Giannis Antetokounmpo was ready to go to the Boston Celtics instead of the Miami Heat until the Celtics balked, according to Bill Simmons.
In a new episode of his podcast, Simmons claimed that Antetokounmpo was ready to go to the Celtics if the team gave him a three-year contract extension worth 35 percent of the salary cap. The Celtics were only willing to offer two years, prompting Antetokounmpo to sanction a trade to Miami instead.
“He didn’t sign off on the Miami trade for a couple of days, and they were talking about extensions with the Celtics,” Simmons said. “It came down to two years and 30 percent of the cap or three years and 35 percent, and the Celtics were pretty entrenched at two for 30. Giannis wanted the three for 35. They couldn’t agree on it, and that was when he greenlit the Miami trade.”
Wow.
— Savage (@Savageboston) July 2, 2026
Per: @BillSimmons
Giannis was about to sign off on the Celtics trade, but he wanted a 3 year extension at 35% of the cap but Boston was set on 2 years at 30%.
Brad Stevens would budge on the extension and that’s when he approved the trade to Miami.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/yKZqqlUnnK
If true, this is just salt in the wound for Celtics fans. After failing to land Antetokounmpo, they turned around and traded Jaylen Brown to the division rival Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George in a widely-panned deal. Brown would have been the centerpiece of any Antetokounmpo trade.
It is very strange that the Celtics would aggressively pursue Antetokounmpo only to balk at one extra year on his contract. One must wonder if there are some edicts from ownership about just how much the team can spend in the years to come.
In a certain sense, this also underlines just how determined the Celtics were to trade Brown, even though they were underwhelmed by his market. Antetokounmpo was likely the best chance they had to get something for Brown that would have been perceived as reasonable value, but they may only have themselves to blame for failing to get that done.
