Giannis Antetokounmpo is embracing Heat Culture and his new teammates on the Miami Heat, but he’s facing some backlash from Milwaukee Bucks fans for recent comments.

After 13 seasons with the Bucks, Giannis was traded to the Heat in the offseason, sending him to a new destination for the first time in his career. Any time a player gets traded to a new team, for the most part, efforts are made to fit in and get to know their new teammates and build chemistry before the games matter.

Giannis participated in the Heat mini-camp ahead of training camp, something he never did with the Bucks.

Speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Giannis was asked if he regretted missing those mini-camps in Milwaukee.

“No, I don’t regret it because you gotta deal with the personnel the team has. Brook (Lopez) is not showing up a month early. Khris (Middleton) is not showing up a month early. Jrue (Holiday) is not showing up a month early. Like, we knew what the deal was.

“We knew that the moment we came in, we were on the same page, and the moment we were out, everybody was doing their own thing. But we were kind of in the same timeline. All of us. We had kids at the same time. We were living a mile away from one another. When we were there, we were there.”

The focus has been on the first part of the quote, and not the second part. The Bucks were a veteran group who had already spent multiple years together and had established chemistry. Could Giannis and other veterans have shown up to mini-camp as the leaders of the team to welcome the new additions? Yes, but in the names Giannis mentioned, it’s easy to see why they didn’t.

In Miami, he’s still viewed as a leader, and not having chemistry with his new teammates gives him even more reason to show up to mini-camp.

It’s a bit of shade at his former teammates, but it’s also a knock on himself. As the superstar and leader of the team, he should’ve been more adamant that everyone show up for mini-camp because no matter how established you are as a team, constantly sticking together and getting reps is only going to pay off in the long run.

It’s not a great quote from Giannis, but there has been an overreaction to what was actually said.