National Basketball Association

Giannis Antetokounmpo Agrees To Four-Year, $100 Million Extension

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks have come to terms on a four-year extension valued at $100 million.

The Milwaukee Bucks may not have signed any marquee free agents this summer, but they completed easily their most important deal of the summer on Monday in tying up the future of Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo would have been a restricted free agent next summer if both sides had been unable to come to terms on a deal before the end of October, but as a candidate for an early extension both parties managed to avoid that prospect.

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has agreed on a four-year, $100M contract extension, league sources tell @TheVertical.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) September 19, 2016

The news, which was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports was certainly not unexpected. With references having been made to discussions among many key Bucks figures over the summer, it was always going to be a question of when a deal could be completed rather than if.

The report from Wojnarowski was also confirmed by Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who added that Antetokounmpo has been practicing into the late hours at the team’s practice facility of late.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also confirmed the financials of the deal, including the fact that it is four years, fully guaranteed.

The fact that the deal comes in at less than the max is significant for a number of reasons. Of course, in its most basic sense, that slight discount is good news for the Bucks as it affords them greater flexibility in terms of managing their cap room in the future, but there is another layer to the discussion.

As I wrote about earlier in the summer, the Bucks could have offered Antetokounmpo a five-year deal at a maximum salary if they had chosen to make him the team’s sole designated player.

Each NBA team is permitted to sign one player on their roster to a five year contract when coming off of their rookie deal, but only if it comes at a max salary level.

In this case, it seems that however the decision was arrived at, both sides ultimately settled for the discount rather than the extra year. According to Windhorst, that decision was in line with the player’s wishes.

For Milwaukee that, of course, opens up the prospect of Jabari Parker being eligible for a designated player extension next summer, while regardless, Giannis Antetokounmpo will hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021.

For Antetokounmpo, a relative unknown when he was drafted only three years ago, the fairytale story has opened into its next chapter. Now, let’s look forward to all the rest that has yet to be written.