By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
For the second straight season, the Milwaukee Bucks got eliminated in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs, with Giannis Antetokounmpo being sidelined for injury, unable to help his teammates on the court.
In 2023-24, the issue came on April 9 against 1st-seeded Boston Celtics, when he suffered a serious calf injury that couldn’t make him available anymore in the season. Talking to the media in the team’s exit interview, the Greek Freak revealed details about his absence from the court.
“I felt a little bit of pain under my calf, I didn’t know what it was exactly. I felt like somebody tripped me or something, and then I realized there was nobody. It was probably the first time in my career I got hurt while nobody was around me”, he recalled the injury against Jayson Tatum’s team.
In the early aftermath, he realized something was going wrong. “When I made my first few steps, I couldn’t. That’s when I knew something was off. After that, I had to wear a walking boot, so I couldn’t walk because of the pain”, Giannis Antetokounmpo then affirmed.
The physical pain became rapidly associated with the realization of not being able to help his teammates. “If you can walk, then you can run and jump. But if you can’t walk, you’re already in a deficit. I couldn’t do much for the following week. I couldn’t jump, I had to make stationary shooting”, he also said.
“I tried my best to come back, it hurt to see my teammates out there and not be able to help them. But I couldn’t. I did all the tests. I was trying to push myself [to the maximum], but it wasn’t safe for me to be out there”, he also added before touching on his current status. “I could run only 30%-40%. Even now I can’t run full speed. It’d take a few days, weeks until I come back to usual”, the Greek star said.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images