When asked what his input into those discussions are, he responded flatly, “Zero. Zero. I’m not.”

But what brought him, and the team to this point.

The record, for one. The Bucks opened play against the Bulls out of the playoff picture at 18-29. The team is 3-14 without Antetokounmpo. He acknowledged that while the team is not mathematically out of the playoffs, it will be difficult for them to reach the postseason even if he returns.

So, now the crux of the matter. He’s 31. He’ll be generous and give himself five more seasons of prime play. That gives him maybe five more chances to compete at a high level to win a championship.

His biological clock is ticking.  

He insists he’s listening to Bucks ownership, led by Wes Edens and Jimmy and Dee Haslam, and general manager Jon Horst. He will not say he’s lost faith in their ability to build a contending roster around him.

“I always listen,” Antetokounmpo said. “That’s why I’m still here. I always listen and trust. But what I’m trying to say, how many chances do I have left to win a championship? So, you just gotta [be] more careful and more urgent in every decision that you make moving forward. It doesn’t change. I think I’ve listened since day one and that will never change. I have great respect, love and likeness for Jon and the ownership and that will never be different. Won’t change. But at the end of the day …”

He looked off and took a nearly 8-second pause.

“You gotta look.”

But does the recent past, winning the most games in the NBA from 2018-25, the huge trades for Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard show they can do it again?

“You cannot say,” he said. “I’ve always been, always, always, this is the NBA, I love watching it, I always make hypothetical scenarios. What if I play with LeBron [James]? What if I play with [Kevin Durant]? What if play with [Michael] Jordan? What if I play with Kobe [Bryant]? Everybody makes hypotheticals scenarios. What if you could get, blah blah blah. But at the end of the day, you have to commit somewhere, right? You have to commit somewhere. And I think for 13 years I’ve committed here more than anybody, any player, ever committed.

“If you ask me what do I really want, deep down in my heart? I want to be a Milwaukee Buck until I retire and win a championship here. End of sentence.

“If that is not possible to happen, and if then you realize maybe that’s not the case and maybe they’re looking elsewhere and that’s not what they’re trying to do, then automatically you have to be in the plans of what they’re trying to do or weigh the other options. It’s normal.”

READER POLL: Should the Bucks trade Giannis Antetokounmpo? Results of our reader poll

And now comes the crux of it.

For him, he’s not sure what course ownership has for the franchise in the near and long-term.

“I know what my goal is,” he said. “I don’t know what their goal [is]. I know that I talk to them but I don’t think that it’s fair that to share the conversations that I talk with them. They haven’t come to the game recently; we haven’t been so good. So they’re probably upset. I bet you can, like, talk to them. Ask them, what’s your goal? What do you want to do? They might want to reveal. They might even want to … sell. They might want to do some other things. Maybe, I don’t know.”

The Journal Sentinel reached out to the Bucks, who said they have no comment. 

But Antetokounmpo couldn’t just leave it at that.

A smile returned.

“My wife has said, she told me, ‘they said that you asked out!’”

They do say that, was the reply.

“I ask out every year!” he exclaimed. “It’s true! Every year. Not this year. It’s every year I’ve asked!”

But this? “This is the closest we’ve been to it?”

He grinned again. He reminded that every summer, he evaluates and re-evaluates where he and the team are at, and where they’re going.

“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do. I’ve committed. I’ve been 13 years here. Thirteen man. Do you really think I want to leave? Do people really think I want to leave?”

And with that, he darted quickly back into the Bucks locker room.

This story was updated with new information.