Shams CharaniaApr 7, 2026, 06:50 AM ETMultiple Authors
MILWAUKEE BUCKS PLAYERS filed into the team’s practice facility Dec. 16, two days after suffering a 45-point blowout loss on the road against the Brooklyn Nets. The team was 11-16 and in 11th in the Eastern Conference, playing without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had missed games because of strains to his right calf and groin.
The vibes at practice were off as the pressure mounted to turn around the season. Players appeared to be going through the motions, and Bobby Portis noticed, according to sources with direct knowledge of the events. Milwaukee’s emotional leader erupted at teammates in the middle of practice.
“This is why we suck — we carry ourselves like everything is fine, and we have no f—ing urgency,” Portis said. “We just lost by 45. Everybody’s body language is terrible. No one is listening to coaches.”
Portis, who joined the franchise in 2020, is one of the few Milwaukee players and coaches left from the team that won the 2021 title. He and Antetokounmpo have been part of the highest of highs together and know what a championship team looks like.
Within two weeks, the Bucks had lost humiliating games in Washington and Brooklyn, received an impassioned plea from one of their leaders, and once again were on the clock with their franchise icon. After dropping to 9-13 on Dec. 1, Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis, reopened conversations with Horst and reasserted the message they had delivered since last May: The time had come to part ways.
The Bucks were mathematically eliminated from the postseason March 28 after spending the majority of the season at No. 11 in the Eastern Conference. They have had 13 losses by 25 or more points as of Tuesday, the most in a season in franchise history. During their four-game losing streak from Feb. 27 to March 4, the Bucks were outscored by 97 points, the largest combined margin of defeats in any four-game stretch in team history.
This season, the Bucks have gone 17-19 with Antetokounmpo in the lineup and 14-28 without him, and they rank 25th in offensive rating and 26th in defensive rating overall. They are one of six NBA teams to rank in the bottom five in both categories.
“When your best player is one foot in, one foot out,” said one team source, “you’re not going to win.”
It’s why Antetokounmpo reiterated to the Bucks for a few months before the Feb. 5 trade deadline that he was prepared to be moved. He declined to publicize a trade request, but he made it clear to all parties involved behind the scenes that he felt both sides needed to move on immediately, as the franchise was not in position to compete.
“Giannis has wanted to handle this professionally by being very up front with the team,” one source with direct knowledge of the situation said. “This could have been a happy resolution but instead might end up being a nasty breakup.”
Shortly after the meeting, Antetokounmpo and Horst talked at the team’s practice facility, and Horst indicated he was working on trade negotiations, multiple sources said. Horst also told Antetokounmpo that he might not be on the Bucks’ roster by the start of the 2026-27 season after the sides’ recent dialogue with ownership.
For some teams, however, Horst and the Bucks took days responding to messages and calls, leaving those execs to believe that Milwaukee was not ready to pull off a franchise-altering move. For others, the Bucks’ asks proved to be too high: Milwaukee wanted Evan Mobley from the Cleveland Cavaliers and VJ Edgecombe from the Philadelphia 76ers, in addition to other assets from both teams, as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported March 20.
Antetokounmpo’s desires in all of the trade talks mattered, too. He has the 2026-27 season guaranteed in his contract before a player option in 2027. He becomes eligible for a four-year, $275 million contract extension Oct. 1 if he is not traded, or six months after being traded with a new team.
“One of two things will happen: Either he will be extended, or he’ll be traded,” Edens told Shelburne.
But no team would give up the necessary players and draft picks without knowing Antetokounmpo has a long-term plan to stay.
The Bucks celebrated Antetokounmpo remaining with the team, even as they stood outside the play-in and had a player many inside the organization described as “distant” from the team at times. No one has questioned Antetokounmpo’s on-court commitments. But management, coaches and players were exhausted by the discussion and dilemma regarding his future this season, creating a tense environment in the locker room, team sources said.
“The crux of the issue is feeling Giannis doesn’t want to be here on any given day,” one team source said.
At the time of the trade deadline, Antetokounmpo was out because of a right calf injury that eventually caused him to miss 15 games. Rival executives suggested the 20-29 Bucks’ best course would have been to shut him down and attempt to secure a high lottery pick. Milwaukee will receive the lesser of its own pick and the one belonging to the New Orleans Pelicans in June’s draft (the better pick will go to the Atlanta Hawks).
Antetokounmpo, Horst and Rivers all aligned on him continuing to play this season, though. Antetokounmpo wanted to push the Bucks to as many wins as possible after they didn’t trade him. And the Bucks stood firm in their desires to make a postseason run and prove to Antetokounmpo that this roster could make noise.
Horst and Rivers maintained internally to players and staffers to stay the course, and the season would turn around. Players had urged coaches to hold them accountable and that they needed specific adjustments, but by the second half, everyone understood where the campaign was going.
THE MORNING AFTER the Bucks had turned a double-digit lead into a blowout road loss in Chicago on March 1, Rivers called for a team meeting. If the Bucks were to rally into a play-in spot, this week was the most critical. The Bucks next faced a short-handed Boston Celtics team in Milwaukee on a back-to-back set March 2 before a pivotal contest against the Hawks.
Rivers, who won an NBA title as coach of the Celtics in 2008 and will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year, started the meeting by imploring his players to look up his résumé, six people in the room told ESPN.
“I took teams to the playoffs and to the championship that weren’t supposed to. I thought this was one of them,” Rivers told players in the session. “Either you’re with us or against us. If you’re not playing hard, we’re not playing you anymore.
The session was among a number of instances that rubbed large parts of the locker room the wrong way and continued the theme of a seasonlong disconnect between Rivers and the players, according to team sources. When asked by ESPN to characterize his relationship with his team, Rivers declined to speak on the record.
Rollins, who is averaging 17.2 points, is a Most Improved Player candidate and already one of the Bucks’ best young players. When Milwaukee pursued Memphis star Ja Morant during the season, the team declined to include Rollins in any offer, believing in the 23-year-old’s potential, sources said. Porter, who signed a two-year deal in July to return to the team after being traded to Milwaukee last February, has averaged 17.4 points.
Rollins and Porter took the brunt of the responsibility to facilitate and manage the offense. Antetokounmpo had said in January that the Bucks’ “chemistry’s not there. Guys are being selfish, trying to look for their own shots instead of looking for the right shot for the team. Guys trying to do it on their own.”
So on this night in Chicago, the coaches believed the onus should have been on their guards to lead the way.
The coaching staff’s message was meant to be a rallying cry. It was also meant to empower Rollins and Porter to play as leaders, according to team sources. The messages did not seem to be getting through, and the team felt splintered in the postgame locker room, however, and that led to a players-only meeting.
Antetokounmpo sat on the bench for the first half of the Bucks’ loss in Chicago, but he left the United Center at halftime and was not present for the players-only meeting. He returned from his calf injury for the game against the Celtics on March 2, but it didn’t matter. Ultimately, the Bucks went 1-4 against the Bulls, Celtics, Hawks, Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic. Four of the five losses during the stretch were blowouts, dropping the Bucks to 27-36 and well out of the play-in race.
Heading into the March 12 game against the Heat, the Bucks had lost three games in a row and seven of eight. NBA scouts noticed increasingly disjointed play from the Bucks. Several team sources wondered why Antetokounmpo had not been shut down after all of his injuries, and with the Bucks plummeting in the standings, they had come to the realization that it’s best for the team and player not to risk injury.
“The leadership piece is missing, someone has to step up and do the right thing,” a team source said the week March 9.
Ultimately, it took one more injury — Antetokounmpo’s fifth of the season — and more losses for the Bucks to pursue sitting their superstar.
On March 24, the NBPA released a statement, implying that Milwaukee was “tanking” and damaging the league’s integrity by shutting down Antetokounmpo. The NBA launched an investigation and interviewed Antetokounmpo, his representation, Bucks officials and team doctors — a probe sparked by Antetokounmpo’s push to have the union and league look into his own team.
“For somebody to come and tell me to not play or not to compete, it’s like a slap in my face,” Antetokounmpo told reporters April 3. “I’m available to play, but I’m not in the game. I’m available to play today. Right now. I’m available.
The Bucks and Antetokounmpo gave two different stories to the league during the league’s investigation interview process, however: Milwaukee said he was not ready to return and didn’t genuinely want to; Antetokounmpo said he was healthy enough to play, but the team would not clear him.