Bucks fans panic as Giannis goes down injured

Dressed in dark green, they stared out across the Atlantic Ocean, gazing into more than 4,000 metres of freezing expanse of blueness, 6 hours into the future, knowing they could do nothing.

Were Giannis to have gotten injured in Milwaukee, the Bucks fans couldn’t have done anything either, but the distance makes it all the more difficult to process.

The 30-year-old missed his second game of the Eurobasket 2025 tournament after succumbing to a knee issue that will not go away. He played two games but missed out against Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina; his 29.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.5 steals average over two fixtures worthless on the sidelines.

The Greeks lost the latter of the two, with qualification in the balance against Spain at the end of the week. While worry is high stateside, there is optimism and even expectation he will return: “We expect both players to be back on Thursday,” head coach Vasilis Spanoulis said of Giannis and guard Giannoulis Larentzakis, “The most important thing is to make the comeback when the critical time arrives, not in the first round.”

After the Bucks’ disappointing first round exit in the NBA playoffs — their third in a row — the future of Giannis has been up in the air, with the player even making some interesting comments: “Me not having a second championship -- I look back at my career and everybody can say, ‘Oh, incredible career, active Hall of Famer, first ballot, whatever.’ But me, my personal goal, if I am not able to help my team win a second ring, I’m letting down myself,” Giannis said back in April.

However, it seems he will remain in Milwaukee for the upcoming campaign after the team signed his brother, Thanasis. NBA insider Shams Charania wrote that “this also means after a summer of exploring options, Giannis is staying in Milwaukee to start the season.”

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Giannis Antetokounmpo put together another dominant campaign for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2024–25 season: across 67 regular-season appearances, he averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game, while maintaining 60.1% shooting from the field. The 2025–26 NBA regular season officially begins on October 21, 2025, but the Bucks’ first scheduled game happens the following day, at home against the Washington Wizards.

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