Giannis Antetokounmpo Reportedly Called Bucks Teammates Selfish

The dust from the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to the Miami Heat has barely settled, and the details coming out of Milwaukee are not getting any easier.

Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a lengthy account of how the Antetokounmpo era fell apart, and one passage stood out.

"Antetokounmpo let it be known he did not like locker room leaks, but his mental state was chronicled nearly all season by anonymous sources," Owczarski wrote. "He pleaded for accountability but then tried to pass off those reports as someone else's doing. He would call his teammates selfish but then stand on a visiting team's court with a former coach and yell about how that person would make sure he got the ball."

That is not easy reading for anyone who watched Antetokounmpo grow from a skinny teenager into a two-time MVP and Finals MVP over 13 seasons.

It sounds moreso like a player who wanted accountability from others but did not always hold himself to the same standard, and it connects to what someone else on the roster had already said publicly.

The Owczarski report did not come out of nowhere.

Myles Turner went on the "Game Recognize Game" podcast with Breanna Stewart in May and laid out a version of the same problems from his perspective as a player who lived through it.

Turner said players routinely showed up late to practices, film sessions, and team flights, and he pointed directly at Antetokounmpo as someone who operated on his own schedule because the coaching staff under Doc Rivers would not hold him accountable.

"Giannis is going to show up whenever he wants," Turner said. Those comments drew a strong reaction around the league, and ESPN's Jay Williams went further by saying it reflected poorly on Giannis as a leader.

Antetokounmpo never responded.

Now the Owczarski report adds even more context to what Turner described, and the picture is not flattering.

A player calling his teammates selfish while expecting a different set of rules for himself is the tension that sat inside a locker room where the Bucks went 32-50 and Antetokounmpo averaged 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 5.4 assists in a career-low 36 games.

Whatever happened behind closed doors, the Bucks have started moving forward.

Milwaukee sent Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to Miami for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel'el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, and a handful of future picks.

They used the 13th pick in the deal to draft Tennessee forward Nate Ament and added Arizona guard Brayden Burries at No. 10.

With Taylor Jenkins now coaching and Ryan Rollins coming off a breakout year where he averaged 17.3 points and 5.6 assists per game, the core is young and the timeline has reset.

The Giannis chapter in Milwaukee will always include a championship and a 50-point closeout in the Finals.

It will also include this, and the franchise is probably better off dealing with all of it as it starts over.