Giannis and the Heat

As per the Charania piece, the gossip chronology was like this:

March 17 — Giannis wanted to play against the Jazz. He was returning from a hyperextended knee injury. The Bucks doctor’s didn’t clear him to play. He wanted to play later in the road trip but didn’t.

March 24 — the NBA sent Milwaukee a letter that they were “tanking” and opened an investigation. Giannis lashed out with reporters saying that the Bucks were telling him not to play. In the investigation, Giannis said he was ready to play but wouldn’t get cleared. Then the Bucks told the NBA that he didn’t want to play.

April 4 –– the NBA revealed through the investigation that Bucks did schedule Giannis to play in three-on-three pick up games as part of his “return to play” plan, but he declined to participate. Doc Rivers, the Bucks coach, told players after the Bucks were eliminated from the play-in tournament that they were going to continue playing (although Giannis was told different.) The decision not to play him cost him a Nike endorsement contract.

Charania on the borderline with his reporting

Charania is getting very close to “the line” with Giannis in his reporting. Shams reported that Giannis was interested in leaving the Bucks and Giannis wasn’t happy. Because Shams was on Giannis’ All-Star celebrity team, the Bucks and Doc Rivers got petty with him tweeting that he would be traded from the team.

Giannis future with another team

The “Giannis situation” is similar to the Dwight Howard fiasco when he left Orlando. Howard was so obsessed with maintaining his “good guy” facade with the public. He thought that any negative press would damage his persona (even though he wanted to get traded to the Lakers.) In the Club 520 podcast, Howard said that he regretted leaving Orlando to go “ring chasing” with the Lakers.

He said that Giannis should stay in Milwaukee because “nothing will feel right after that.” The management in Milwaukee though has messed up the situation with Giannis and has an equal part in the “fractured relationship.” The Jimmy Butler situation in Miami is another case study in a player-team relationship. Butler purposely sub-marined his relationship with the Heat to get more money.

Giannis could end up going to Golden State, Houston or Minnesota. The Heat should take a “hands off approach” and not call the Bucks as soon as the season is over.