Bucks Reacts Survey Results: What do you do with Antetokounmpos?
In this week’s Reacts survey, we had a look at the offseason ahead for the two remaining siblings on what has often been a very brotherly Bucks roster. We begin with the better of the two Antetokounmbros, who has a decision to make vis-a-vis his home country and the 2024 Paris Olympic qualification…
Of course, we know that Giannis’ soleus strain kept him out of the tail end of the regular season and the entire postseason, dooming the Bucks’ playoff chances perhaps before they even started. This all comes before the final chance for national teams to qualify for this July’s 33rd Olympiad, where the last four spots of the tournaments are up for grabs. The Greek squad hasn’t qualified for the games since 2008, and with their place in the FIBA rankings at fourteenth, you can bet they’d like their nation’s most prominent hoops star of all time to help them make the field of sixteen (twelve teams have already qualified mostly thanks to last summer’s FIBA World Cup, including the United States). They’ll host one of the qualifying brackets in Piraeus, near Athens, beginning on July 2nd.
That will mark about three months since Giannis sustained the calf injury which he was reportedly not very close to returning from during the Pacers series. There’s been some rumors on the will-he-or-won’t-he-suit-up front that we’ll bring for you soon, but it’s clear that most Bucks fans would rather he didn’t and recover more fully ahead of the 2024–25 NBA season. After consecutive playoff runs where he wasn’t healthy, I agree, but I empathize with Greek fans’—of which there are many among the Bucks faithful—to see their hero represent his homeland on the biggest international stage. I’m actually a little surprised that as high as 44% of respondents want him to play; that can’t be ALL from the Greek vote, right?
Next up, a player who certainly will not be partaking in any Olympic activities for the Hellas, and perhaps in zero competitive basketball for the next year-ish…
