The star of one of the NBA’s most iconic franchises worried that if he didn’t win a championship, he would leave the team at any moment.
Milwaukee Bucks’ Yannis Adetokunle spoke candidly about his feelings in an interview with local U.S. media outlet The Athletic on Sunday (July 17).
“I think about it every day,” Adetokunbo said. It’s like, ‘What if we don’t win? If you don’t win, you can always be traded. That’s the world we live in, that’s my job. It’s not just me, it’s every player,” 엔트리 파워사다리 he said.
Adetokunbo is one of the best players in the NBA and Milwaukee’s absolute ace. Since being drafted by Milwaukee with the 15th overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Adetokunle has steadily improved every season, culminating in an MVP award.
Along with Adetokunbo, his team, Milwaukee, has become a perennial powerhouse and championship contender. However, Milwaukee and Adetokunbo struggled in the playoffs, missing the Finals time and time again. However, in the 2020-2021 season, they finally made it to the NBA Finals, where they won four straight games after losing two in a row to the Phoenix Suns in the Finals.
The 2021 NBA Finals victory also boosted Adetokunbo’s personal stature. He became the best player in the NBA. After winning the title, it looked like the era would continue for Milwaukee and Adetokunbo, but they started to struggle in the playoffs again. The team added a superstar in Damian Lillard to help them out, but Adetokunbo went down with an injury in the playoffs, and the team was eliminated in the first round.
This shows how difficult it is to win a championship in the NBA, and how frustrating it can be for players to not win. Adetokunbo is an absolute staple in Milwaukee. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he’s on top of the organization, and even he’s worried about being traded.
Of course, it“s also possible for a superstar to request a trade himself if he”s unhappy with the team”s organization. This is not uncommon in the current NBA landscape.
However, it’s also possible for a team to trade a superstar first. A prime example of this is the Utah Jazz, who traded Rudy Gobert for Donovan Mitchell. Utah was consistently at the top of the Western Conference, but they realized that their roster was limited, so they made the bold move to trade Mitchell and Gobert.
Then there’s the Karl-Anthony Towns trade that happened last week. Minnesota is coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance the previous season, their best in franchise history. They didn’t have any power leaks and were considered a favorite to win the title next season.
However, as a small-market organization, they couldn’t afford the luxury tax, so they had no choice but to trade a high-paid player, and they traded Towns, their franchise star. Towns was not even informed of the trade by the Minnesota organization. This is the cold business world of the NBA.
Adetokunbo has already won a championship with Milwaukee. If Milwaukee’s team doesn’t perform well, it’s possible that both Milwaukee and Adetokunbo will want to trade. The best-case scenario is that Milwaukee wins the NBA championship. That’s why it will be interesting to see what Milwaukee does next season.