Doc Rivers responds to NBPA's critical statement of Bucks sitting Giannis Antetokounmpo: 'He's just not healthy'

One day after the union representing NBA players accused the Milwaukee Bucks of wanting to shut Giannis Antetokounmpo down for the season because they are trying to lose games, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers offered an alternative rationale for keeping the two-time Most Valuable Player on the injured list: that he’s injured. “He’s not [healthy],” Rivers said Wednesday, before the Bucks’ Wednesday matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic . “He’s progressing.

He’s just not healthy. ” Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season Rivers was responding to a claim levied by the National Basketball Players Association on Tuesday , intimating in a strongly worded statement that the Bucks were engaging in anti-competitive behavior by attempting to prevent Antetokounmpo — currently sidelined by a hyperextended left knee and bone bruise that he sustained in a March 15 win over the Indiana Pacers — from returning to the court for the final weeks of Milwaukee’s season. After suffering the injury against the Pacers, Antetokounmpo tried to return to the game, only to be held out by Milwaukee’s medical and training staff.

Following the game, he told reporters that he wasn’t “really bothered by [the knee] at all,” that he didn’t think he’d need to have any imaging done on the knee, and that he planned to proceed as if he’d be back on the floor for the Bucks’ next game. “For me, every game is worth it,” Antetokounmpo told reporters . “Every time I step on the floor, I try not to take it for granted.

I appreciate just being out there, especially when I’m getting my rhythm back and I’m feeling good. ” Antetokounmpo did not return for Milwaukee’s next game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, though. The Bucks did have him undergo an MRI, which reportedly revealed no ligament damage, but did lead to the diagnosis of a hyperextension and bone bruise that put him on the shelf for at least a week — and perhaps setting the table for the superstar forward to miss the remainder of the season, in what could be a boon for the Bucks’ odds of landing a top pick in June’s NBA Draft.