Thanasis Antetokounmpo has a message for Milwaukee Bucks fans ahead of playoff game vs. Pacers at Fiserv Forum
There isn't a player on the Milwaukee Bucks roster that brings more energy than Thanasis Antetokounmpo.
He brings the fire every game — whether he plays or not.
The Bucks forward and older brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo wants fans at Fiserv Forum to ramp up their own intensity for the 2024 NBA playoffs.
"I need that environment to be suffocating," Thanasis Antetokounmpo said on a recent episode of his podcast "Thanalysis Show." "When teams step into that building before they’re warming up they’ll feel like, 'Oh my God, what’s going on? The building’s shaking. What’s going on?'"
The Bucks open their first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. The time hasn't been announced.
Despite losing three of their final five home games, the Bucks were mostly dominant at Fiserv Forum this season. They finished with a 31-11 home record. Only three teams in the NBA — Boston, Oklahoma City and Denver — had more home wins than the Bucks this season.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo, 31, has been with the Bucks since 2019, and knows what kind of environment Fiserv Forum and the Deer District can present during the playoffs.
He was part of the 2021 championship team that snapped the franchise's 50-year title drought, though he missed the Game 6 celebration after contracting COVID-19 days earlier.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo returned for the team's championship parade, famously riding in his own jeep.
"It’s our city, it’s an energy we’ve had like so many years without a championship," he said. "And we tasted it now with one championship, and we want to do it again as a team, as a staff, as individuals, as a city, as a community. We want to do it again. And regardless what everybody else got to say, you know small city, not small, like we do this bro, we do this. We work hard. And we want to accomplish this."
ANALYSIS: Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks enter the playoffs with something to prove
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thanasis Antetokounmpo has message for Bucks fans before playoff games
