Giannis Antetokounmpo says he was misquoted by Harvard professor
"I’ve never used those words in my life."
Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is disputing comments attributed to him this week by a Harvard Business School professor speculating about his future with the team.
In a case study about the Bucks by HBS professor Anita Elberse and student Melcolm Ruffin, the reigning NBA MVP was reportedly quoted saying his decision to sign a contract extension next summer would be “a lot more difficult” if the team underperforms this season.
“So far, we have been doing great, and, if this lasts, there’s no other place I want to be,” Antetokounmpo told Elberse and Ruffin during an interview last spring, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which published a preview of the yet-to-be-released study on Tuesday.
“But if we’re underperforming in the NBA next year, deciding whether to sign becomes a lot more difficult,” he said.
Given the 24-year-old’s long-stated loyalty to Milwaukee, the comments caught the NBA community off-guard on the eve of the Bucks’ season opener Thursday night. Even his own girlfriend had questions, according to Anteotkounmpo, who told reporters Wednesday in Houston that he was misquoted.
“My girlfriend, Mariah, asked me yesterday, ‘Did you actually say this?’ I said, ‘If you kind of read the last quote, I’ve never used those words in my life,'” he said, according to the Journal Sentinel. “But I’m not going to talk about this, I’m just going to focus on this season and I’ve said in the past, it’s disrespectful, man.”
Pressed on specifics, Antetokounmpo singled out the words the final aspect of the quote, according to the Milwaukee paper.
“The last — what is it called quote, paragraph — it’s words that I didn’t use,” said the Greece native. “Underperforming or whether or deciding, all those words I’ve never used in my life. As I said, I’m not going to talk about it. There are going to be stories that come out — I said that, I said this — but I’m not going to get into it at all.”
Elberse’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. And on Tuesday, an assistant to the professor told Boston.com that “Elberse believes the case speaks for itself.” The 46-year-old professor, who is one of the youngest female professor to obtain tenure at the prestigious Cambridge business school, specializes in the sports and entertainment industries and has become well-known for her classes with celebrity athletes.
“It’s not uncommon for us to get people to say things that they haven’t said anywhere else because these are in-depth interviews,” she told the Journal Seninel in the paper’s initial story Tuesday.
Bucks co-owner Jamie Dinan told the Journal Sentinel earlier this week that it was his understanding that Elberse has Antetokounmpo’s comments on tape and thus said he didn’t doubt the accuracy of his superstar player’s quote. That said, Dinan also said the study — which looked at how a small-market team could retain Antetokounmpo as he approaches potential free agency — inherently needed to create conflict.
“There’s no case here if he’s like, ‘I’m a hundred percent signing next year,” he said.
Antetokounmpo is expected to be offered a league-record contact extension worth more than $250 million this offseason. Ahead of the Bucks’ first game Thursday, he told the Journal Sentinel that he was “not going to talk about my free agency at all this season.”
“I’m not going to distract my teammates,” Antetokounmpo said. “The attention’s not going to be on me, it’s going to be on this team and what we’ve got to do to win.”
