EuroBasket serves as a quadrennial occasion during which European basketball is celebrated and the continent’s best players compete to determine which country’s roster stands supreme.
But there is an increasingly likely chance that this summer’s edition of the tournament will not feature one of the sport’s best players in the world: Greece national team talisman and Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Nikos Papadogiannis, a Greek basketball insider working for the outlet Gazzetta, reported on Friday that conversations between the Bucks and the Hellenic Basketball Federation on the topic of insurance payments have become increasingly tense in the last few days.
“There may be a need for some form of apology or player intervention if things go wrong,” Papadogiannis wrote. “Otherwise, we could have a problem.
“Many details remain confidential, but it’s clear Milwaukee is frustrated with the Greek federation, accusing them of arrogance and amateurism. The Bucks cite missed insurance deadlines and a lack of transparency regarding national team activities, and they claim the federation has taken an aggressive tone in correspondence. They act like they don’t realize we hold all the cards, sources say.”
Papadogiannis went as far as to predict that Antetokounmpo’s odds of suiting up for Greece this summer are “a generous and optimistic fifty-fifty or… sixty-forty [in favor of playing].”
The aforementioned insurance payments are the reason why the Bucks have not provided written permission for Antetokounmpo to participate in EuroBasket. The hesitancy on their part resides in the fact that FIBA’s insurance policies cannot cover the full sum of Antetokounmpo’s big-money NBA contract should he get hurt during the tournament; as a result, that written permission is necessary.
Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić are two players who, like Antetokounmpo, have needed approval from the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively, to compete in the tournament. Their paperwork has been processed already, and both players are playing in exhibition games with their national teams.
Antetokounmpo is currently with the Greece national team, but he is not cleared to participate in any team activities until permission to do so has been granted by the Bucks.
