A supermax to remember
Reflecting on the one-year anniversary of Giannis Antetokounmpo's supermax extension
As 2021 winds down here, it’s certainly been a year to remember for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The heartache of a 50-year championship drought now stands as a thing of the past and the high of winning the 2021 NBA title hasn’t worn off, even as the Bucks remain fixed on their challenge of going back-to-back this season.
It wasn’t the only vindication that the Bucks experienced during that season as today, December 15, marks one year since Giannis Antetokounmpo put pen to paper by signing his supermax extension and made his intentions known that he spend his basketball prime in Milwaukee.
A lot has happened since then and the significance of Antetokounmpo’s decision has obviously grown after having reached basketball immortality with his first NBA title. Still, it’s not all that hard for Bucks fans to travel back to that fateful day and re-experience those feelings of elation that can only be rivaled by winning a championship itself, as we all now know.
Finally, the noise of the ever-ending machine and cycle of speculation that centered on the scenario of Antetokounmpo potentially wanting out of his small market surroundings was shut down in one fell swoop.
After all, when many conjured up that Antetokounmpo could have a wandering eye towards bigger, more glamorous markets, a cycle that has become so synonymous with a league increasingly focused on transactions, he has always carried himself differently. Just as Antetokounmpo explained after his 50-point performance in the Bucks’ title-clinching win over the Phoenix Suns during this year’s NBA Finals, which comes via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps:
"Coming back, I was like, 'This is my city. They trust me. They believe in me. They believe in us.' ... Obviously I wanted to get the job done. But that's my stubborn side. It's easy to go somewhere and go win a championship with somebody else. It's easy. ... I could go to a super team and just do my part and win a championship.
"But this is the hard way to do it," he continued, pounding the dais for emphasis, "and this is the way to do it, and we did it. We f---ing did it."
Taking the path of most resistance has come to define Antetokounmpo’s life story, long before arriving to the NBA and becoming a global superstar. Winning an NBA championship with the Bucks is only a footnote to the real trails and tribulations he and his family had to overcome while in Greece.
Still, to see the grand vision that Antetokounmpo had long held in regards to leading the Bucks to a championship coming to fruition months after his supermax decision has cemented this era as the franchise’s glory days. And better yet, the future is still being written as far as Antetokounmpo’s time in Milwaukee is considered.
Just as he declared only a year ago.