{"id":96,"date":"2021-07-07T08:45:26","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T08:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/?p=96"},"modified":"2021-08-11T09:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T09:33:00","slug":"milwaukee-bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-returns-to-the-basketball-court-after-initially-fearing-he-would-be-out-for-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/2021\/07\/07\/milwaukee-bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-returns-to-the-basketball-court-after-initially-fearing-he-would-be-out-for-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to the basketball court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Giannis Antetokounmpo fell to the floor in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals after his knee twisted in a gruesome fashion, he said his immediate thought was that not only was this season over — but that next season was, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Antetokounmpo suffered a hyperextended left knee on that awkward and ugly-looking fall a week ago in Atlanta against the Hawks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Antetokounmpo was only out for a week, and was able to return for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns. And while Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Suns 118-105 to begin the seven-game series, all the superstar forward could focus on was that he was able to be on the court and playing alongside his teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was tough,” Antetokounmpo said, describing what he went through over the past week to return to the court. “Obviously, I had to do my best to get back. Listen to my medical staff. I did the right treatment. Took care of my body and supported my teammates, and now I’m back.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He had a good workout before the game,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “You’ve got to listen to Giannis first. He felt good. The sports performance group felt good … he had been checking boxes the last couple days and making progress and so he was cleared, and he wanted to go, and everybody was on the same page.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For others — namely the Suns — it was no surprise that Antetokounmpo was playing.”We planned for him to play,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “Just felt like a guy like Giannis, who all the stories report about how hard he works on his body, we just figured a guy that works that hard is going to find a way to get back on the floor, especially in the Finals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was Antetokounmpo playing, but he didn’t look like he’d missed any time at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to the basketball court after initially fearing he ‘would be out for a year’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoopdata.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}