Back in April 2015, Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd hit then-rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo with the dreaded “DNP-CD,” which is “do not play – coach’s decision.”  Giannis had no idea why Kidd benched him, and all Kidd would say is that it’s the coach’s decision.  Giannis was so upset, he looked up Kidd’s career to see what he accomplished that would give him the audacity to bench the young rising star.  After reviewing the information, Giannis did a complete 180.Here’s an excerpt from a Sports Illustrated feature on Antetokounmpo written by Lee Jenkins:

Pro sports age everybody. There was the night in his first season when Antetokounmpo’s agent at Octagon, Alex Saratsis, told him that a Bucks assistant coach believed he wasn’t working hard enough. “You can tell me I’m not playing well,” Antetokounmpo replied, tears in his eyes. “You can tell me I’m not doing the right things. But you cannot tell me this. I won’t accept it.” And there was the night in his second season when the Bucks’ new head coach, Jason Kidd, banned him from shooting three-pointers. “I want to shoot threes,” Antetokounmpo argued. “How can I not shoot threes?” Geiger left for the Suns. Morway went to the Jazz. Nate Wolters, Antetokounmpo’s best friend on the team, was waived. “I didn’t know all that would happen,” Antetokounmpo says. “You build these relationships, know these people, and then all of a sudden you get a text in the summer: ‘I’m not coming back.’ What? You get mad. You learn this is a business.”

 The first time Kidd benched him, Antetokounmpo was irate. “I was like, ‘Let’s see what this guy did in his career, anyway,’ ” Antetokounmpo recounts, and called up Kidd’s bio on his phone. “I saw Rookie of the Year, NBA championship, USA Olympic gold medal, second in assists, fifth in made threes, blah, blah, blah. I was like, ‘Jesus freaking Christ, how can I compete with that? I better zip it.’ ”

Read more HERE (and you should read the rest)

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