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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No one knew it at the time, but on Sunday night in Milwaukee, fans at Fiserv Forum bore witness to a special connection one final time late in the fourth quarter of the Milwaukee Bucks’ loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
With 3:40 remaining, point guard Damian Lillard brought the ball across half court and whipped a pass to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was making his way from right to left across the court. Waiting for Antetokounmpo in the left corner was Khris Middleton, his teammate of 12 seasons.
As only those two players and their defenders remained on the left side, Middleton whipped around a dribble handoff and did what he has done so well with Antetokounmpo for more than a decade.
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It is fitting the final assist Middleton made as a Buck went to Antetokounmpo. It was a bookend to Oct. 30, 2013, at Madison Square Garden, where Antetokounmpo scored his first NBA point on a free throw after he was fouled going to the hoop following a Middleton pass on a fast break.
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From their first season to that last assist on Sunday, Middleton dished 866 assists to Antetokounmpo in the 738 regular-season and playoff games they played together. For now, there won’t be any more, as the Bucks on Wednesday agreed to trade Middleton to the Washington Wizards in a deal involving forward Kyle Kuzma.
For 12 years, the Antetokounmpo-Middleton duo built some of the NBA’s most unshakable chemistry. They were the Bucks’ standard bearers, and they took that shared responsibility seriously.
“For me, it’s a little bit bigger than business, it’s family,” Antetokounmpo said at shootaround Wednesday morning in Charlotte. “With a guy that I’ve won a championship with — it’s not only that I’ve won, I’ve lost a lot of times with him. I’ve been in a dark place a lot of times with him. I’ve been in the bus going to a lot of pressure situations with him. … That’s what I remember.
“Not only the good times we had … I remember all the other times that everybody was depending on us. The organization was depending on us. The city was depending on us. Our teammates were depending on us. I remember all those moments. We were able to find a way to make things happen, and we (found) a way to win a championship.
“I know it’s business, but for me, Khris is my brother. I’m going to have a relationship with him after basketball. It kind of hurts, but at the end of the day, I understand the business side of things, and I’m still going to show up to work and do my job until it’s my time to dip.”
When the Bucks were trying to figure things out under Jason Kidd, Antetokounmpo and Middleton were the two players who stood out and helped provide answers about the team’s path forward. When Mike Budenholzer took over, Antetokounmpo and Middleton were the foundational pieces that led the Bucks through early playoff woes and ultimately brought Milwaukee its first championship in 50 seasons. Over the last three and a half seasons under three different coaches, Antetokounmpo and Middleton watched the other battle through injuries as they together tried to lead the Bucks to the mountaintop for a second time.
Now, Middleton is gone, and one of the league’s longest-standing partnerships has come to an end.
The trade that sent Middleton to Washington brought other players into Milwaukee, but that part can wait. For now, it is time to appreciate a partnership that was never meant to be between two players who were never expected to put together long careers and ended up meaning more than anyone could have imagined for a small-market Midwestern city.
Antetokounmpo and Middleton were not friends when it all began. They were just two young players competing for spots on the roster.
After a rookie season in which he appeared in only 27 games for the Detroit Pistons, Middleton was sent to Milwaukee as the final piece in a trade that saw the Bucks and Pistons swap point guards, with Brandon Jennings heading to Detroit and Brandon Knight coming to Milwaukee with Middleton. That was the same summer the Bucks drafted Antetokounmpo, a little known forward from Greece.
In their first season in Milwaukee, the two young players received ample opportunities to prove themselves under head coach Larry Drew as the Bucks won only 15 games, the worst season in franchise history. Following that disappointing season, the Bucks’ new ownership group made some changes and brought in Kidd to be the team’s new head coach.
Seeing the potential in both players, Kidd pitted them against each other. He’d regularly have them guard each other in practices to compete on a daily basis for more playing time.
“You cannot imagine how hard we went at each other at practice,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic in 2019. “Like, I went home, and when my family came, I was showing them the scratches I had on my arms. He used to come down, and I’d grab him hard. And he’d push me off. I used to hate him. You know: ‘F— this motherf—–. I’m going to take his f—— minutes.’
“I hated playing against him and practicing against him because he was playing hard. And I was playing hard. And we’d always clash at each other.”
Those early battles formed a bond that helped carry the Bucks from being a team that just snuck into the playoffs to a perennial contender. As Bucks general manager Jon Horst took over and started to reconfigure the roster, Antetokounmpo and Middleton formed the foundation. They eventually served as two of the most important pieces as the Bucks made a run to the 2021 NBA Finals.
From start to finish, Middleton was massive in the Bucks’ efforts to secure a championship for the first time in 50 years.
In the first game of the postseason, the Bucks went to Middleton in a tied game with the shot clock turned off. He delivered.
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In the second round, Middleton alternated big shots with Antetokounmpo to close out an unbelievable back-and-forth Game 7 against the Brooklyn Nets.
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In the Eastern Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks, Middleton was the one who stepped up with a dazzling shot-making display when Antetokounmpo went down in Game 4 with a left knee injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the series.
“Khris Middleton is putting on a show!”
23 POINTS in the 3Q for Khris on TNT. 😳 pic.twitter.com/fIhSO3HOJk
— NBA (@NBA) July 4, 2021
And in the NBA Finals, Middleton put together his first 40-point playoff game to help the Bucks win Game 4 to even the series against the Phoenix Suns. Then, as Antetokounmpo worked on a 50-point performance in a closeout game, he turned to Middleton for one last clutch shot, a beautiful display of the trust and belief Antetokounmpo had in his longest-tenured teammate.
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When it came time to celebrate the win, it was no surprise that Budenholzer talked about how lucky he felt to be part of what Antetokounmpo and Middleton built in Milwaukee, and Antetokounmpo chose to single out Middleton during his postgame interview.
“Khris, we did it, huh,” Antetokounmpo said during the presentation of the Larry O’Brien Trophy in Fiserv Forum. “We f—— did it.”
The last three and a half seasons did not go how Antetokounmpo and Middleton would have liked. Middleton missed the Bucks’ second-round series against the Boston Celtics in 2022 with an injury as the team was unsuccessful in its bid to repeat as NBA champions. In 2023, Antetokounmpo was sidelined for the majority of the Bucks’ first-round series against the Miami Heat with an injury. Then, he missed all of the Bucks’ 2024 first-round upset to the Indiana Pacers.
Injuries robbed them of some of the opportunity to face the pressure-packed moments only the postseason can present together. Instead, they were forced to watch each other battle from the sidelines. Now, they will watch each other compete on televisions.
“I’ve played with Khris for 12 years. I spent incredible moments with him,” Antetokounmpo said Wednesday. “Obviously, I’m going to miss Khris. Everybody on the team’s going to miss Khris. His leadership. For me, my brotherhood with Khris is the most important thing I’ve had within this team for a lot of years.
“We’re the oldest guys. Not the oldest guys, but (we’ve) been here together for 12 years. There’s been so many moments together. I’ve been around Khris more than I’ve been around my brothers and my family. I’ve had incredible moments on the court with him. … Everybody’s gonna miss him.”
Whether the Bucks view it this way or not remains to be seen, but one of the most successful eras in franchise history ended Wednesday. The Bucks may end up being successful going forward, but no matter what happens, a new era of Bucks basketball has begun.
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(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
