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Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a five-year, $ 228 million contract extension to stay in Milwaukee, to … [+]
Denver Post via Getty Images
Giannis Antetokounmpo announced on his social media Tuesday afternoon that he will re-sign with the Milwaukee Bucks, a five-year, $ 228 million supermax contract extension that is the largest in NBA history.
It’s a huge win not just for the Bucks, obviously, but for all the small-market teams that for years have been losing their superstar players to bigger and more popular clubs despite the incentives the NBA supports in their deal. collective year and more money that the incumbent club can offer) so that those pillars of the franchise remain in place.
It has been no secret that teams have been planning and saving cap space for the summer of 2021 in hopes of turning Antetokounmpo, the 26-year-old two-time league MVP, into a supermax offering. Three of those prominently mentioned teams were the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks.
The Raptors, after winning the championship in 2019 and immediately losing Kawhi Leonard to the Los Angeles Clippers, have a diverse front office and young central stars like Pascal Siakam, Fred Van Vleet and OG Anunoby and were expected to attempt to woo Giannis for The North. With Kyle Lowry at the end of his career, Antetokounmpo could have led Toronto into its next era. Now he will fight the Bucks for at least the next six seasons.
The same goes for Miami, which beat Milwaukee in the second round of the playoffs in the Orlando bubble. The Heat have everything a superstar could want. A great coach, a great culture, All-Stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo and young emerging talents in Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn and rookie Precious Achiuwa. They could have been strong suitors for Giannis on the open market.
And the Internet has gone crazy thinking of a Dallas Mavericks team made up of Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Antetokounmpo, the European super team of their dreams. But that won’t happen because Giannis decided to give up unrestricted free agency and stay in Milwaukee, the only home he’s known since coming to the United States when he was selected by the team in 2013.
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