The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have been having conversations with the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo about the star’s availability to play following a knee injury he suffered March 15, multiple league sources have told the Journal Sentinel.
Antetokounmpo, as well as multiple members of the organization’s staff, have been interviewed about the hyperextension and bone bruise he sustained to his left knee following an awkward landing after a dunk.
Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo, left, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo are shown during the first half of their game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Beginning March 17, Antetokounmpo has been ruled out by the team for those injuries but he has maintained he has been healthy enough to play. On March 24, the union issued a statement that it wished the league would enforce its own policies regarding player participation.
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On March 25, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league would look into the matter.
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Conversations have persisted since, though a league source told the Journal Sentinel the union feels the process toward finding a resolution should be moving more quickly.
It’s something Antetokounmpo clearly believes.
“I’m available to play, but I’m not in the game,” he said before the Bucks played the Boston Celtics on April 3. “I’m available to play [April 3]. Right now. I’m available. Do I look like I’m not available? No, you tell me. You guys have been around me. Do I look like I’m hurting? I don’t see myself in the first 12 [active players]. I don’t see myself in the starting lineup. That’s pretty much it. I don’t know. I don’t know what game is being played right here, I just don’t wanna be a part of it.”
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Giannis wants to play with his brothers
Alex Antetokounmpo was called up to the Bucks following the Wisconsin Herd’s season, and the 24-year-old former Dominican High School star made his NBA debut on March 31 vs. Dallas.
The trio technically made league history by being the first group of brothers to play in a game, at some point, for the same team in the same season. But Giannis said in his roughly 15-minute interview on April 3 that actually suiting up with his brothers, Thanasis and Alex, matters greatly.
“When I played my first NBA game, he was 11 years old,” Giannis said of Alex. “When my dad [Charles] passed, I pretty much raised him and he’s able to be on the team and suit up and chase an opportunity to be great and you really think that I don’t want to suit up and play with my brother? Anybody that thinks that is an idiot.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NBA, union looking into the Bucks’ sidelining of Giannis Antetokounmpo