After weeks of speculation the Milwaukee Bucks have finally traded Khris Middleton, and while Kyle Kuzma improves the team, Giannis Antetokounmpo is understandably grieving the loss of his oldest teammate.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an interview with Giannis in which he shared his emotions post-trade.
“For me, for a lot of people, it can be business because they’ve been around him,” he said. “For me, it’s a little bit bigger than business. It’s family.” While he recognizes the transactional nature of the NBA, Antetokounmpo said his 12-year teammate remains his “brother.”
“I’m going to have a relationship with him after basketball. It kind of hurts, but at the end of the day, I understand the business side of things and I’m still going to show up to work and do my job until it’s my time to dip.”
Certainly Giannis, Khris and Bucks fans hold memories of their time together dating back to well before the 2021 Finals run. Although the team made the trade in the interests of claiming another ring, and even with all the rumors and time to prepare for the move, it is hard to put behind an era in Milwaukee that spans the duration of Antetokounmpo’s career.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton Brought Milwaukee Bucks Fans Iconic Memories
Yanking Milwaukee from the Eastern Conference basement, the Giannis-Middleton era produced 9 playoff appearances, including a pair of conference finals and the 2021 NBA title. While Khash has never been the same since his injury in the first round of the 2021-22 playoffs, he remains an icon of the championship core. Giannis says their relationship goes much deeper than that:
It’s not only that I’ve won, I’ve lost a lot of times with him. I’ve been in a dark place a lot of times with him. I’ve been in the bus going to a lot of pressure situations with him. It’s almost like I’ve been to war with him. That’s what I remember. Not only the good times we had, the one good time we had, I remember all the other times everyone was depending on us. The organization was depending on us. The city was depending on us. Our teammates were depending on us. I remember all those moments.
On the biggest stage in recent Bucks history, Middleton shone against Phoenix in the finals, averaging 24.0 PPG in six games including a 40-piece in Game 4 to even the series 2-2. Through changes at head coach, from Mike Budenholzer to Adrian Griffin to Doc Rivers, Middleton has been there, a stabilizing figure even in decline. He was there through the switch at point guard in the 2022-23 offseason, from Jrue Holiday to Damian Lillard.
Along with Giannis, Bobby Portis, Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton (sorry Thanasis), until this morning Middleton was one of the few surviving members from that ring-winning roster. With the trade deadline looming, any of Connaughton, Portis and Lopez could also find themselves elsewhere come 3:00 PM Thursday.
An Organization in Grieving
Of course, the Greek Freak isn’t the only member of the organization mourning the move. “Everybody’s going to miss Khris, his leadership,” Giannis lamented.
He continued:
For me, my brotherhood with Khris is the most important thing I’ve had within this team for a lot of years. We’re the oldest guys. Not the oldest guys, but we’ve been here together for 12 years. There’s been so many moments together. I’ve been around Khris more than I’ve been around my brothers and my family. I’ve had incredible moments on the court with him. Everybody’s gonna miss him.
Having spent all but his rookie season in Milwaukee, Middleton ends his Bucks tenure with 735 regular season games played averaging 17.1 PTS, 4.9 REB and 4.1 AST while shooting 46.1% from the field, 38.9% on threes, and 87.9% at the line.
In 80 playoff appearances, in 37.6 minutes per contest, those numbers spike to 20.6, 6.5 and 4.8 on 44.1/39.0/86.6 shooting splits.
Under contract through 2025-26, Middleton will be approaching 35 years of age upon its expiration. How much he has left in the tank is uncertain, but Bucks fans will be forever grateful for his heroics.
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