Antetokounmpo won't re-sign with Bucks unless 'everybody's going for a championship'

Giannis Antetokounmpo has spent his entire NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks, and if that's going to continue, he has a few demands.

In an extremely candid interview with the New York Times' Tania Ganguli, the Greek superstar shared what he will need from the Bucks before he signs on the dotted line.

"I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do," Antetokounmpo told Ganguli. "And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing."

The two-time NBA MVP will become eligible to sign a three-year extension worth close to $173 million this year, but don't expect him to make a decision anytime soon.

"The real question’s not going to be this year — numbers-wise it doesn’t make sense," Antetokounmpo said. "But next year, next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know."

The 28-year-old forward signed a five-year, $228 million extension following the 2019-20 season. Then, in 2020-21, he won his first NBA Championship with the Bucks.

“I think it’s the best feeling that I’ve felt so far in basketball,” he said.

Understandably, he wants to have that feeling again. And if he doesn't feel like Milwaukee is going to help him achieve that goal, then he's going to look elsewhere, even if it ruins his goal of playing 20 seasons with one team.

“But at the end of the day, being a winner, it’s over that goal,” Antetokounmpo told Ganguli. “Winning a championship comes first. I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship.”

Another factor impacting his decision to stay with the Bucks? The hiring of former Toronto Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin as the team's new head coach.

"You’ve got to see the dynamics,” he said to Ganguli. “How the coach is going to be, how we’re going to be together. At the end of the day, I feel like all my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship. As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it. The moment I feel like, oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild —”

But regardless of what the future holds, the now Milwaukee legend will never have anything but love for the Bucks organization.

“There will never be hard feelings with the Milwaukee Bucks,” he continued. “I believe that we’ve had 10 unbelievable years, and there’s no doubt I gave everything for the city of Milwaukee. Everything. Every single night, even when I’m hurt. I am a Milwaukee Buck. I bleed green. I know this.

“This is my team, and it’s going to forever be my team. I don’t forget people that were there for me and allowed me to be great and to showcase who I am to the world and gave me the platform. But we have to win another one.”