Bucks Fans Ecstatic After Giannis Antetokounmpo Signs 5-year $228 Million ‘Supermax’ Extension

Milwaukee Bucks fans received an early Christmas present on December 15th when it was announced that the two-time NBA MVP and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo signed an extension with Milwaukee for 5 years worth $228 million dollars, the largest contract in league history.

To say that fans are merely excited would be an understatement. Drake Deno, recent UW-Whitewater graduate and prominent Bucks twitter personality @SnellSZN, said that the pressure from other fan bases and media constantly trying to speak Giannis leaving into existence made the signing that much sweeter.

“At the end of the day, media and fanbase opinions don’t matter and I’m sure they had little to no effect on Giannis’s decision,” Deno said. “I think I, like most of Wisconsin, was feeling cautiously optimistic near the end.”

Trending sports reporter for the Journal Sentinel JR Radcliffe explains the justified skepticism of Milwaukee sports fans prior to the signing.

“For the older crowd, there are still a lot of fans who remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leaving after 1975,” Radcliffe said, “and it’s an especially apt inflection point because Milwaukee hasn’t had a major pro sports championship since he left. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Milwaukee just isn’t a place superstars want to stay, even after seeing the Packers keep a Hall of Fame quarterback into his late 30s and the Brewers signing their MVP to a long-term deal.”

Radcliffe went on to explain the impact of a player of Giannis’s stature committing to a team like Milwaukee can impact fans on a generational level.

“For the younger crowd, it’s just a simple affirmation that we don’t have to settle for being a small-market also-ran. The Bucks languished as a fringe team playoff contender at best for most of the younger crowd’s formative years, and at least for the foreseeable future we can think of those days as a different era.”

Giannis’s signing is as much a cause for celebration as it is a sigh of relief. With the substantial trade package given up for Jrue Holiday earlier this offseason, the Bucks were clearly all in on the extension and would’ve been left high and dry had he chosen to walk after this upcoming season.

“This town is going to lose its mind if the bucks win a championship,” Radcliffe said. “And if Giannis had decided this was his last season it would have been back to square one for the organization.”

It’s been quite the trip from being the team with the worst record in the league the year Giannis was drafted to now being a perennial Finals contender. Deno said that given the Bucks draft history, seeing a player Milwaukee drafted grow into a team leader only makes his success that much more fulfilling.

“I mean look at draft picks from recent memory; Thon [Maker], [Rashad] Vaughn, even Jabari [Parker] who just didn’t really pan out. With so many drafts that were lackluster to say the least, drafting an actual superstar who actually wants to stay here is an amazing feeling.”

Aside from general elation, the Giannis news made some Bucks fans feel especially generous. 620 WTMJ’s Bryan Dee tweeted a call to action for excited fans that are able to donate $34 to SHARP Literacy, a nonprofit that ‘partners with educators to foster a love of learning and brighten children’s futures through innovative STEAM-based experiential programs’. He tweeted about 7 hours later that they’d already garnered over $1000 in donations following the charity spree.

Milwaukee drafted Giannis with the 15th overall pick in 2013 and he has since become not just the face of the franchise, but the face of the NBA. An international star and one of the most unique players to ever play the game, Giannis is truly a talent that only comes along once every generation or so, and Milwaukee is behind him 110%.