Atlanta Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic has helped his team to a 4-3 start, while the Milwaukee Bucks have the same record over a week into the new season.
But it wasn’t long ago when Bogdanovic’s name was linked to the Bucks, with no less than reigning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo trying to lure him to Milwaukee.
But that signing, which was first reported days before free agency was set to begin, ultimately did not push through, with the Bucks losing their 2022 second round pick following a league investigation on tampering. But with Antetokounmpo signing a supermax extension last month, the Bucks’ future is secure and both parties have moved on from the bungled deal.
When asked about it in an interview with The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Bogdanovic downplayed what happened and Giannis’ role in trying to recruit him to play for the Bucks, saying that “people will make a story out of it” and saying that he is closer to his older brother Thanasis.
“I talked with him (Thanasis) once monthly, once every two months,” Bogdanovic said about the older Antetokounmpo brother. “So we talk about it — we talked maybe in the bubble, not about me coming there, nothing like that. But we were like, ‘Ah, you guys are good,’ — bla, bla, bla, you know? Normal things. How is your family? Basketball things, we didn’t even talk about it because I know that they are professionals and they respect my professionalism and we never talked about it.”
The 28-year old Serbian revealed that he became friends with Thanasis after playing in many tournaments together, and added that he did not talk to the Bucks star or even Thanasis about his eventual decision to sign a four-year, $72 million deal with the Hawks.
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