Giannis Antetokounmpo Still Can’t Believe the Workout the Bucks Made Him Do Before the NBA Finals

There was a very real chance Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t play in the 2021 NBA Finals. He had hyperextended his left knee in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Hawks, and for a few days nobody knew if he’d be able to go. The Bucks wrapped up Atlanta without him, winning Games 6 and 7, but they knew they’d need their guy against the Suns.

So the team made him do something he still laughs about today.

Now that he’s in Miami — the Bucks traded him this offseason, ending the Giannis era in Milwaukee — he’s looking back on that weird pre-Finals workout with a string of expletives. Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught up with him, and Giannis’ version of events is basically: what the hell was that?

“I’m like, ‘what the [expletive] is this [expletive], man?’ I never talk like that. ‘What happened, G?’” Giannis recalled. “‘What the [expletive] is this [expletive]? [Expletive], a [expletive] draft workout? I’m playing an [expletive] game tomorrow!’”

The whole thing was set up by then-assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer. The medical staff needed proof Giannis could actually move, cut, jump — you know, the basics of playing basketball at the highest level. So they put him through what he called a “draft workout” the day before Game 1.

He passed. Obviously. Giannis averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.8 blocks in that series, shot 61.8 percent from the floor, and the Bucks came back from an 0-2 hole to win four straight and snap a 50-year championship drought. He was the Finals MVP. It’s one of the great individual runs in recent memory.

But the fact that he cussed out his own team’s coaching staff before it even started? That’s the part that sticks with you. And it says a lot about how weird the gap between being hurt and being cleared can be, even for a superstar in his prime. The Bucks trusted him, but they needed to see it first.

That workout almost didn’t happen

Giannis said the conversation went something like: “They were like, uh, like you feel good that you can go? I said, yes, like why you guys having me [do this?]”

It’s a good reminder that even the most dominant Finals performance in franchise history started with a room full of trainers and a clipboard. The Bucks took a gamble by letting him play, but it paid off in a way that changed the entire trajectory of the organization.

Now Giannis is in Miami, the Bucks are rebuilding, and that 2021 ring looks even more isolated than it did at the time. But the memory of that workout — and his reaction to it — is pure Giannis. He’s never been one to hide how he feels, even when the cameras aren’t rolling.