Giannis Antetokounmpo explains his headbutt on Moe Wagner

Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected from Tuesday night’s Milwaukee Bucks-Washington Wizards game for headbutting an opponent, and he’s sharing his side of what happened.

Leading up to the headbutt, Antetokounmpo was called for a charge while driving into Washington’s Moe Wagner in the second quarter. He later walked up to Wagner and headbutted him hard. He was called for a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.

Here's the whole Moe Wagner – Giannis Antetokounmpo headbutt incident pic.twitter.com/OzBIuyoWeI

— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 12, 2020

So what was going through Antetokounmpo’s head? He said he was frustrated with all the punishment he had been taking, and it culminated with that blowup.

“I don’t think I was frustrated with Wagner. I think it was just the whole, like, buildup of dirty plays in my mind, you know, guys tripping me, guys falling in front of my feet, holding me, hitting me,” Antetokounmpo told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Matt Velazquez.

“It wasn’t just – I don’t have nothing against Wagner, it wasn’t just him. It was just, like, in my mind all these games I’ve played guys hitting me so I lost it for a second.”

Antetokounmpo’s frustration is understandable, but his reaction was unacceptable. He knows that, which is why he said it was a “terrible” action and something he wishes he could undo. The Bucks star ended up playing just 10 minutes and had 12 points and nine rebounds in the game. Milwaukee still won 126-113 playing without him for much of the contest.