'Things got really yucky': Inside the long, sad end of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Milwaukee

A NOTE USUALLY goes out around 6 p.m. in the Milwaukee Bucks' facility. There are no strings attached to it. It's simply an offer from general manager Jon Horst to take a break from a long day of work and hoop for an hour or two downstairs on the team's practice court. Whatever business you're working on -- be it a report on a draft prospect, player development update or trading the best player in franchise history -- will be there for you when the game is over. So will dinner. The idea is to reconnect with the game they all love. Once upon a time, Horst was a guard on the Rochester College basketball team that won two USCAA national championships. Over the past 10 days, before Horst and the Bucks finally traded Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat after a year of torturous debate, Horst and his staff got in two or three pickup games. Sunday night was different. That was the night the two finalists for Antetokounmpo -- the Heat and Boston Celtics -- had submitted their final offers for the two-time MVP and been told to wait for an answer. Horst had a choice: keep everyone at the facility to debate the merits of both offers until consensus was reached or call it a night and make it home in time to see his two kids before bed. For a year, the Bucks had debated whether it was finally time to trade Antetokounmpo and, if so, what it would take for them to do so. Antetokounmpo had communicated to them on numerous occasions that he felt the time had come. But it wasn't until this season ended with such a resounding whimper -- with Milwaukee winning just 32 games, the league launching an investigation into the team based on Antetokounmpo's accusations that the club wouldn't let him play, and missing the play-in tournament -- that the Bucks had finally accepted their fate and focused on the return they could get for him, rather than mortgaging the last of their future to convince him to return. Boston's offer would return a star in Jaylen Brown, a former Finals MVP, around whom the Bucks could start rebuilding. Miami's proposal included an All-Star, Milwaukee native Tyler Herro, a strong collection of young players and draft capital that would allow the Bucks more optionality to build their next team. One offer would lend itself to immediate competitiveness, but essentially restart the cycle they'd just exhausted with Antetokounmpo without replenishing the resources needed to build around Brown. The other was a full reset, with building materials. Horst had canvassed the league for months, fielding offers and presenting them to his front office and ownership group, then getting feedback from Antetokounmpo's camp as to whether he'd be willing to extend his contract with those teams. At least four strong bids had died on the vine after Antetokounmpo rejected them, multiple sources with knowledge of them say. It was the last night of an exhausting, weekslong negotiation period to finalize the end of a protracted, awkward yearlong saga -- one that had consumed three teams, while the rest of the league waited for a resolution. Either way, the ripple effects would be enormous. This final debate was too complicated to solve overnight, and so Horst didn't offer a staff pickup basketball break before a long night of work. He sent everyone home early and made it back to his own kids by 10 p.m. The Father's Day celebration was muted: some cake, a card and a bottle of cologne. THE BUCKS WERE pressing up against the deadline co-owner Jimmy Haslam had set a month earlier. During a news conference to introduce new coach Taylor Jenkins and sitting alongside Horst, Haslam had made a declaration: The Bucks would have Antetokounmpo's future settled by draft night. Either he would agree to sign an extension to remain with Milwaukee -- or he'd be traded. But by then, the Bucks had their answer, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation say. Antetokounmpo was not going to sign another extension in Milwaukee. Antetokounmpo signed contract extensions in 2020 and 2023 to stay in Milwaukee, with one team source joking that those brief periods were the only times the Bucks truly got a reprieve from teamwide and leaguewide speculation about his future with the organization. For half a decade, the Bucks were one of the most successful franchises in the league, leading the NBA in winning percentage (.686) across the regular season and playoffs from 2018 to 2023. Several team sources voiced to ESPN a guiding ethos of the organization through the years: Teams don't willingly trade superstars, especially in a small market such as Milwaukee. It's why the Bucks had made every attempt, through multiple roster iterations, to build championship-level teams with Antetokounmpo, gutting their future more and more each time to do it. The NBA offseason is here. Our experts have you covered on the latest signings, trades and what to know this summer. • 2026 Buzz: Latest news, injuries, league intel, updates • Kram: Grades f

'Things got really yucky': Inside the long, sad end of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Milwaukee

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