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This is no time to panic.
Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is getting a precautionary MRI on his left knee, league sources tell ESPN. The MVP landed hard on the floor and tweaked the knee in second half of the loss to the Lakers Friday night, but stayed in the game.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 7, 2020
Of course, things could turn bad quickly, just as quickly as a stumble can turn into a potential injury. For any fans of the Milwaukee Bucks interested in further freaking out about the status of Giannis Antetokounmpo, here’s the play that put the presumptive MVP in this predicament.
Here’s that scary fall with Giannis again.
— JoshCarsonJC3 (@JoshCarsonJC3) March 7, 2020
Hence, the reason why he shouldn’t try to dunk everything.
Attack mode is great, but he’s gotta be smart. Worth too much to his team. pic.twitter.com/S41vzND0p9
The commentary itself on the tweet is unfortunate at best; as KL Chouinard notes, Avery Bradley attempted to draw a charge on Giannis, because it is a more likely path to success when defending him based on the way the game is officiated. It’s a dangerous play that only exists because the system incentivizes it, and if the system doesn’t change it puts players’ health at risk.
If Giannis, God forbid,is hurt, I am fully prepared to use this to serve my own needs to ban the charge
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) March 7, 2020
Anyways, debates over the merits of the charge or why Giannis will never get adequate calls are secondary at this point. The Bucks play the Phoenix Suns tomorrow, and at this point it’s difficult to imagine Giannis suiting up. Since the Bucks are away from home, it’s tough to predict what the current course of action will entail, but from what we know of Mike Budenholzer’s approach to managing injuries, “aggressive caution” will be the strategy with the Bucks’ centerpiece. If Kyle Korver sat for three weeks with back soreness, who knows how long Giannis might sit with a tweaked knee, when there’s 19 games left in the season.
As always, we’ll update this story as updates are available. For now, here’s hoping for a positive outcome. For everyone’s sake (but especially Giannis’).