Bucks under investigation as Giannis speaks out, but the messaging doesn't add up

The NBA is investigating Milwaukee's handling of Giannis Antetokounmpo's status, but his public push to return doesn't fully align with the reality of the Bucks' position or his own long-term leverage.

The Milwaukee Bucks are being investigated by the NBA for their "handling of the player participating policy and potential inconsistent statements regarding the health of Giannis Antetokounmpo," according to The Athletic. 

This is a complicated way of saying the Bucks don't want to Giannis to play for the rest of this season.

Problem is, Giannis wants to to play. 

"You know who you are dealing with," Antetokounmpo said to reporters on Friday. "For somebody to come and tell me to not play or not to compete, it's like a slap in my face. So, I don't know where the relationship goes from there."

"I've never seen a case of a player saying, my caliber of player, that's like — I'm saying it publicly — I want to f–-ing play. You know what I'm saying?" Antetokounmpo said. "I don't think I've seen this. So, if there needs to be an investigation, great. There should be. I don't know. There should be. Until we figure something out."

This isn't out of the blue. The NBPA issued a statement more than a week ago that Giannis was ready to play and that the Bucks were keeping him out as part of a tanking effort. 

Of course the Bucks don't want to play Giannis for the rest of the season. They've been out of the playoff race for some time. They're tanking! There is absolutely no upside to playing Giannis. 

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Since a melodramatic trade deadline passed without a Giannis trade materializing, all the Bucks have tried to do is try and land as high a lottery pick as possible. They need a good pick -- that player will either be a building block of a Giannis-less future in Milwaukee, or he would be a trade asset for the type of player that would convince Giannis to stay in Milwaukee long term. 

Either way, Giannis playing the last few weeks of the season doesn't serve that mission. 

This is a no-win situation for the Bucks, who should've conceded to not being able to field a contending team long ago and traded Giannis. Instead, the fooled themselves into thinking they could convince Giannis to stay by waiving and stretching Damian Lillard -- which is to say paying him $113 million to go back to Portland -- and signing Myles Turner to a four-year deal for north of a $100 million. This was a doomed act of desperation from the start. 

But Giannis is even more to blame. At any point, he could've just demanded a trade. But he wants to play fake good guy by refusing, in essence, to be that guy that demands a trade. And by stringing the Bucks along with this false hope that he might actually sign the four-year, $275 million extension for which he becomes eligible on Oct. 1, he has forced the organization he refuses to publicly quit on to, in essence, quit on him. 

"I had an initial conversation with who I should be talking to, which is coach Doc (Rivers) -- let's just keep it at Coach Doc and (general manager) Jon (Horst) -- and the initial conversation is that I want to play," Giannis said, via the Athletic. "And after that, I've never had a conversation again. Nobody has ever approached me [about] not playing or whatever the plan is.

"... "I've heard somebody say that, 'Oh, he says that he wants to play, but he doesn't really want to play. First of all, I don't know who gives you information like that … you'd be an idiot to have an opportunity to play with your brother that you're eight years older than him.

"When I played my first NBA game, he was 11 years old. When my dad passed, I pretty much raised him. He's able to be on the team and suit up and chase an opportunity to be great. And you really think that I don't want to suit up and play with my brother? Anybody that thinks that is an idiot."

This is so stupid. If Giannis wants to be hailed as the hero of homegrown stars who never skipped town, then all he has to do is declare his desire to sign the extension and let the drama die. But he won't do that. It's just a bunch of hot air in an effort to have his cake and eat it, too: Get traded without asking to be traded. 

Make the Bucks be the bad guy. And the Bucks are silly for letting him do it. 

Giannis must want everyone to know that he's the ultimate competitor who wants to play the last two weeks of the season, but he's been a man of phony messaging throughout this ordeal. 

After the deadline passed and he was still in Milwaukee, he posted the famous "I'm not leaving" Wolf of Wall Street clip to his Instagram account, saying: "Legends don't chase, they attract," with the implication being that he wasn't going to wimp out and join stars somewhere else but rather attract other stars to join him in Milwaukee. 

If Giannis truly intended to stay, he could have committed already. But the reality is simpler: had the right deal emerged for Milwaukee, he'd already be gone. 

"We gotta go into couples therapy," Antetokounmpo said of his relationship with the Bucks right now. "Go, consultation, couples therapy, sit down, you know, tell their side, I'm going to tell my side and find a solution. Amicably. Right? That's the word. Find a solution together."

If Giannis really wants to pay for the Bucks, actually wants there to be a together here, he can sign the extension. Until then, let's stop buying his innocence.