By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Entering his tenth season with the Milwaukee Bucks and also a contract season, Khris Middleton understands the business part of the NBA.
Middleton, 31, has a player option for the 2023-24 season worth 40,396,552 dollars. Potentially skipping the option makes him an unrestricted free agent next summer. He is currently eligible to sign a new contract.
“Even though I know you’re really not supposed to say it for all the reasons out there, I think everybody knows deep down that I want to stay. But also, you know it’s a business. Things change, things happen. You just never know. For sure I would love to stay. If everything works out,” he told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Of course, if they give me whatever I want I’m there! I’m there.”
Following the 2018-19 season, he inked a five-year $178 million contract extension. He was already six years in the lengthy stay in Milwaukee and six years in the quality partnership with Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks acquired him via trade, a few weeks after picking up the Greek Freak in the 2013 NBA draft.
The pair’s crowning achievement was winning the 2021 NBA championship. Getting injured during the following postseason and ruled out for the remainder of the Playoffs certainly did not help as the Bucks fell short of the bid for a back-to-back title. He suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
“I’d like to,” he said hoping to be cleared to play from the top of the 2022-23 season, “I would like to, but I’ve learned in the past to trust my training staff and doctors. They know what they’re doing. This is my first time going through this and they’ve been through it many times and they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. So I’ve learned just to listen to them. I mean, you can push yourself, but don’t really.”
Middleton was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the 39th pick of the 2012 draft. Apart from becoming an NBA champion, moving to Milwaukee also led him to help Team USA win gold in the 2020 Olympics and get All-Star nods in 2019, 2020, and 2022.
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