<\/p>\n
Not even 24 hours after the New York Knicks won their first NBA title in 53 years, they had to share a little bit of the league\u2019s spotlight with the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n
What did the Celtics do to garner attention, even if it was just the slightest, away from Knicks and their glorious moment atop the NBA\u2019s mountain?<\/p>\n
Well, it was reported by The Ringer\u2019s Bill Simmons, who is also a die-hard Celtics fans, that Boston went big-game hunting recently and made a trade offer for two-time NBA MVP and Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I heard, they made an offer in the past week. A couple days before I mentioned it on Thursday,\u201d Simmons said on \u201cThe Bill Simmons Podcast<\/a>\u201d on Sunday morning. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the offer was and I don\u2019t know who was in it, but they are in (it), hat was in the ring, which I was really surprised by as I said on Thursday because I thought they were sitting it out.\u201d<\/p>\n The Celtics have been linked<\/a> to Antetokounmpo since early May when ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania reported they were one of five teams to pursue Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline this past season.<\/p>\n The rumors about the Celtics possibly landing the 31-year-old Greek Freak haven\u2019t been squashed since then, either. Prominent NBA reporter Zach Lowe said on Simmons\u2019 podcast that Boston is \u201cnot just dipping their toe in, but diving in\u201d on a potential trade for Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n The Miami Heat have also been heavily rumored to be interested in trading for Antetokounmpo, who hit a major rough patch with the Bucks this past season after they went 32-50 and beefed over the 10-time All-Star being held out for the final 15 games of the season following a calf injury.<\/p>\n Perhaps, the Celtics just want to drive up the trade price for the Heat, or the Knicks, who defeated the Celtics in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2025 and are major threats to Boston getting its hands back on the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy, summiting the NBA landscape is pushing president of basketball operations Brad Stevens to make a seismic move.<\/p>\n \u201cThe safest bet is always inertia,\u201d Lowe said about why the Celtics would want to pursue Antetokounmpo. \u201cThe safest bet is, \u2018We know the nucleus that we have works really well, and there\u2019s some degree of risk in shaking that up for a 31-year-old who\u2019s been injury prone, and we\u2019re going to have to sign him to a ginormous extension.\u2019 That\u2019s a big pivot for a team that has a pretty large window now of being one of the best teams in the NBA when everyone\u2019s healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Trading for Antetokounmpo will come with a hefty price tag and the Celtics, who spent all of last season shedding salary by offloading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in trades, would need to make the financials work, too. Antetokounmpo will make $58.5 million next season and has a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28. He\u2019s also eligible this offseason for a $275 million extension.<\/p>\n The easiest path to the Celtics acquiring Antetokounmpo is putting Jaylen Brown in a trade. Brown is coming off his best season in his 10-year career, in which he finished sixth in MVP voting after averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists. Brown did have plenty of offseason drama<\/a> already, but Brown said on one of his Twitch streams that \u201cif it were up to me, I would play in Boston for the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n The Celtics could find a way around not trading Brown by dealing away a multitude of other assets. They could package Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard along with several draft picks \u2014 Boston holds its own first-round selection in each of the next two drafts plus four out of the next six \u2014 to land Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n