Windhorst shuts down the Antetokounmpo Kalshi trade conspiracy
The biggest story of the NBA trade deadline this past year was Giannis Antetokounmpo and what would happen to him. There was a huge opportunity for Milwaukee Bucks to grab a big catch in exchange for Antetokounmpo, but neither deal made sense for the Bucks, so they hung on to him. Since then, there has been talk of how serious the Bucks were about trading him, and Brian Windhorst said they did.
ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst said the Bucks are getting calls about Antetokounmpo and that it was a real idea and not a scam. The Bucks wanted a big deal to trade him, but no deal stood out. There were conspiracy theories that it was never real because Giannis Antetokounmpo announced his sponsorship of Kalshi not long after. There is still a way for the Bucks to trade Antetokounmpo in the summer if both sides feel there is no way forward.
Windhorst said: “Here’s what I can tell you. Again, let’s focus on actions over words. The Bucks negotiated a trade for Giannis last week. Now, whether they ever intended to carry out those negotiations, I don’t know. I can’t speak to that kind of intelligence, but the Bucks were on the phone, taking offers and asking.
“So the idea that this was all some kind of a scam, no, the Bucks were absolutely doing it,” Windhorst continued. “And you know, they didn’t like the offers they got. I think their offers, you know, NBA trades are so complex, and I don’t know where to go, I like to lose people, blindside them. But in short, the Bucks can get more from teams in the summer than they can right now.”
However, so far it appears that the two had nothing to do with each other, although speculation about that will only continue.
2026-02-11 22:04:00
