The Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves were the two teams left vying to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks as the NBA trade deadline hit on Thursday, Feb. 5, but the deal didn’t go through.
Instead, the Bucks decided to keep Antetokounmpo for the remainder of the 2025-26 season, leaving the Heat without their coveted new player.
Now, news has emerged about how the Heat found out about the Antetokounmpo deal falling through. According to a report from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the message came down in the middle of the night.
“Per source, Heat was informed very late last night that Bucks likely wouldn’t be trading Giannis today,” Jackson stated in a post on X on Thursday, Feb. 5. “Heat offer received consideration. Obviously, Bam was never part of deal, but there wasn’t something that Heat had that Bucks asked for and Heat resisted that killed the deal.”
Jackson added, “Miami was willing to do what it took. Bucks simply want to see if they can get more this summer.”
So, according to Jackson, the Miami Heat were willing to do what was needed to move Giannis to the Sunshine State, but the Bucks just weren’t interest in losing him. So, any hopes for the Heat or any other NBA team to acquire Antetokounmpo will have to spill into the summer months.
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Antetokounmpo publicly expressed that he wanted to be traded in the weeks leading up to the deadline, as Charania reported back on Jan. 28 that the player was “ready for a new home” and that the Bucks were finally “starting to listen” to “aggressive offers” from interested teams.
Originally, four teams were interested in Antetokounmpo: the Heat, Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors. It became clear late Wednesday, Feb. 5, that the Warriors were pulling out of the race.
On Thursday, Feb. 6, Charania reported that the Warriors’ attempt to sign Antetokounmpo had ended. “The Warriors’ pursuit of Giannis after a week is over. They have clearly moved on with these moves,” Charania said on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
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Charania added, “My understanding is that the Warriors made a pick-heavy offer last week and continued to have conversations going into this week with the Bucks, but over the last 24 hours, they came to the belief that the Bucks were not going to move their two-time MVP at this trade deadline.”
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