An evening completely to forget for the Milwaukee Bucks, who despite having the chance to face a rehashed version of the Minnesota Timberwolves without Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert, were swept off the field already after the first half. Upon returning to the locker room, the Milwaukee crowd booed the team, a gesture that Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t like at all: the two-time MVP, after a fouled basket to open the second half, sat on the ground and showed everyone a two-thumbs down, repeating “BOOO” in turn to his own fans. “Every time I get booed, I respond in kind,” he said after the match. “It doesn’t matter if I’m home or away: I play basketball for my teammates, for myself and for my family. When people don’t believe in me, I tend not to want to be around them. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before and I don’t think it’s right, even though everyone has their own opinion.”
Giannis, whose future has been shrouded in mystery for some time now, added: “I’m not going to tell them what to do or how to respond when we don’t play hard, when we lose games or when we don’t do what’s expected of us. But I don’t think anyone has the right to tell me how I should behave on a basketball court after what I’ve done over the last 13 years. And I’m basically the all-time leader in every category here.”
