By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Giannis Antetokounmpo will not play in the 2025 NBA All-Star Game.
ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania reported the news on Sunday, noting the injury as a mild calf strain.
The Freak is set to miss the next week, including a fourth straight team outing of the Milwaukee Bucks, against the Philadelphia 76ers in Fiserv Forum on tonight’s installment of NBA Sundays. According to the latest update, he is projected to sit out at least two more of the 2024-25 Regular Season and return to action shortly after the All-Star break.
“We’ve just been monitoring it and it just hasn’t improved enough for us to play him,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers later confirmed his star player remaining sidelined through the All-Star break, “If this was a playoff game, would he play? Probably yes. But this is not and we want to make sure he’s playing in the playoffs.”
“We would love to have him but you’ve still got to be smart. At the end of the day, I think it’s more important to get him healthy,” he added.
Coming out of a loaded offseason, representing Greece in the 2024 Olympic Games, the veteran of nine consecutive selections in the All-Star Game has logged 41 appearances and missed the remaining nine games of the 2024-25 schedule. An extended stint on the injury list would put him in danger of falling short of the requirements for the annual awards of the league based in North America. Any player appearing in less than 65 games is ineligible.
Helping his side to a 27-23 record in the Regular Season, he tallied 31.8 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 0.8 steals per contest so far in his 12th straight year at the Wisconsin-based franchise.
The Bucks, winners of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup, currently rank fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, two games safe inside the top-six zone leading directly to the 2025 Playoffs.