason why Jabbar left an indelible mark in the hearts of Bucks fans of that era is because of his rapidly accumulating professional achievements. He won the Best Rookie in 1970, led the Bucks to Baltimore Bullets in 1971, won the NBA championship, and was named the Finals MVP. From the team founded in 1968 to the championship in 1971, the Bucks took only three years to set the fastest winning record among the four major professional sports in North America. He also won the regular season MVP three times in 1971, 1972 and 1974, and became the scoring leader in 1971 and 1972. In 1974, he led the team to the finals again.

But a year after that final, Jabbar left. As Wayne Embri, then general manager of the Bucks and later Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member, told the Los Angeles Times in 1987, Jabbar felt that the social environment in Milwaukee made it difficult for him to integrate into.

Embrey recalled: "We asked Jabbar if he was dissatisfied with us. He said no, but he just didn't want to stay in Milwaukee. He said his lifestyle was incompatible with that in Milwaukee."

Although this broke the hearts of the citizens of Milwaukee at that time, it was not difficult to understand. After all, Jabbar grew up in New York and went to college in Los Angeles, and his roots were not in the Midwest. Therefore, Jabbar made a deal request and said he would not renew his contract in Milwaukee. So, teams in major football markets such as New York and Los Angeles smelled the opportunity and started a game around Lake Michigan. Embri revealed in an interview with the New York Times that year: "The Knicks asked us at the time what price we had to exchange for Jabbar."

Finally, on June 16, 1975, the Bucks traded Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Steve Cady of the New York Times wrote: "In a deal that could reshape the face of professional basketball and future, the Milwaukee Bucks traded Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers yesterday." This sentence from Mr. Cady came true.. This deal does reshape the future of professional basketball. Jabbar has won three NBA regular season MVPs since then, setting an unprecedented six MVP record; he also won five championship trophys with the Lakers, setting a record for NBA historical scoring, and maintained for 38 years.

And in return, the Bucks received four players from the Lakers, including Brian Winters (No. 32) and Bridgeman Jr. (No. 2) who spent a successful career in Milwaukee, both of whom had their jersey numbers retired.

But since then, the Bucks have failed to return to the NBA Finals for a full 46 years.

This does not mean that the Bucks have gained nothing in the past forty years. They have had great times, critical moments, and have excellent players. The team has won multiple division titles and reached the Eastern Conference Finals four times between 1982 and 2001. But he has never been able to cross the two mountains of Celtics or 76ers.

Because although the Bucks had All-Star players at that time, they always lacked the true "superstars"; such as Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Julius Irving, and later Allen Iverson (all of them are MVPs).

Superstars can bring hope to fans and allow the team to see opportunities. Superstars can make peers awe and change the fate of a team. This is exactly what the "unknown Greek" did more than ten years ago - the arrival of Giannis Antetokounmpo completely changed the direction of the Bucks.

In the 38 years from trading Jabbar in June 1975 to choosing Giannis Antetokounmpo in June 2013, the Milwaukee Bucks players only scored 40+ in a single game, of which only 11 times between 1975 and 1989, and in the three seasons before the selection of Giannis, they did not even appear once.

Antetokounmpo alone achieved this number: he has scored 40+ in a single game 54 times, and 12 times in the 2022-23 season alone.

During the period when Jabbar left the team and Antetokounmpo joined, the Bucks had only three times the player scored more than 50 points. Antetokounmpo completed 9 50+ times, including a team record set in 2023 - 64 points in a single game. This is why other teams often have to build a "human wall" to stop him.

In addition to this, there are two NBA regular season MVP trophys, selected for the All-Squad for seven consecutive years, nine All-Stars, the Best Defensive Player of 2020 (DPOY), and most importantly: the Finals MVP. He scored 50 points in Game 6 of the Finals against the Suns, winning the Bucks' first NBA championship in 50 years.

Whether in terms of league recognition, opponents' fear, salary level or popularity, Antetokounmpo is undoubtedly a superstar.

This is Antetokounmpo, who is well-known all over the world.

But for Bucks fans, Antetokounmpo is not only a superstar, but also a familiar relative. He is only 18 years old, 6 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds. He is the 15th pick in Milwaukee in the 2013 draft. Like most rookies, he is not a "definitely successful candidate." To the vast majority of Bucks fans, he was almost a stranger (frankly, the entire Bucks were quite strange to many people at the time).

ESPN wrote in 2013: "The Bucks decided to give it a try on Antetokounmpo. He is a bit like Kevin Durant, able to control the ball, shoot threes, and have amazing wingspan."

"But his legs are like cotton swabs, and he has only played amateur league-like game in Greece, which is far from the NBA level. He either becomes a home run or a complete failure, and we may not know the answer in a few years."

Antetokounmpo's precociousness and frankness quickly won the favor of Bucks fans. The surprise expression of his first attempt at milkshake became a beautiful story. As a rookie, he sent his salary home, but he didn't have the money to take a taxi to Bradley Center (the Bucks' home court at the time), so he had to trot all the way to participate in the warm-up until a kind couple saw him and took him to the stadium. He once took his parents to the stadium, looked up at the jersey hanging from the ceiling, and asked himself if he could one day be tied with Oscar Robertson, Sidney Moncliff, and Jabbar.

The child with "legs like cotton swabs" eventually grew up in Milwaukee, and the team and its fans grew up with him. The Bucks fans accepted him and he also returned the hug.

But if his performance on the court does not fulfill everything, those cute stories will eventually lose their meaning. It is precisely because he did things that ordinary people could not achieve in the competition that these memories became bright. In actual combat, he can start from the free throw line and complete a dunk, and even directly pass the opponent to complete a dunk. This is something that the "own player" can do before that Bucks fans have never seen before.

Then, his mentality also changed. Antetokounmpo brings a temperament (as Richard Jefferson said, Antetokounmpo's default state on the court is "always angry"), which is a kind of DNA that only true top players will bring. This temperament has dominated the tone of the Bucks over the past decade and is a trait that all teams dream of. This is also why the topic of "Where will Antetokounmpo play basketball" has reached its boiling point now.

Antesco never hides his desire for a championship. Since leading the team to win the championship in 2021, the Bucks have only won the next round of the playoff series, and have been out of their first round for three consecutive years since 2023. The injury factors are obvious: Middleton was injured in 2022, Antetokounmpo was injured in 2023, Antetokounmpo and Lillard were both absent in 2024, and Lillard was reimbursed again in 2025. The slow development of the aging core lineup and young players has also made the situation even worse.

The Bucks management knows that Antetokounmpo and all Bucks fans are chasing the championship, so in the past few years they have done their best to keep Antetokounmpo and maintain their competitiveness in the championship. The Bucks have been one of the most expensive teams in the league for five consecutive years. In 2020, they got Zhu Holiday through the trade. As Holiday gradually finds it difficult to assume the heavy responsibility of the second offensive core, and Middleton's health has not improved, the team trades Holiday in 2023 for Lillard, who also hopes to compete for the championship. The super defender who took the initiative to apply to leave Portland. It seems like a wise decision to partner Antetokounmpo and Lillard, two NBA 75 superstars.

But because of these big moves, the Bucks now have almost no future first-round picks and lack the cap space to make new major signings. With Lillard lacerating his left Achilles tendon and expected to miss most of the 2025-26 season, and the team currently has only four players with contracts next season (including Antetokounmpo and Lillard), the Bucks are likely to have a difficult season. The prospects for the championship seem to be uncertain.

Faced with such a situation, Antetokounmpo may begin to reexamine it. He might look back on everything he had done in Milwaukee, and say to himself with a clear conscience: "This journey is wonderful, but..."

Just like Kareem Kareem in the past, such a decision was certainly difficult for Milwaukee, but it is understandable. Because the greatness of sports is based on the number of championships. The more champions you have, the higher your historical status will be. And this is the only gap in Antetokounmpo’s resume: multiple championship trophys.

Despite this, Antetokounmpo has not yet formally applied for a deal to the Bucks management, although many fans of other NBA teams, some media and even countless social media accounts have long been unable to wait for this image to come true.

But even if Antetokounmpo really makes a trade request one day, the Bucks should seriously, repeatedly and carefully consider whether they really want to agree to his request. Antetokounmpo currently has two years of contract and has the player option for the 2027-28 season. This means the Bucks are not in a hurry to trade him now. Maybe we can accept a "transitional year", because it is better to have "mediocrity" with Antetokounmpo to support the market than a "mess" without Antetokounmpo.

In the context of Jason Tatum's Achilles tendon injury and the Celtics are about to face pressure on salary structure, the Eastern Conference may be reshuffled. Antetokounmpo and a younger lineup won the last eight consecutive victories in the just-concluded season. There may be a glimmer of hope in the east for such a combination. Moreover, according to the severe penalties for the second-level luxury tax line in the current labor and capital agreement, the NBA may enter the "anti-super team era" in the future, and the overall combat power of the league is also tending to be balanced, which means that reconstruction may not necessarily take a long time.

The super team may be in a tide, but superstars will always have value.

As San Antonio Spurs legendary coach and one of the best in history Greg Popovich said, every time he raises his glass, he always pays tribute to his team's greatest player: "Thok Tim Duncan!"

We can imagine how many beers have been raised for Antetokounmpo, colliding for the special bond between that superstar and the small ball market. Because as Popovich and every NBA coach know well: only with superstars can you have everything.

Because when you have such a superstar, your stadium is no longer an opponent's playground.

Milwaukee must ask herself: Can they really find another player who averages 30 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and shoots more than 60% of the field goal percentage? (No. Because in the history of the league, only Antetokounmpo has done this, and it has been completed for two consecutive seasons.)

Can they really rely on future draft picks and hopes to exchange for another player with long legs and a never-ending self-hardening will? Can you find someone who is even half his level? Can they really get such a player in a deal who has inspired the team, ignited the city, and won the whole state's immortal favor?

The answer is mostly no.

This is also the most important answer that the Bucks should say when facing any trading quote.

Milwaukee and the fans of this city once gave Antetokounmpo a chance, and they did love him deeply.

Antesco gave them everything: loyalty, hard work and a championship trophy.

As Bucks fans know it, once the bond between this small market and the superstar is cut off, the so-called "bright future" may be far away.

And you don't need a huge, bright, flashing electronic sign to remind you of this.