The Milwaukee Bucks are sweating over the fitness of star man Giannis Antetokounmpo after a horror back injury ruled him out of Sunday's NBA Playoff game against the Miami Heat.
The two-time NBA MVP hit the ground awkwardly after being fouled by Kevin Love in the first quarter of Sunday’s shock 130-117 loss to the Heat, who took full advantage of the Greek Freak’s absence.
The Bucks' forward got up slowly with 4:13 left, picked up a second foul minutes later and played 11 minutes in total for the No.1 Eastern Conference seed, finishing with six points and three rebounds.
Coach Mike Budenholzer cut a concerned figure when discussing Antetokounmpo’s injury, admitting the NBA franchise faces a nervous wait until Monday to see where the 28-year-old’s fitness sits.
“We´ll monitor him and see how he does, see how he wakes up, how he feels,” Budenholzer said. “He just wasn't moving [well]. Didn't look comfortable, confident. It felt like the right thing (to take him out of the game).”
The Bucks’ next Play-Off clash with the Heat is on Thursday, April 20, and the seven-game series is set to end ten days later on April 30.
Giannis is in the running for NBA MVP. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid were named as finalists alongside the Greek basketball sensation. Like Antetokounmpo, Nuggets star Jokic is a two-time MVP, winning in 2021 and 2022 and is looking likely to scoop a third in a row. Embiid, the league's leading scorer, would get his first MVP award should he come out on top.
Ahead of the Play-Offs, Giannis made a shock admission that he nearly retired from the NBA due to mental health a few years back. "It's hard," Antetokounmpo told Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It's… not easy. “In 2020, I was … ready to walk away from the game."
“If something doesn't make me happy, I don't do it. I don't want to do it. I'm just going to stay home, stay with my kids, stay with my family and try to be happy. I don't care. And this was right when I signed the largest contract in NBA history. In 2020, I was ready to walk away from the game. I had that conversation – yes – with the front office. And, you know, very normally, everybody is looking at me like I was crazy. 'You just signed the largest contract in NBA history and you want to walk away from the game and all that money…?' Mannnnn, you can take that money and shove it into your…"
